Australia

(12 REVIEWS)

Country: Australia

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Check here for the latest travel advisory to Australia in the light of the current coronavirus outbreak.

Australia in a Nutshell

The Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea offer tremendous volume and diversity of marine life, well managed marine parks, professional dive operations and diving suitable for all experience levels. There is great diving at every depth and a variety of marine life including sharks, minke whales and large potato cod (potato grouper). In Adelaide, there is some exceptional diving off jetties, where you can see the leafy sea dragon.

Interested in diving Australia? View the live availability of some of the best liveaboards in Australia and book online at the best price or check out our sidebar for specials and land-based options.

Diving Information

Marine Life

Australia doesn't hold the best macro opportunities. It is better known for its "big stuff" like sharks and whales, and some great wreck dives.

Ribbon Reef / Osprey Reef video

Potato cod at 2:20, minke whales at 2:46, sharks at 3:24

0:15 - Schooling fish; 0:23 - snappers; 0:30 - Minke whale; 1:14 - table corals; 2:14 - trevally; 3:42 - sea snake; 4:00 - snappers

Diving Conditions

Water Temperatures: Can be anywhere between 70 - 87 degrees.
Visibility: Visibility on day trips will be between 50 and 100 ft. while further sites reached via liveaboard can be up to 150 ft.
Depth Range: Majority of dive sites will be relatively shallow, 30 - 60 feet.

Best Dive Sites

North Horn - Located in the Coral Sea on a remote atoll called Osprey Reef. Grey Sharks, Silvertip, Great Hammerhead Sharks and the rare Tiger Shark.
Cod Hole - Located on The Great Barrier Reef. Besides the large Potato Cods and Maori Wrasses, you can also spot whitetip reef sharks, emperor angelfishes and triggerfishes.
The Yongala Wreck - One of the best dive sites in the world, located near Townsville in Queensland. You can spot giant groupers, eagles rays, Manta Rays, sea turtles, sea snakes, huge schools of Barracudas, giant trevallies, and various species of Sharks. Excellent hard and soft coral and gorgonians sea fans can also be found here.
Navy Pier - Located in Exmouth, close to the Ningaloo Reef. Wobbegong Shark, the Grey Nurse, Whitetip Reef Shark, Nudibranch, Flat Worms, Frog Fishes, Scorpions Fishes and Stone fishes.

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Travel Information

How to Get There

There are several airlines that fly non-stop between Australia and the US.

How to Dive Australia

Although you can take day trips out to dive - in general, the further you go the better the diving becomes. Due to this, liveaboards are typically better to properly experience what all Australia diving has to offer. In general, the Great Barrier Reef is the most popular, but the Coral Sea is better.

Best Time to Dive

Best time to dive fluctuates for what area of Australia you are diving. Numerous areas are accessible year round, but the south parts can have bad weather between May - Oct.

Topside & Non-Diving Activities

Due to Australia's size, it is near impossible to cover all the things you can do while visiting Australia. It is also dependent on what areas you are visiting. But to touch on a few; no trip can be complete without learning of Australia's Aboriginal culture, try taking a hike to the sacred site of Uluru to catch the sunrise or sunset. For you city lovers, climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge or see a show at the iconic Sydney Opera House. Or just take a drive along The Great Ocean Road - a scenic drive you won't forget.

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Liveaboard availability

The rates shown below are per person in USD. The actual rates provided by the operators are based in Australian Dollar (AUD). The pricing at the time of booking may vary depending on the latest AUD/USD exchange rate.

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Other Useful Information

Practical Information

Currency: Australian Dollar (AUD)
Electricity: 230V 50Hz
Language: English
Time Zone: Australia has 5 standard time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST) - UTC+8; Australian Central Western Standard Time (ACWST) - UTC+8:45; Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) - UTC+9:30; Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) - UTC+10; Lord Howe Standard Time (LHST) - UTC+10:30
Entry Requirements: You must have a valid U.S. passport and a visa to enter Australia. Most U.S. passport holders traveling to Australia for tourism or business purposes for less than 90 days can obtain an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA).

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Region:

Australasia

Reviews (12)

Reviewer

bryandchu

4 Reviews

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Australia is definitely a bucket list dive destination. Yes, you can go scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, but that is not where my fiancee and I decided to go. Instead, we went to Adelaide, South Australia, and the diving was fantastic. Very unique, very cool, and not busy or crowded.

