Best Diving in Australia - Top 10
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 scubadiving 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, scuba diving in Australia 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!
