SPEAKERS

Samir Alhafith

Founder and team leader of the, The Sydney Project - an association of technical divers involved in researching and discovering important historical wrecks in depths between 75 and 135 metres on the NSW south coast of Australia - Samir Alhafith (born in Baghdad, Iraq) began diving in 1995.

Quickly progressing from his early role as Divemaster at a Sydney dive store, he is an accomplished diver who uses both rebreather technology, (the APD 'Inspiration') as well as open-circuit mixed gas to advance scientific knowledge of the underwater world.

Apart from cave diving in Mount Field, Tasmania, as well as the Jenolan Caves west of Sydney, Samir's major interest is in furthering The Sydney Project's on-going mission to discover and document the historically significant wrecks lying off the New South Wales coast.

These have included the Liberty ship, William Dawes, lying in 135 metres, (the second deepest wreck to be dived in Australia) as well as Five other historical wrecks.

A gifted filmmaker whose videos and images document cave and wreck exploration - and whose work was recognised with the First Place Award in the OZTeK4 Video Competion - Samir is regularly called upon to film underwater events for various TV news and current affair channels.

At OZTeK'07 he was awarded the Australasian 2007 Technical Diver of the Year Award, for his work with the Sydney Project and wreck explorations.

Based on a policy of sharing information about their discoveries, The Sydney Project enjoys a strong working relationship with many government departments such as the NSW Heritage Office, the Water Police and the Navy. It's a policy that, in 2005, culminated in the Sydney Project receiving an Award from the Heritage Office for their exploration work on the South Coast of New South Wales.

In 2007 Samir was underwater cameraman and part of the archaeological team on the expedition to explore and document the ANZAC submarine, AE2, sunk during WWI in Turkey. In 2009 he was also underwater cameraman on a search expedition, for Australians first submarine, AE1, in Papua New Guinea. In 2010 he will also be underwater cameraman for the Beneath Gallipoli expedition in Turkey.

He is now currently working with other Sydney Project members to uncover new wrecks on the North Coast of NSW.

For more information about the Sydney Project, check out their website at: www.sydneyproject.com