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. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Looking Glass
A natural inverted-V rock arch with a sunlit 'fish bowl' chamber and near-guaranteed grey nurse sharks — one of the most photographed dives in NSW.
7. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Shark Gutters
Broughton Island's benchmark grey nurse shark dive — a varied gutter, kelp and amphitheatre system anchored at 14 m, best approached still and quiet to let sharks come to you.
8. Narooma & Montague Island · NSW
Montague Island Seal Colony
Snorkel or dive with several hundred fur seals off Narooma, then a wall dive on the same trip.
9. Jervis Bay · NSW
Point Perpendicular Sponge Gardens
Sponge-covered giant boulders from 34 m up to balanced-rock caves and swim-throughs at 5–7 m under the lighthouse cliffs.
10. Sydney South & Botany Bay · NSW
The Steps (Kurnell)
Sydney's definitive weedy seadragon dive – a sand edge at 10–15 m below superb boulder sponge gardens, opposite Bare Island.
11. Sydney Northern Beaches · NSW
Bluefish Point
A sponge-covered vertical wall from 5 to 22 m with cuttlefish, sea dragons, kingfish and seasonal grey nurse sharks, 15 minutes from Manly.
12. Tweed & Byron Bay · NSW
Julian Rocks – Cod Hole
Byron Bay's marine reserve pinnacle: turtles, leopard sharks and wobbegongs in numbers, with mantas in late summer.
13. Tweed & Byron Bay · NSW
Julian Rocks – The Needles
Julian Rocks' big-animal site: a summer leopard shark aggregation among towering bommies, plus regular manta rays and schooling pelagics.
14. Tweed & Byron Bay · NSW
Julian Rocks – The Nursery
The most colourful, fish-dense and sheltered quarter of Julian Rocks; the classic beginner, training and snorkel site where tropical and temperate species overlap.
15. Sydney South & Botany Bay · NSW
Magic Point
Grey nurse sharks 20 minutes from the Sydney CBD, resting in a shallow overhang at Maroubra.
16. Jervis Bay · NSW
Murrays Beach
Jervis Bay's most reliable shore dive – reef, small caves and seagrass with rays, groper and seahorses in Booderee National Park.
17. Lord Howe Island · NSW
North Bay
Secluded lagoon bay with coral, turtles and a 1965 tuna-boat wreck, reached only on foot or by boat.
18. Sydney Northern Beaches · NSW
Bluefish Valley
A year-round grey nurse shark colony in a sheltered 7 m valley that Open Water divers can do – Manly's answer to Magic Point.
19. Lord Howe Island · NSW
North Head Bommie
A bommie cut by slits, canyons, craters and porthole openings – photogenic structure with Galapagos sharks in 30 m visibility.
20. Lord Howe Island · NSW
Rupert's Reef
Compact pinnacle packed with Lord Howe endemics – doubleheaders, McCulloch's anemonefish – plus a resident green turtle.
21. Sydney Northern Beaches · NSW
The Apartments (Long Reef)
Grey nurse sharks cruising a sandstone gutter 35 minutes from Manly, with the Cathedral tunnel and stacked 'apartment' blocks alongside.
22. Forster & Seal Rocks · NSW
Bennett's Head Bommie
A shallow, isolated bommie with a small cave, excellent visibility and an unusually dense and varied small-scale marine life list.
23. Sydney Northern Beaches · NSW
Dee Why Wide (Advanced)
Sponge-covered walls, long gullies and blue devilfish on a clear-water offshore reef, with an abandoned ship's anchor in a crack.
24. South West Rocks · NSW
Fish Rock – The Pinnacle
A twin-peaked pinnacle rising to 6-8 m with a resident grey nurse shark aggregation in the sand gutter below and a turtle resting ledge at 16 m.
25. South West Rocks · NSW
Green Island (South West Rocks)
A close inshore island with a declared grey nurse shark critical habitat that rivals Fish Rock for shark numbers, in an easier, shallower setting.
26. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – Manta Arch
The signature dive of the Solitary Islands Marine Park: a natural arch through a boulder field with one of the most reliable winter grey nurse shark aggregations on the NSW coast and regular manta ray sightings.
27. Forster & Seal Rocks · NSW
SS Satara wreck
The east coast's largest wreck dive — a 125 m 1910 steamship loss, now a protected heritage wreck at 38-44 m with an intact bow and penetrable collapsed midships.
28. Jervis Bay · NSW
The Arch (Jervis Bay)
An underwater stone 'bridge' at 37 m in a deep gully, with a 100 m vertical wall, 25–30 m visibility and winter Port Jackson shark aggregations.
29. Port Macquarie & Camden Haven · NSW
Cod Grounds
A Commonwealth marine park protecting a cluster of pinnacles that is critical grey nurse shark habitat, with a strict no-anchoring rule to protect research equipment.
30. Jervis Bay · NSW
Drum and Drumsticks
Playful fur seals, a large swim-through cave and old practice bombs on a multilevel reef beside the Wandra wreck.
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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