Seven-hundred kilometres from the ocean, the small mining town of Cobar in western New South Wales is not known for its underwater experiences.
But one couple has challenged that idea.
Diving instructors Hannah-Lee Young and Luke Caldwell are travelling through remote and regional Australia offering locals an unexpected experience in their often dry and dusty towns — scuba diving sessions.
They have just completed their first week in Hannah's home of Cobar.
So how does a girl from a remote mining town — hundreds of kilometres from the nearest river or lake — become a diving instructor?
Hannah got her first taste of scuba diving while travelling overseas in her late teens.
"I came back and worked in the mines, then said to my parents, 'I think I'm going to become a scuba diving instructor,'" she said.
"They laughed. They thought it was a phase."
Hannah left Australia for Cambodia and did dive instructor courses before finding herself working at a world-class resort in Fiji and meeting Luke.
Overcoming fear
Diving offered Hannah much more than living in the sandy, sun-drenched Pacific Islands with her partner.
According to Luke, it's that fear that makes Hannah's sessions at their new Australian company, Blue Essence Experiences, work.
"When someone knows what the fear is like, fear of the unknown, or fear of the depth … Hannah's got a great ability to help people overcome their fears, because she remembers what it was like," Luke said.
For Hannah, diving is less about seeing what is on the ocean floor and more about how it makes her feel personally.
"I think a lot, and I don't stop. I find it really hard to relax sometimes," she said.
"[When diving] you're fully present, you don't think about anything else except what's around you.
Hannah said when the fear disappeared, wonder took its place.
"When you're down, face to face with things you've feared previously, that fear washes away, and you just have this sense of awe that replaces it, and you just get blown away."
The great equaliser
While working in Fiji, Hannah and Luke conducted scuba diving sessions with the rich and famous from all over the world.
By its very process, diving brought together people from all walks of life, language and cultural backgrounds, and societal status.
"It's a great way of bringing people together in a world where everyone is the same," she said.
Remote swimming pool sessions
The big question is how these experiences can be replicated in a local pool in a small remote town, but Luke said the pool component was the most crucial part.
"If [people] do like it, they can then go onto somewhere else and say, 'I've done this discover scuba, I want to go take this further' and a whole new world opens up."
Providing those opportunities for young people in her hometown of Cobar is what drove Hannah to start the tour.
"I didn't find diving until after school, and it was something that never felt attainable, it was so far away," she said.
"I never saw that opportunity in my life, so I always said Cobar was the first place we would go back to, because I really want the youth to see there are so many different avenues out there."
Luke and Hannah will be taking the sessions to other parts of remote Australia in the coming months.
