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. 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.
2. 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.
3. Port Douglas · QLD
Barracuda Bommie (Agincourt Reef 2)
Circling barracuda school over a coral pinnacle; excellent snorkelling on the shallow garden around it.
4. 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.
5. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Cod Hole
The Ribbon Reefs' famous potato cod site, where 1 m cod approach to within touching distance.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Flinders Reef
The most diverse coral reef in Moreton Bay, an hour from Brisbane.
10. Port Douglas · QLD
Harry's Bommie (Agincourt Reef 4)
Instructors' favourite garden of pinnacles regularly visited by juvenile grey reef sharks and occasionally mantas.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Lighthouse Bommies (Lady Elliot Island)
The manta cleaning station on the southern Great Barrier Reef, May to August.
14. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
Manta Bommie
Stradbroke Island's summer manta and leopard shark site.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Pixie Pinnacle
A small pinnacle packed from top to bottom with fish and critters, including the flashing 'disco clam'.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Steve's Bommie
A single pinnacle from 30 m to 3 m on the Ribbon Reefs covered in fish; often called the best single dive on the reef.
23. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
The Blowhole (Lady Elliot Island)
Swim through an L-shaped cave from 14 m to 22 m and watch silvertip sharks being cleaned outside.
24. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
The Bowl (Flat Rock)
A coral-lined basin that runs from a 10 m rim to 34 m, with turtles, groupers and seasonal sharks.
25. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
The Nursery (Flat Rock)
Shallow coral gardens on Flat Rock with turtles, nudibranchs and summer leopard sharks – the best introduction to Straddie diving.
26. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Three Pyramids (Lady Elliot Island)
Three bommies in a row with a manta cleaning station on the largest and superb macro life.
27. Port Douglas · QLD
Three Sisters (Agincourt Reef 4)
Three coral bommies close to the mooring surrounded by huge fish schools and young grey reef sharks.
28. Cairns · QLD
Clipper & Super Cat (Norman Reef)
Swim-throughs, a beginner-friendly canyon and a small glass-bottom boat wreck on one Norman mooring.
29. Heron Island & Capricorn Group · QLD
Heron Bommie
Heron's signature dive: six coral heads from 5 to 20 m forming a manta and eagle ray cleaning station, with dense fish life thanks to decades of green-zone protection.
30. Heron Island & Capricorn Group · QLD
HMCS Protector Wreck (Heron Island)
An 1884 colonial gunboat with Boxer Rebellion and WWI service, now a harbour breakwater and fish haven snorkelled at high tide.
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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