DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA ISSUE 413 AUGUST 25

and fifteen workers, and they set up home in tents on the beach, with no toilet and a burner for pot noodles and tempe. At first, the water pouring down the mountain was their shower, but after a few weeks of struggling across the rocks to wash, they made life a little easier for themselves by running a water pipe from the waterfall to the beach. Leeza’s original floor plan design was for 4 guest rooms, a restaurant, a kitchen, a dive centre, an office, and a staff room. She started with one dive boat called Pygmy, which doubled (tripled) as a passenger transfer and supply vessel to and from the nearest airport town, Kaimana. The first customers, Spanish backpackers, arrived in February 2015, just as the first guest room was completed. In the beginning, the staff consisted of two cooks – one for guests, one for staff – a housekeeper, a gardener, a handyman and a boat driver with Leeza as manager, tank filler and sole guide. Then she took on a divemaster in October 2015 to share the workload. Now, in 2025, she has 30 people working for her, there are eight guest rooms and five boats. Over the past 12 years, Leeza’s efforts have mostly been directed at developing and building not only the resort infrastructure and a customer base but also her relationship with the neighbours. This has been the most important part of the whole project and has required immense patience, understanding, and careful management on all sides. As an outsider - and as a woman - she is breaking new ground. The people who live in this area have never seen anyone like Leeza, nor, in the beginning, did they have any comprehension of what she was doing or why people might want to travel for thousands of miles just to come and look at fish. They know more now. Many have friends and relatives who

work for Triton Bay Divers. Some have been with the company for several years and have acquired specialist skills, performed a variety of different jobs, and even earned promotion to leadership roles. So, Triton Bay Divers’ neighbours now have more understanding of what is going on there, although they probably still think that foreign visitors are peculiar. Mutual respect and the maintenance of social stability are key, and the income stream helps. Visiting divers pay Marine Park fees, which are handed on directly to villages in the area and contribute to children’s education and the construction of longboats for inter-village communication. That seed of an idea has flourished and changed Leeza’s life and the lives of many others. It is wonderful to see scuba diving as a force for good and an instrument of positive change. And the diving in Triton Bay is magnificent!

68

DIVE LOG Australasia #413 - August 25

www.divelog.net.au