Expedition sites and places few divers ever see: Coral Sea atolls, the Rowley Shoals, far-north reefs and wild southern coastlines. Expect liveaboards, long boat rides or self-organised trips.
40 sites
Coral Sea · External Territory
Five lagoon pinnacles carpeted in purple anemones and clownfish.
Ashmore Reef · External Territory
A remote Commonwealth reef reserve with extraordinary biodiversity and traditional perahu wrecks.
A remote southern Coral Sea reef with giant bommies, flat reef at 10–15 m and 40 m-plus visibility.
A 1,000 m wall with some of the largest gorgonian fans in Australian waters.
Christmas Island · External Territory
A documented submarine cave beneath the Coconut Point drift – a scientific and technical cave site, not a recreational…
A seldom-described Bougainville Reef site (marinelife.org.au's list of additional Bougainville sites and Mike Ball's…
Cocos (Keeling) Islands · External Territory
A 40 m keel and keelson line from an unidentified 19th-century North American ship – possibly the Gudden Barstow (1839)…
A remote palm-fringed reef beach with turtle nesting, rock pools and a freshwater stream – snorkel and camp.
Norfolk Island · External Territory
Quiet cliff-ringed bay with a sandy slope, a coral wall, boulders and swim-through arches.
A tiny, rarely visited atoll with a sharp drop-off, silvertips and unusual lava-tube-like caves.
A sheltered ocean pool below a steep staircase, with nesting turtles and one of the best red crab spawning spectacles.
Rarely documented Phillip Island site on the island's northern side.
Some of Australia's most isolated reefs and cays, with nesting turtles, seabird colonies and the Coral Sea's last…
The remains of the First Fleet flagship, lost off Slaughter Bay in 1790 – Australia's most significant colonial…
Reported by the island's former operator as an exceptional site with many green turtles.
The Coral Sea's largest atoll – a vast, rarely visited lagoon with historic wrecks and untouched reef.
A vast, remote atoll with excellent soft-coral walls, lagoon pinnacles and three sand cays.
Australia's most remote Coral Sea reef, with a sheltered 12 m lagoon and seabird colonies.
The island's smallest and one of its prettiest beaches, with grotto-like overhangs and a pristine west-coast fringing…
45 m bommies and a current-swept gully alive with feather stars, fans and soft corals.
Largely intact Westwind medevac jet at 48 m from the 2009 night ditching in which all six aboard survived.
A historic Coral Sea shark-feed arena on sand at 9 m.
Near-untouched national park reef with 40 m-plus visibility and plentiful sharks, dived by permit only on rare calm…
An arch, caves and a daylit cavern under a sheer south-west wall, with a ledge of big gorgonians at 40 m.
A remote crescent reef with vast coral meadows, turtles and a Second World War Liberty ship wreck.
A historic caged shark-feed site with four permanent cages on sand at 15 m.
A seldom-described Bougainville Reef site (a list of possible Bougainville sites on Dive the World).
Propellers, shafts, engine parts and shells of the WWI raider SMS Emden, beached after the 1914 Battle of Cocos – one…
Pinnacles covered in hundreds of colourful soft coral trees.
Rarely dived south-eastern outer wall with sharks and barracuda, reached only on flat-calm days; the site's name…
The collapsed remains of a Second World War Liberty ship on a remote Coral Sea reef edge.
An exploratory east-coast headland with a steep drop-off – rarely dived.
A seldom-described Bougainville Reef site (marinelife.org.au's list of additional Bougainville sites).
An office-block-sized pinnacle in open water, draped in soft corals and circled by pelagics and sharks.
A seldom-described site associated with China Wall in the Flinders group.
A remote sunken atoll with a shallow lagoon and the Coral Sea's only inhabited island.
The 1803 wreck sites of Matthew Flinders' HMS Porpoise and the Cato, on a remote reef with outstanding visibility.
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