Diving

Queensland offers a myriad of colourful and exotic marine life, isolated atolls, amazing walls and bommies, exciting shark feeding stations and intact shipwrecks.

It is truly a diving and snorkelling paradise.

The reef is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and is a protected World Heritage area. Comprising 2,900 individual reefs and 71 coral islands, the Great Barrier Reef is home to some 1,500 types of fish, 4,000 types of molluscs, 350 types of echinoderms and 400 types of coral, attracting divers from around the world each year.

Extending along Queensland’s coastline for more than 2,000 km, the colourful beauty of the world’s largest expanse of living coral is an unforgettable diving experience. From its famous Reef to the mysterious undersea mountains of the Coral Sea, Queensland offers a mythic range of excellent dive locations, many of which are still unexplored.

Some of its best dive sites include:

Lady Elliot Island (www.ladyelliot.com.au)

The southernmost of the Great Barrier Reef islands, Lady Elliot is situated in a tidal lagoon and surrounded by a vast reef of living corals. It offers superb diving straight off the beach and boasts a resident population of 40 giant manta rays. It also has fantastic night dive sites, such as Coral Gardens, where many nocturnal species reside, including painted cray, morays and octopi.

Lizard Island (www.lizardisland.com.au)

This award-winning island offers sensational diving opportunities, including the famous Cod Hole, where you'll come face to face with the resident giant potato cod, which will swim right up to inspect you.

Osprey Reef

One of the most popular and accessible dive destinations within the Coral Sea, Osprey Reef regularly boasts visibility of more than 30 metres. It is home to large numbers of big fish and has a shark feeding site that attracts silver tips, grey whalers and reef sharks.A number of well-known dive operators make trips to Osprey including Mike Ball (www.mikeball.com), Down Under Cruise & Dive (www.downunderdive.com.au) and Spirit of Freedom (www.spiritoffreedom.com.au).

Townsville

The best-known dive attraction located off Townsville’s coast is the wreck of the SS Yongala, an ill-fated steamer that sank in 1911. Still fully intact, it has become an artificial reef thriving with marine life and corals. It is one of Queensland’s best-preserved and most pristine wreck sites.

Download a list of Queensland's Top Ten Dive Sites - Top Ten Dive Sites.pdf (237 KB)