Sites you can reach from the beach, rocks or a jetty without a charter. Always check the local swell, tide and entry notes on each site page, and dive with a buddy.
68 sites · the first 48 shown as cards, the rest listed by state below
Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
Easy beach entry to granite-boulder canyons, swim-throughs and coral gardens with 50+ nudibranch species, turtles and…
North Stradbroke Island · QLD
Island's sheltered shore drift: a low wall with car bodies, tyres and the scuttled launch Bandicoot, plus wobbegongs…
Pretty bay with coral-covered boulders, small caverns and swim-throughs, and reliable turtles on the northern side.
Bundaberg & Agnes Water · QLD
Queensland's best-known shore dive: a sheltered, shallow soft-coral reef with prolific nudibranchs, turtles and sea…
Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Calm, shallow lagoon with layered coral, reached by a short walking track.
Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
A historic 1912 steamer jetty on the Pumicestone Passage for a short slack-water critter dive.
Mackay · QLD
Former resort island with sheltered beaches and shallow fringing reef for snorkelling in the Cumberland Islands…
Sunshine Coast · QLD
A Caloundra rock reef favoured by spearfishers, with basic diving along the reef towards Kings Beach.
Shallow granite wall with small caves, sea fans and more fish than the nearby Moltke, plus the site of the 1896 Lallah…
Three 1880s-1900-built steamers scuttled in 1933-35 as a breakwater, now an easy shallow snorkel off Bulwer beach.
The easy-entry Bargara shore dive: walk off the beach onto a shallow soft-coral reef with wobbegongs, sea snakes and…
Snorkel with resident green turtles grazing in the shallows.
Hervey Bay & K'gari · QLD
The buried remains of an 82 m steamer lost in 1884 with Chinese passengers – a K'gari history site rather than a…
Capricorn Coast & Keppel Islands · QLD
A quiet southern bay with a broad reef flat and coral trout breeding ground, at its best when northerlies blow out the…
Giant clams up to 2 m long in shallow water a short swim from the beach.
A quiet western Moreton foreshore beside the historic Fort Cowan Cowan, and the landmark for Curtin reef and The Pines.
Engine and propeller of a USAAF CW-22B Falcon that ditched in 1943 – a rare wartime aircraft relic off Magnetic Island.
A Caloundra reef off Dicky Beach whose southern edge drops to about 10 m – a shore dive for flat days only.
Mission Beach & Cassowary Coast · QLD
An easy, scenic snorkel from national-park beaches 4 km off Mission Beach, with turtles and fringing coral.
Cairns · QLD
The only easy walk-in reef shore dive near Cairns, beside a resort, dive shop and turtle rehabilitation centre.
One of Magnetic Island's deeper bays, with lettuce-coral patches, caverns at the southern end and the 1917 ferry Magnet…
Hervey Bay's easiest shore dive and snorkel: a shallow, coral-rich fringing reef minutes from town.
Marked trail with translocated giant clams right beside the Arcadia foreshore, linking to the Moltke wreck.
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.
Heron Island & Capricorn Group · QLD
An 1884 colonial gunboat with Boxer Rebellion and WWI service, now a harbour breakwater and fish haven snorkelled at…
'Nudibranch Park' – the Woongarra Coast's richest macro site, with soft-coral bommies, a gentle current that brings in…
Far Northern Reef & Torres Strait · QLD
Scattered B-17 bomber debris in the tidal shallows off a WWII airfield – history rather than scenery.
Whitsundays & Bowen · QLD
Easy, patrolled beach dive with cracks and gutters full of crayfish and nudibranchs, plus the semi-submerged Ngaro…
Two shallow modern wrecks – a 40 m burnt-out floating-restaurant ketch and a prawn trawler – in the island's most…
Easy beginners' coral garden beside the Keswick Island ferry landing, with quiet independent shore diving.
An easy boat-ramp entry onto a shallow soft-coral reef at Kings Beach, with 40+ fish species, wobbegongs and turtles on…
A kelp-covered shore reef 400 m off Kirra Beach, rich in macro life, reached through the surf.
Australia-class nudibranch muck dive: 700+ nudibranch species recorded in the Mooloolah River, in 1-6 m with easy stair…
Atherton Tablelands · QLD
The Tablelands' largest crater lake – deep, rain-fed and rarely dived, beside a 1926 teahouse.
A rainforest-fringed volcanic crater lake with sunken trees, turtles and submerged boats at 25 m – Queensland's classic…
Mackay's convenient shore dive – a coral-grown breakwater with turtles, sea snakes and lionfish, used by dive schools.
Buried remains of a steamer beached in 1914 after striking Sandy Cape Shoal – a K'gari maritime-history site, seldom…
Great Keppel's best snorkelling reef: dense staghorn and plate coral in 1-6 m, hawksbill turtles and a sheltered beach…
Hidden bay with Solitary Rock, big cracks and gutters, blue-tipped staghorn and regular olive sea snakes.
A tiny bay reef with around 46% hard coral cover in a no-fishing zone, surrounded by seagrass grazed by turtles and…
A giant sand-bag surf reef in the middle of the Gold Coast, colonised by soft corals, rays and wobbegongs – diveable on…
Convenient fringing reef with lettuce-coral patches and a giant-clam snorkel trail, a short walk from the Nelly Bay…
Snorkel the rocky bays of Noosa National Park on a calm day after a walk along the Coastal Track.
The GBR's largest coral cay: camp-and-dive self-sufficiency, turtle nesting and gutter-cut southern drop-offs.
A secluded coral-rubble beach with fringing reef around the headland, reached by a rainforest walk.
Independent shore diving from a camping beach on an uninhabited reef island, with staghorn gardens, juvenile mantas and…
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