Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Where is the best diving in Australia?

Friends

greetings to all of you...

Diving is my passion:cool:

Can anyone suggest me some interesting places!
Waiting 4 reply>>>>>

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Great Barrier Reef.

Don't ignore Victoria - we have unique marine life here.

Audrey

I'd also vote for the Great Barrier Reef, but I've only gone beginner scuba diving. :D

It's a case of see it before it's ruined by our trashing of the planet.

I'm not a scuba diver but I absolutely love snorkelling. The best place I have done this in Australia is about half way up the western australian coast on a reef called Ningaloo, a short drive from Exmouth.

One of the few places on earth where you can dive with the whale sharks, an amazing experience.

Suposedly great scuba diving along the Great Ocean Road close to Port Campbell area.

We dove the Great Barrier Reef out of Port Douglas this past June and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Very diverse and plentiful fish populations and nice corals. Plenty of Lionfish if you know where and how to look for them. Water was much much colder than I was expecting.

Onedog

Paging Naive Dobel, Naive Dobel, please make yourself known.

Dave

Did someone page?

It is a hard question to answer briefly since it does depend on what type of diving you enjoy

Melbourne has some good wrecks outside of Port Phillip Bay which are pretty decent. Some of these can be fairly deep; some are in the 30m-40m range and there are a fair number in the 40-50m and some beyond that. During the wintertime, the water temp can be below 10C into drysuit temps; during summer it is pleasant there. The boats do go from around the heads so about a 90 minute drive from the city. Dives operate generally as single dives with a 2.5 hour turnaround

Sydney has some pleasant diving with some pleasant shallow diving and also more wrecks in the 40-50m range; diving is very accessible in Sydney with pick ups within 10 mins of the city and with the decent boats no more than a 20 minute boat ride ; prices are ime around the cheapest I do in Oz; surface temp from around a min of 16c to around 23c ... atm I believe it is 19C; single trips take around 90 mins to 2 hours

Further north, in the Sunshine coast area there is some reasonable diving. Diving here tends to require a whole day with 2 dives water temos here are warmer and dont drop below 20C

Further north in Queensland, a v good dive to do out of the Townsville area is the wreck of the Yongala; up in the Barrier Reef area and is a really good dive. sits in about 25m Water up here being in north queensland is in the 25-30C range

Further north out of Cairns and Port Douglas there are trips to the Barrier Reef. The best spot, imo, to visit is the Cod Hole though , unfortunately, normally requires a liveaboard to get to; there are day charters ex Cairns and Port Douglas; diving here is fairly expensive with $170 being a common cost for a day trip. Day trips have about a 2.5 hour trip out to the sites and another 2,5 hour trip back so if u dont mind livaboards, it can be worth considering. One company I know of ( Cairns Dive Centre ) have a fixed accommodation location built in the reef so you can avoid having to sleep on a boat

There is diving in the west in Perth areas but haven't done any of it , so couldnt comment on it. The HMAS Swan in Dunsborough is supposed to be a good dive

Dave

Friends

greetings to all of you...

Diving is my passion:cool:

Can anyone suggest me some interesting places!
Waiting 4 reply>>>>>

Well, firstly welcome to FT and the ANZSP forum, Alex06!

The answer to your question is: It depends. What type of diving do you enjoy? Pretty little wish in warm water? Wrecks? Submerged towns at the bottom of artificial lakes? Great White Sharks up close and personal?

Dave has given a nice summary of most of Austalia's diving spots. Let me just add a few points.
Diving at the very north of Australia and all along the north coast is not recommended due to the presence of crocodiles in the water.

The West coast has some excellent diving spots. Pretty fish diving is possible at Exmouth and Coral Bay. The Reef there is the second biggest in Australia and so close to shore that in some areas you can walk to it from the beach. The other attraction in this area is the seasonal presence of whale sharks. There are many tour operators which offer incredible experiences when diving with those magnificent creatures.

