Vertical reef, drop-offs and sponge-covered walls: Port Phillip Heads, the Tasman Peninsula, Osprey Reef, the Ribbon Reefs and the granite coasts of the south.
89 sites · the first 48 shown as cards, the rest listed by state below
Coral Sea · External Territory
A coral village of huge bommies with a centuries-old anchor in a swim-through, flashlight fish at night and a sheer…
A clear-water wall drift between Bougainville's two freighter wrecks.
A deep Holmes Reef wall where a golden anthias species was first recorded in Australia, with sharks, tuna and potato…
Christmas Island · External Territory
A vertical north-coast wall with exceptionally large gorgonian fans below 33 m.
A 1,000 m wall with some of the largest gorgonian fans in Australian waters.
An ancient gorgonian fan more than 5 m across on a soft-coral wall with 40 m visibility.
A network of coral canyons leading to the edge of a drop of more than 1,400 m, with schooling jacks and reef sharks.
A clear-water hard-coral terrace on the edge of the abyss, with sharks and giant potato cod.
Spectacular bommies and blue-water swim-throughs in a blind gully, with schooling trevally and barracuda and dense grey…
Cocos (Keeling) Islands · External Territory
A wall with glorious fans, black trevally, cruising sharks and dogtooth tuna, plus a cave at 40 m for deep-experienced…
A tiny, rarely visited atoll with a sharp drop-off, silvertips and unusual lava-tube-like caves.
A sheer wall glowing with golden sea whips and gorgonians, with pelagic schools off the edge.
Osprey's gentler wall, with bommies on the lip of a 1,000 m drop and the chance of hammerheads.
Some of Australia's most isolated reefs and cays, with nesting turtles, seabird colonies and the Coral Sea's last…
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.
A rarely described Bougainville drift site on Mike Ball's Far Northern expedition.
A wall named for Osprey's isolated dwarf nautilus population, historically the site of dawn nautilus releases for…
Australia's most famous shark dive – 10–30 reef sharks around a controlled feed in a 12 m amphitheatre at the top of a…
A sheer drift along a wall dropping more than 1,000 m, with caves, overhangs, mantas and tuna.
A true vertical wall into the abyss at the island's north-western tip, with colourful fans, schooling fish and a real…
A rarely dived, current-swept southern horn with dense fish schools on the plateau and a sheer wall.
An arch, caves and a daylit cavern under a sheer south-west wall, with a ledge of big gorgonians at 40 m.
Silvertip sharks, volcano-shaped bommies and caves on a slope that ends at a 1,000 m wall.
Norfolk Island · External Territory
Current-swept pinnacle to 40 m off Phillip Island, with black coral and abundant fish.
Rarely dived south-eastern outer wall with sharks and barracuda, reached only on flat-calm days; the site's name…
A dramatic drift along a 1,000 m wall cut with caves, gutters and canyons.
Coral turrets, gullies and fan-filled overhangs above a 1,000 m wall.
A clear-water wall drift with sharks, rays and schooling fish.
Bougainville's signature site, crowded with sharks, turtles and schooling reef fish in clear oceanic water.
A 700 m wall covered in colourful invertebrates and swarming basslets.
A split pinnacle with a canyon between its two fingers, draped in giant sea fans and soft corals.
Coral slope, sheer wall and a quarry-like ramp, with schooling grey reef sharks and some of the island's closest whale…
Osprey's most challenging drift, where current brings barracuda, hunting predators and mantas to a cleaning station.
A maze of caves and tunnels in the reef top, opening onto a 1,000 m wall patrolled by sharks and barracuda.
A bommie on the drop-off where the incoming tide's upwelling brings grey reef sharks, dogtooth tuna and big groupers in…
A range of big coral bommies with caverns and swim-throughs beside a 1,000 m wall.
Plate corals, curious schools of big-eye trevally and coral-monitoring buoys on the sheltered eastern side of the atoll.
A forest of gorgonian sea fans rising like trees from 20–28 m, with schools of big-eye trevally – dived only when the…
A sheer, effectively bottomless wall reached from the beach, with trevally, reef sharks and seasonal whale sharks.
All-levels wall with a blooming coral reef top and big orange gorgonians deeper; snapper schools at full moon and…
A moored wall around a reef corner with reef sharks, Maori wrasse and clown triggerfish.
Pinnacle from 2 m to 30 m with caverns, swim-throughs and enveloping coral.
Coral-rich wall to 30 m with a shallow inshore reef for the second half of the dive.
Typical north-coast reef and wall with dense fish life, next to the Lost Lake caves.
Current-swept outer reef slope with many sharks and fusilier schools; reserved for experienced divers.
A continuous sheet of rose-coloured hard coral covering the wall from about 16 m to 35–40 m, right beside Cabbage Patch.
Caves along Osprey's walls, especially good in the late afternoon and at night.
Other ways to find a dive