Australia's First Lady of SCUBA Diving - Vivienne Ryan (learnt 1955)

Vivienne Ryan is 80 years of age (2015) but in 1955 at the age of 20 she was to become the first female in Australia to learn to scuba dive. It happened in Melbourne and her instructor was a Commander from the Royal Australian NAVY. This 17 minute video is only one part of the a recent Interview by Dave Bryant, recorded in Ballina in far northern NSW, Australia. It was only by chance that David met Vivienne at a shopping centre cafe while her two friends were commenting about her 80th birthday and all of the diving memorabilia. David jumped in and asked if and when she learnt to dive... it was 1955 and from all records David has accessed he is 99% sure Vivienne is the first lady to learn to scuba dive in Australia. She went on diving for 23 years, and her favourite part of diving was finding shipwrecks. If you think you know any different, please let me know.