Rapid Bay jetty is an amazing shore dive with lots of cool fish, especially the beautiful leafy sea dragon. Every dive we looked for leafies there, we found them, including some juveniles!

Our other favourite dive site was a prime macro destination - Edithburgh jetty. The night dives were absolutely insane, just crawling with cool cephalopods with pyjama squid, bobtail squid, Southern sand octopus, blue ring octopus, and pygmy cuttlefish (we saw all of those on one dive).

We were there in December/January, meaning the water temps were at their warmest, but still chilly (20 degrees C). However, it was quite hot on land, up to 35 C +. Topside we went to Kangaroo Island, also nearby, and saw tons of cool stuff in the wild. We swam with bottlenose dolphins, and got up close to wild koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and echnidnas. It was awesome.

Also on our trip, we went diving in Sydney. Surprisingly, the diving was very good there as well, with great encounters with a giant cuttlefish, Port Jackson sharks, and other fun critters.

Cost-wise, the diving is a bit pricy, especially if you rent gear. If you bring your own gear, it would be very affordable. So, if you are going to Australia, think outside the Great Barrier Reef for some unique diving experiences!

Visited on 01/2019 - Submitted on 06/19/2019

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GregT943

9 Reviews

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Location: Byron Bay (Julian Rocks)

Byron Bay is probably my favorite place in Australia. Byron Bay is an amazing little beach town in northern NSW. It is somewhat of a surf town, and it is popular among young backpackers. Byron Bay has a wide selection of accommodation from camping, and cheap hostels, to bed and breakfasts, and beach side hotels. It also has a great selection of bars and restaurants that are open late into the night.

Cape Byron is the most eastern point of the Australian mainland. All of the diving in Byron Bay is concentrated on a large rock formation just off shore, known as Julian Rocks, and is easily visible from the beach. During the summer months tropical species can be found out at the dive sites, and during the winter, colder water species are found. During the winter months the rocks host a large population of the endangered Grey Nurse sharks. The winter months also bring migrating humpback whales. Although you will probably not see a humpback on a dive, it is common to hear them, and come across them on the short boat ride out or back from the rock. During the summer months when the water warms, the tropical species move in, and it common to see Leopard sharks, as well as manta rays. Other tropical species such as eagle rays, lion fish, bat fish, and colorful reef fish can also be found. Year round inhabitants of the rocks include two species of Wobbegong shark, green and loggerhead turtles, massive bull sting rays, guitar fish, king fish, and big friendly Blue Gropers. Being a temperate dive location, visibility and conditions can vary greatly and change quickly. Visibility can range from just a few meters to 25+ on a great day.

The most commonly visited site at the rocks is called the nursery. The nursery is a shallow site that bottoms out around 12 meters at the deepest. It is the most sheltered site, and this is where any classes are usually held. The needles is on the south side of the rock and is about 15 meters in depth. The currents are stronger at this site. The currents draw large schools of fish, and lots of rays. One of my favorite dives is to start in the nursery and end in the needles. Hugo's trench is on the opposite side of the rock from the nursery. This site is more exposed and not visited nearly as much as the nursery side. The site is about 15-20 meters deep. The trench runs perpendicular to the rock and is home to a huge amount of life, and interesting rock formations.

Byron Bay is great town, and should not be missed in Australia. Few travelers go there just for the diving, but if you do visit, I highly recommend doing a day or two of diving.

Visited on 08/2012 - Submitted on 09/27/2015

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GregT943

9 Reviews

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Location: HERON ISLAND (Great Barrier Reef)

Heron Island is a small coral island located about 90 km off the coast of Gladstone in Queensland, AUS. The island is amazingly beautiful, and looks like a postcard. The island is also very small, you can walk around the entire island in about 20 minutes. Heron Island is home to one resort, and the University of Queensland's Great Barrier Reef Marine Research Station. I have not stayed at the resort so I cannot comment on the resort itself, but I was lucky enough to stay at the Marine Research station for 2 weeks while I was studying at UQ. The resort is small and so is the marine research station, so you will never have to worry about crowds or busy dive sites. The island is home to 100,000+ nesting sea birds, as well as a nesting site for green and loggerhead turtles between the months of March and October. Whales can be seen moving through the deeper water off the island during the winter months. The island is surrounded by an unbroken picturesque white sand beach and a shallow coral reef shelf.

