The Coral Gardens on the western side of Flinders Reef is the part of the reef most divers remember, because it holds the turtle cleaning station that made Flinders famous. Average depth is only about 8 m, so this is a site for long, relaxed dives, for newly certified divers, and for photographers who want good light and colour. The bottom is a patchwork of hard coral heads, plate and staghorn thickets, soft corals and sponges separated by white sand channels, with the reef rising towards the surface on its eastern edge.

The cleaning station is a coral bommie at about 5 m where surgeonfish and cleaner wrasse service the green and loggerhead turtles that live on the reef. Turtles glide in, stop over the bommie and tilt their shells while the fish pick off algae and parasites, often ignoring divers who stay low and still. Watching several turtles take turns, sometimes jostling for position, is one of the best natural behaviour shows in South East Queensland diving.

The rest of the garden is busy too: schools of sweetlip and batfish hang over the coral, parrotfish and wrasse work the reef, anemonefish sit in their hosts, and wobbegongs rest in the sand gutters. Eagle rays often cross the sand and, in summer, leopard sharks and occasionally manta rays visit. Look closely for nudibranchs, egg cowries and feather duster worms on the coral.

Because it is shallow and sheltered, the Coral Gardens also works well as a snorkel for non-divers on the boat when conditions are calm. Good buoyancy matters here: the coral is close to the sand in places and kicked-up sediment spoils the view for the turtles and everyone else. Dive it slowly and let the turtles come to you.

Boat access only. Brisbane charters leave from Manly Boat Harbour (Brisbane Scuba departs from the corner of Royal Esplanade and Davenport Drive, Manly) or from Scarborough Boat Harbour on the Redcliffe Peninsula, crossing Moreton Bay and running out through the North West Channel past Bulwer and Comboyuro Point to the northern tip of Moreton Island. Allow roughly 75-90 minutes from Manly in good conditions.

Sunshine Coast operators run south from The Wharf, Mooloolaba, in about 45 minutes. Private boats typically launch at Scarborough or Bribie Island; the open-water crossing around Cape Moreton is exposed and should only be attempted in settled weather with local knowledge. The Coral Gardens is served by a public mooring on the western side of the reef; operators tie up there rather than anchoring.

The western side is the lee of Flinders in the prevailing south-east trade winds and south-easterly swell, so the Coral Gardens can be dived on days when the eastern walls are rough. Northerly and north-westerly winds over about 15 knots put chop straight onto this mooring, and any swell over about 1.5 m makes the shallow coral surgy. The reef is not strongly tidal.

Visibility averages 15 m in summer and 20-30 m in winter and is best after several days of light westerlies. Morning trips generally have calmer seas before the afternoon sea breeze.

Descend the western mooring to the sand at about 8-10 m, check the compass bearing back to the line and explore the coral gardens in a slow loop. Settle a few metres back from the cleaning-station bommie at around 5-6 m and wait; turtles arrive and hover to be cleaned. Keep low, still and off the coral, then return to the mooring for a safety stop on the line.

Brisbane Scuba, Go Dive Brisbane and Brisbane Dive Academy (Brisbane) and Sunreef / Scuba World (Mooloolaba) – visited on almost every Flinders Reef trip, usually as the shallow second dive.