For the wide lens: clear water, big animals and structure. Wrecks, walls and pinnacles with 20 m-plus visibility and sharks, rays, seals or schooling fish recorded.
Updated daily from the directory. 30 sites listed.
1. Cocos (Keeling) Islands · External Territory
Cannons
Old cannons among Porites corals on sand, with garden eels and gobies – and a chance of dugong, dolphins and mantas.
2. Cocos (Keeling) Islands · External Territory
Cologne Gardens
All-levels wall with a blooming coral reef top and big orange gorgonians deeper; snapper schools at full moon and bumphead parrotfish in summer.
3. South West Rocks · NSW
Fish Rock Cave
A 125 m swim-through under an island with grey nurse sharks stacked in the gutters at each end. Australia's best-known ocean cave dive.
4. Christmas Island · External Territory
Flying Fish Cove
Arguably Australia's best shore dive: a pristine coral slope and wall 50 m from the car park, endemic and hybrid reef fish, and whale sharks passing the drop-off in season.
5. Port Douglas · QLD
Castle Rock (Agincourt Reef 1)
A 24 m exposed wall on one side and a sheltered coral garden on the other; one of the better Agincourt sites for sharks and big groper.
6. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Anchor Bommie (Lady Elliot Island)
A soft-coral-covered admiralty anchor at 19 m beside a manta cleaning bommie rich in macro life.
7. Port Douglas · QLD
Barracuda Bommie (Agincourt Reef 2)
Circling barracuda school over a coral pinnacle; excellent snorkelling on the shallow garden around it.
8. Port Douglas · QLD
Bashful Bommie (Opal Reef)
Double-sided bommie with a sea-fan wall on a deep channel, a sheltered clam garden, and a very friendly Maori wrasse.
9. Forster & Seal Rocks · NSW
Big Seal Rock
A major grey nurse shark aggregation site — the Eastern Gutter has recorded more than 40 sharks at once — with a genuine multi-level dive profile to 45 m.
10. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Cod Hole
The Ribbon Reefs' famous potato cod site, where 1 m cod approach to within touching distance.
11. Cairns · QLD
Coral Gardens (Flynn Reef)
A 30 m wall with swim-throughs and overhangs beside a shallow garden of staghorn and plate corals; a favourite liveaboard night dive.
12. Lady Musgrave & Bunker Group · QLD
Entrance Bommies (Lady Musgrave)
A drift past flower-like plate and foliose corals at the lagoon mouth, where tidal flow brings sharks, rays and trevally.
13. South West Rocks · NSW
Fish Rock – Shark Gutters
The primary grey nurse shark viewing gutters at Fish Rock — sit on the rim and watch a dozen or more sharks cruise past at close range.
14. South West Rocks · NSW
Fish Rock – The Aquarium
A shallow, fish-dense reef around the Turtle Hole with long bottom times, resident turtles and some of the best all-round marine life at Fish Rock.
15. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
Flat Rock
A protected rock complex with four sites – coral gardens, turtle caves, a deep coral bowl and a winter grey nurse shark aggregation.
16. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Flinders Reef
The most diverse coral reef in Moreton Bay, an hour from Brisbane.
17. Port Douglas · QLD
Harry's Bommie (Agincourt Reef 4)
Instructors' favourite garden of pinnacles regularly visited by juvenile grey reef sharks and occasionally mantas.
18. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Hiro's Cave (Lady Elliot Island)
A spectacular eastern wall with a 16 m cleaning station where mantas or silvertip sharks circle.
19. Geographe Bay & Busselton · WA
HMAS Swan Wreck
A 113 m destroyer escort scuttled off Dunsborough in 1997 with easy penetration and resident schools of fish.
20. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Lighthouse Bommie
The classic dwarf minke whale site in June–July, and a pinnacle packed with fish, turtles and sea snakes all year.
21. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Lighthouse Bommies (Lady Elliot Island)
The manta cleaning station on the southern Great Barrier Reef, May to August.
22. Forster & Seal Rocks · NSW
Little Seal Rock
A complex, circumnavigable rock reef under 20 m with reliable grey nurse sharks and a strong resident bull ray population.
23. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
Manta Bommie
Stradbroke Island's summer manta and leopard shark site.
24. Lady Musgrave & Bunker Group · QLD
Manta Bommies (Lady Musgrave)
Lady Musgrave's flagship drift over scattered bommies that act as manta cleaning stations, with sharks, rays and turtles along the way.
25. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Maori Wrasse Bommie (Lady Elliot Island)
A bommie off the wall full of nooks where turtles rest, patrolled by grouper and whitetips.
26. Port Douglas · QLD
Nursery Bommie (Agincourt Reef)
Stunning 24 m pinnacle draped in fans and soft corals, circled by sharks, barracuda and schooling fish – regarded as one of the best dives out of Port Douglas.
27. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Pixie Pinnacle
A small pinnacle packed from top to bottom with fish and critters, including the flashing 'disco clam'.
28. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Severance Wreck (Lady Elliot Island)
A coral-encrusted 16 m yacht on sand at 21 m, home to sweetlips and grouper, with mantas passing overhead.
29. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
Shark Alley (Flat Rock)
Up to fifteen grey nurse sharks circling through two sandy channels in winter – one of the best shark dives in Queensland.
30. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Spiders Ledge (Lady Elliot Island)
A northern wall with some of the island's best coral cover and clearest water, rich in morays and macro subjects.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a good wide-angle site?
Visibility above 20 m, something large to frame (a wreck, a wall, a shark) and light: shallow tropical reefs at midday or temperate sites on a winter high-pressure day.
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