Australia (Western)

Western Australia

Perhaps the world's most talked about diving destination, the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia is a huge creation and the range of diving is vast.
But there is diving in several places in this huge country. West coast at Indian Ocean with wrecks off West Australia and Perth, Ningaloo, (the world's second largest coral reef) known for its whale sharks, tiger sharks, dolphins and more. Christmas Island and the Rowley shoals in northwestern Australia offer very good diving. You can also go to exciting Christmas Island from Jakarta in Indonesia.

Adelaide and South Australia is known for cold waters where mainly white shark diving. The fabulously wonderful Weedy and Leafy sea dragons are most often seen in the right season. Sydney offers really good diving even if it is not known for diving. There are also nice diving spots outside of Brisbane.

Christmas Island, Christmas Island

Western Australia is best known for the fairytale Christmas Island. Christmas Island is world famous for its migration of crabs, but the island also has fantastic diving. Dramatic drop-offs, coral slopes with rich marine life and out in the big blue it is common to see large pelagics, such as whale sharks, mantas, eagle rays and stingrays, dolphins, sometimes pilot whales and also various species of reef sharks or slightly larger cartilaginous fish such as tiger sharks, Hammerhead sharks and silky sharks are often seen out in the blue. Christmas Island is a real gem for nature lovers and divers and a "once-in-a-lifetime-must-do". The diving here is good all year round but can be very weather dependent in January - April and sometimes difficult to get out to the best spots.

Up on the northwest coast are the Rowley shoals. A 90 km long reef with three islands that stick up and which attract large quantities of fish. Here there are plenty of different corals and sometimes large sharks are seen coming in here. Even white sharks have been seen here on occasion but more common are reef sharks, silky sharks and several species of rays. Manta rays, turtles and dolphins are also common here and large groupers are often seen along the reef. A maximum of 200 people per year can come here, so book in time.

That's it

Further south stretches the world's largest reef, Ningaloo, which starts directly from land. (A so-called fringing reef = the most common type of reef in the world). Compare barrier reef which has a body of water between the mainland and the reef. At Exmouth and Ningaloo whale sharks, tiger sharks, dolphins and other smaller whales are common. Even humpback whales and six different types of turtles.
At Shark Bay further south it is very common dolphins and here the dolphins come all the way to shore to play with visitors and sometimes get a bite to eat. There are also plenty of tiger sharks in these waters and diving is also offered.

Perth may not be as well known as a diving destination, but here there are several marine parks and many dive sites that offer really good diving. Here you can find, among other things, the HMAS Swan, an Australian warship which was sunk in 1997. It is now an artificial reef and with its 140 meter length and 30 meter depth now attracts large amounts of fish and marine life. It is quite common here to see hammerhead sharks circling the wreck and also other smaller shark species. The marine life is otherwise rich here. and here is also the Wreck trail. A series of wrecks, some car tires, a couple of smaller planes all sunk and connected by ropes for easy navigation around. The place is richly vegetated with gorgonians, sponges, anemones and various corals. Here along the west coast you can experience seahorses, dugongs and other strange marine life.

Continue east and combine

If you want to experience the barrier reef, Cairns and Townsville are the obvious starting points, look at our Eastern Australia page here. Along the eastern coast there are also a large number of small islands that also offer opportunities for diving and in combination with liveaboard. Why not take the opportunity to enjoy a little of these islands and have a real holiday and in combination with the opportunity to dive more.

The opportunities for good and exciting diving with both small and large in Australia are many. We have selected a few operators that we have good experience with in a few different parts of Australia. But feel free to ask us and we can hopefully help with more options and possibilities.