There are several options for getting to the island. There is a boat that runs from Gladstone a few days a week. There is also a helicopter pad on the island if you wish to use a faster (and much more expensive) travel mode. Sea plane is the other option.

The resort dive operation is the only dive operation open to the public on the island. The diving on Heron Island is absolutely amazing. Most of the dives are relatively shallow, very few are below 20 meters. The reefs around the island are very healthy; I have never seen so much healthy stag coral anywhere else. The reefs have an abundant amount of marine life. I will never forget that I saw my first Manta ray here, as well as my first tiger shark. Turtles, sharks and rays were seen on pretty much every dive I did. White tip sharks, Grey reef sharks, the occasional tiger shark, manta rays, green turtles, logger head turtles, barramundi cod, coral cod, huge numbers of rays, barracuda, sea snakes, countless colorful reef fish, coral trout, octopus, spotted eagle rays etc. are all found at the sites around the island. The currents at some of the sites can be swift, so there are a number of drift dives done around the island. For the non-divers in your group, the shallow reef surrounding the island is also perfect for snorkeling. There is also a channel cut through the reef to allow boat access to the dock. Snorkeling in this trench in the late afternoon after any boat traffic has stopped is great. In this trench in the evening it is common to see large number of white tipped reef sharks prowling the trench, as well as sleeping turtles, and schools of small bait fish. At the end of the trench is a large intact ship wreck, the HMAS Brisbane, that is only partially submerged, most of the wreck is above water. This island truly is a divers paradise, and I cant recommend it enough.

Visited on 10/2008 - Submitted on 09/12/2015

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Jim Dodd

1 Reviews

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Visited on 10/2014 - Submitted on 10/26/2014

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SimonR

1 Reviews

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LOCATION: Lord Howe Island

I've been fortunate enough to have several trips to Lord Howe Island and do a fair bit of diving there. Lord Howe is a World Heritage listed area and regularly features as one of the best holiday destinations in the world. It is a truly unique place. The Island is located about 600km (370mi) east of Port Macquarie on mainland Australia. So it's part of Australia, but a long way from anywhere. The whole island is about 10km long and between 0.3 and 2km wide. No more than 400 tourists are allowed on the Island at any one time and it's accessible by flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Port Macquarie. There is no mobile phone coverage and limited internet access so it's really an escape from everyday life. A dozen people in the one place is a big crowd for Lord Howe Island. It's relatively expensive. Flights and accommodation are relatively expensive. There are very few shops on the Island but they can supply all your basic needs. But once you are there you are in paradise, above and below the water. There are great walks, beaches, lot's of birds, fishing. It's not an action adventure destination, it's a relaxing laid back place.

There is great snorkelling right off the beach, particularly at Ned's Beach. You can also do some real nice snorkelling sites in the lagoon but they are better done via a tour with one of the local operators. They are all good. There are two dive operators on the Island. There are a range of boat dives you can do, mostly a short trip away. Some of these are just outside the lagoon, others off the Malabar headland or the Admiralties (a group of rocks and very small Island now far from the main island). Diving around the Island is generally in 12-18m. There is a lot to see and around the Island you can take your pick with wide-angle or macro photography. Arguably the best diving is at Ball's Pyramid which is about 23km SE of the Island and when the weather is good boats head out there for a days diving. Ball's Pyramid is a 562m high rocky outcrop which is the tallest volcanic stack in the world. Diving at Ball's is in around 30m plus and is like swimming in an aquarium. A good day there is the equal of just about any dive site in the world. Bring your wide-angle for Ball's because everything is scaled up!

The dive shops have all the equipment you need but it's basic diving only (i.e. no nitrox or rebreathers etc that I'm aware of). They will have very basic spare parts and items for sale (mask's, snorkels, things for basic repairs) and they will go out of their way to fix a problem with your gear. But because the Island is so remote and everything comes in via plane or the small cargo ship that supplies the Island they keep it pretty simple.

The Island is the southern most reef in Australia and has an interesting mix of tropical and temperate conditions. You'll need a wetsuit to dive even in summer, and definitely in winter. The marine life is incredibly diverse as there are over 90 species of coral and 500 species of fish inhabiting the reef: turtles, reef sharks, morays, lobster, clown fish, angelfish, nudibranchs and more. I was even lucky enough to be on a trip that swam with a young whale shark we encountered on the way to Ball's Pyramid several years back.

Visited on 01/2014 - Submitted on 08/04/2014

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