Sites commonly dived at night, when octopus, cuttlefish, crustaceans and sleeping reef fish come out. Many are sheltered shore or jetty dives.
37 sites
Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
Easy beach entry to granite-boulder canyons, swim-throughs and coral gardens with 50+ nudibranch species, turtles and…
Drop-offs, pinnacles and coral gardens in clear outer-shelf water; a noted night dive for lobsters and flatworms.
Bundaberg & Agnes Water · QLD
Queensland's best-known shore dive: a sheltered, shallow soft-coral reef with prolific nudibranchs, turtles and sea…
Capricorn Coast & Keppel Islands · QLD
Sheltered, shallow and close to the dive base – Great Keppel's go-to site for training, night dives and gentle drifts.
Gorgonian fans and sea whips on the drop-offs, caves, eagle rays and a good night dive in the shallows.
The easy-entry Bargara shore dive: walk off the beach onto a shallow soft-coral reef with wobbegongs, sea snakes and…
Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
A famous night dive where trevally and red bass hunt in divers' torch beams; easy daytime dive over sand, bommies and…
Cairns · QLD
A 30 m wall with swim-throughs and overhangs beside a shallow garden of staghorn and plate corals; a favourite…
Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Lady Elliot's prettiest shallow coral, with open archways and swim-throughs and schooling barracuda – an ideal first…
Lady Musgrave & Bunker Group · QLD
The Bunker Group's biggest reef: a navigable 6-10 m lagoon with a dozen sites, seahorses and more than a thousand…
Gold Coast · QLD
The Seaway's second pipe, an artificial reef close to the stairs that is easily combined with the sand bypass pipe.
Australia's best city shore dive: giant groupers, rays and 400+ species along a breakwater and sand bypass pipe, with…
The easiest Seaway entry – a beach walk-in beside the car park onto a shallow rocky reef full of critters.
A 30 m-long Pavona clavus colony, dusk mandarinfish and a lively night dive with hunting trevally and sharks.
A sheltered staghorn coral garden in 7 m, busy with small fish, feather stars and sea snakes.
Whitsundays & Bowen · QLD
Sheltered bommie rising almost to the surface, with a metre-wide giant clam in a cave and a resident turtle at night.
Sunshine Coast · QLD
Australia-class nudibranch muck dive: 700+ nudibranch species recorded in the Mooloolah River, in 1-6 m with easy stair…
A bommie rated an excellent night dive on Townsville overnight charters.
A shallow coral garden on Llewellyn Reef ideal for a night dive from an anchored boat.
Convenient fringing reef with lettuce-coral patches and a giant-clam snorkel trail, a short walk from the Nelly Bay…
Independent shore diving from a camping beach on an uninhabited reef island, with staghorn gardens, juvenile mantas and…
Resident turtles and whitetip sharks on a wall with a swim-through; a favourite liveaboard night dive.
Heritage jetty with pylons full of soft coral, schools of baitfish, wobbegongs and big stonefish – a good night and…
Divers Den's overnight liveaboard mooring – sandy valleys, Lionfish Bommie and Split Bommie with leafy scorpionfish; a…
A shallow branching-coral ridge on the edge of the western sand patch, busy with turtles, rays and trevally.
North Stradbroke Island · QLD
A sheltered rock with a swim-through cave linking both sides – Straddie's go-to dive for beginners, macro and night…
Coral-encrusted 1870 iron barque scuttled as a breakwater, alive with sweetlips, batfish and fusiliers, 100 m from an…
Sheltered bommies on sand with big schools of diagonal-banded sweetlips and plenty of nudibranchs.
Step off the pontoon into a sheltered lagoon of turtle cleaning stations, giant clams and juvenile fish – ideal for…
Four bommies in a cross where turtles sleep – an easy-to-navigate night dive on Bait Reef.
Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
A 500 m coffee-rock wall best dived as a drift on the incoming tide, packed with wobbegongs, turtles and schooling fish.
Very little current, swim-throughs into small lagoons and plenty of giant clams on the outer reef.
A photogenic bommie on white sand with active cleaning stations, a resident Maori wrasse and one of the best night…
A sheltered lagoon wall of turtle cleaning stations, ideal for beginners and night dives.
A massive finger-coral bommie in the calm lagoon where resident turtles queue for cleaning.
An isolated pinnacle from 30 m to the surface with black coral, sleeping whitetips and one of the best night dives off…
WWII degaussing-station jetty with friendly fish, anemones and giant clams, a beach entry from the campground.
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