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orget the Great Barrier Reef: there are diving and snorkelling sites in NSW to rival the world’s best. Marc Llewellyn takes the plunge and names the State’s best spots.
This remarkable island, a 25-minute boat ride south-east of South West Rocks, features an underwater cave that runs for some 125 metres right through its middle.
You swim into the 12-metre-deep ‘shallow’ entrance, and drop down through two chimneys to a depth of 24 metres, before emerging out to sea.
The water is a few degrees warmer inside and for most of the journey you need a torch to pick out Spanish dancers, nudibranches, tropical crayfish and rare reef lobsters. In recent summers, up to 15 giant grey nurse sharks have made their home around the shallowest entrance. Last summer they even swam inside the tunnel. It also has the largest populations of green and loggerhead turtles in the area.
The Solitary Islands Marine Reserve, off the coast between Coffs Harbour and Grafton, is a prime diving site.
Northwest Solitary is known for its hard and soft coral gardens, numerous species of colourful fish, grey nurse sharks, and schools of kingfish and jewfish.
North Solitary Island features a huge anemone bed, home to dazzling clown fish. Depths range from 20–40 metres, which suits grey nurse sharks in the winter months.
Another popular and very deep diving spot is Pimpernel Rock — an underwater mountain of giant boulders and steep walls sprinkled with corals and patrolled once again by those fish-eating grey nurses.
The warm currents of Julian Rocks Marine Reserve, just five minutes by dive boat from The Pass at Byron Bay, attracts plenty of wobbegong, leopard and grey nurse sharks, as well as giant rays.
It’s not unusual to spot several green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles paddling over the reef.
Some 400 varieties of fish make an appearance, and giant blue gropers up to half a metre long come right up to your face mask looking for tasty morsels.
The shallow waters here make it a good place for families and snorkellers too.
Just a 15-minute boat ride from Fingle Point in Tweed Heads is Cook Island Marine Sanctuary, where vast schools of pelagic fish, as well as rays and sharks, abound.
Loggerhead and green turtles are common all year round in this turtle sanctuary and bottlenose dolphins pop up, too.
Rock caves and coral gardens and depths of up to 18 metres means less experienced divers get to experience a variety of attractions — such as schools of taylor and jewfish, and leopard and shovelnose sharks, which haunt the area in summer.
Off the coast of Forster are several gutters where grey nurse sharks, wobbegongs, bronze whalers, blind sharks and Port Jackson sharks tend to congregate. A must is a special shark dive — you’ll learn how they live and how to determine their age, sex and aggressive movements.
The nearby Pinnacles is rated among the top 10 dive sites in the world. It’s the only dive site anywhere where you can see big fish being eaten by sharks on a regular basis.
Shipwreck dives and the fish that gather around the sponges and corals are also major attractions.
Hop into the calm bay waters off Montague Island near Narooma and you can frolic with both Australian and New Zealand fur seals. Up to 1,600 individuals live here in summer and around 400 stick around in winter.
Between September and the end of November, humpback and southern right whales turn up, too. Sometimes you can even snorkel alongside the resident dolphins.
Lord Howe Island, 702 km north-east of Sydney, is more than just a World Heritage paradise with panoramic views and kentia palms. For one thing, it has the most southern coral reef in the world, which offers wonderful diving and snorkelling.
If you feel brave enough, you can even don your face mask and jump into the shallow waters off Ned’s Beach and swim with hundreds of giant fish as they are fed restaurant scraps. Being part of a thrashing mass of fish life — including kingfish more than two metres long — is an experience that will stay with you forever.
From late August to early November, Port Jackson sharks head to the calm waters of Jervis Bay to breed. Try snorkelling off Hyams Beach to see these pug-like creatures laying in the shallows in huddles of up to 20.
Other good self-guided spots are off Murray’s Beach and in Summer Cloud Bay, where large schooling fish and blue groper hang around.
The Nursery off Bowen Island is one of many sites that divers and snorkellers can reach by boat. It harbours thousands of colourful juvenile fish. Watch out for the resident pods of bottlenose dolphins as you head out into Jervis Bay.
Follow the ocean-side path to the right as you look at Manly beach and you eventually end up at tiny Shelly Beach.
Just a short flip of your flippers and you’ll be above a range of boulders that harbour dozens of species of fish, including juvenile tropical varieties that have followed the warmer currents south in summer.
Look for scorpion fish, sea pike and sea bass, Port Jackson and wobbegong sharks, and even a colony of rare weedy sea dragons — members of the seahorse family.
This natural rock pool off Clovelly Beach in Sydney’s east is about the same size as two Olympic swimming pools combined and has more life in it than the biggest aquarium you can imagine.
The ocean end of the pool is blocked off at low tide by a natural rock reef, which is submerged when the water rises. The pool is up to eight metres deep, so it’s also possible to dive within its confines
Expect to see blue groper, giant cuttlefish, the odd Port Jackson shark and plenty of schooling fish such as old wives, and even snapper around the rock barrier.
Page updated 19 July 2006.
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