(snip)
There is diving in the west in Perth areas but haven't done any of it , so couldnt comment on it. The HMAS Swan in Dunsborough is supposed to be a good dive
Dave

For my part, I've dove Ningaloo, the Whitsundays, near Brissy, Moreton Bay and south to Sydney. Admittedly I need to get a bit further north on the east coast and plan to get out around Melbourne this coming November ...but... an "Ugly 'Merican" chiming in here in defense of WA ... Perth with Rottnest Island, Garden Island, the Swan river (yes, the river!) and so much more in the area, WA should not be ignored. (Make a side trip to the Margaret River area!) I know it's a ways to get there (and I'm coming from the US!) but it's worth the trip. As with virtually all of Oz, it's a wonderful place and the people are terrific and as with all the previous answers "it depends on what you're looking for," but I'd give up diving a lot of places to get back to Rottnest and Cottesloe Beach (sigh).

My vote is: "anywhere in Oz...but remember WA."

I did miss one major dive spot if into sump/cave diving ... oops.

Mount Gambier area has lots of freshwater diving with plenty of opportunity for excellent visibility sump and cave dives and could be well worth looking at if suitably trained. Water termperature for this is generally around the 14C , so depending on how hardy you are is wet or dry suit diving

Dave

We did 2 single-day dive trips to the GBR out of Port Douglas a couple of weeks ago. My husband dives and I snorkel. My husband said he enjoyed the diving but next time he said he definitely wants to do a liveaboard that goes to Cod Hole or the Coral Sea. We originally planned to do a 3-night liveaboard trip, but a couple of months before the trip decided not to go that route. My husband was sorry we removed it from the itinerary.

Carole

Did someone page?

It is a hard question to answer briefly since it does depend on what type of diving you enjoy

Melbourne has some good wrecks outside of Port Phillip Bay which are pretty decent. Some of these can be fairly deep; some are in the 30m-40m range and there are a fair number in the 40-50m and some beyond that. During the wintertime, the water temp can be below 10C into drysuit temps; during summer it is pleasant there. The boats do go from around the heads so about a 90 minute drive from the city. Dives operate generally as single dives with a 2.5 hour turnaround

Sydney has some pleasant diving with some pleasant shallow diving and also more wrecks in the 40-50m range; diving is very accessible in Sydney with pick ups within 10 mins of the city and with the decent boats no more than a 20 minute boat ride ; prices are ime around the cheapest I do in Oz; surface temp from around a min of 16c to around 23c ... atm I believe it is 19C; single trips take around 90 mins to 2 hours

Further north, in the Sunshine coast area there is some reasonable diving. Diving here tends to require a whole day with 2 dives water temos here are warmer and dont drop below 20C

Further north in Queensland, a v good dive to do out of the Townsville area is the wreck of the Yongala; up in the Barrier Reef area and is a really good dive. sits in about 25m Water up here being in north queensland is in the 25-30C range

Further north out of Cairns and Port Douglas there are trips to the Barrier Reef. The best spot, imo, to visit is the Cod Hole though , unfortunately, normally requires a liveaboard to get to; there are day charters ex Cairns and Port Douglas; diving here is fairly expensive with $170 being a common cost for a day trip. Day trips have about a 2.5 hour trip out to the sites and another 2,5 hour trip back so if u dont mind livaboards, it can be worth considering. One company I know of ( Cairns Dive Centre ) have a fixed accommodation location built in the reef so you can avoid having to sleep on a boat

There is diving in the west in Perth areas but haven't done any of it , so couldnt comment on it. The HMAS Swan in Dunsborough is supposed to be a good dive

Dave

Thanks Dave Noble, For ur sugg....

Within 2 months I & my friend David are on a trip to North Australia for 4 days. Some diving places suggested by u, I think Sunshine coast (http://www.catalinaresort.com.au/) is best 4 me, therefore I've no problem to enjoy, But David is a lover of animals. So if some zoo .....:)
Thanks again....

There's a great wildlife center in Port Douglas. Wild rainbow lorries all over, cockatoos, etc. You can also walk around with the emus and Aussie pelicans, really neat birds.

Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g255070-d544697-Reviews-The_Rainforest_Habitat_Wildlife_Sanctuary-Port_Douglas_Queensland.html)

Port Douglas is up the road about 45 minutes from Cairns, on the most gorgeous stretch of road you'll ever see (Captain Cook Highway). I'd vote for Spirit of Freedom as a liveaboard out of Cairns to the Cod Hole + Ribbon Reefs - just terrific staff, good food, comfy quarters, etc. But you can pretty well walk in off the street in Cairns and find dive accommodations if you're just looking for a day trip. Have fun!