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With incredible underwater worlds made accessible by numerous long-established and highly reputable dive companies, Australia is one of the best places in the world to dive.

Here’s our pick of the five most colorful and exhilarating Australian Scuba Dive Sites

 

Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

  • Boats from: Cairns and Port Douglas
  • Area lowdown: At 55 miles in length, Ribbon Reef number 10 is one of the longest reef chains of the Great Barrier Reef
  • Dive type: Reef
  • Sights: Potato rock cod, white tip reef sharks, giant clams, moray eels
  • Best months: Year round

 

Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

  • Boats from: Exmouth
  • Area lowdown: Of all the world’s reefs located close to a continental land mass, this is the largest (185 miles long)
  • Dive type: Reef
  • Sights: Whale Sharks, humpback whales, manta rays, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles and over 250 coral species
  • Best months: March through June is the best time to spot whale sharks

Lonsdale Wall, Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park, Victoria

  • Boats from: Queenscliff
  • Area lowdown: Half a mile of ledges ranging from 50 to 300 feet in depth
  • Dive type: Wall, cave and reef
  • Sights: Remarkably colorful schools of fish
  • Best months: January through March

 

SS Yongala, Queensland

  • Boats from: Alva Beach
  • Area lowdown: The remains of a passenger ship sunk by a cyclone in 1911 teems with marine life (strong currents make this suitable for advanced divers only)
  • Dive type: Wreck
  • Sights: Bright corals, fish, sharks, turtles, eels, potato cod
  • Best months: Winter promises better visibility and humpback whale sightings, while more brightly-colored schools of fish are seen in summer

 

Fish Rock Cave, South West Rocks, New South Wales

  • Boats from: Smoky Cape
  • Area lowdown: 410 foot-long cave; entered at a depth of 80 feet and exited at a shallower, naturally-lit cavern (at 40-foot) that is home to critically endangered grey nurse sharks
  • Dive type: Ocean cave
  • Sights: Grey nurse sharks, black cod, large wobbegong sharks, black rays
  • Best months: Year round

 

Featured image by TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋).

Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to… .

About the author

Brett AckroydBrett hopes to one day reach the shores of far-flung Tristan da Cunha, the most remote of all the inhabited archipelagos on Earth…as to what he’ll do when he gets there, he hasn’t a clue. Over the last 10 years, London, New York, Cape Town and Pondicherry have all proudly been referred to as home. Now it’s Copenhagen’s turn, where he lends his travel expertise to momondo.com.

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