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. 23 sites listed.
1. 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.
2. Ningaloo – Exmouth · WA
Ningaloo Humpback Whale Swim
Licensed snorkel encounters with migrating humpback whales, July–October.
3. Ningaloo – Exmouth · WA
Ningaloo Whale Shark Swim
Snorkelling with whale sharks off Exmouth is the most reliable encounter on earth, March to July.
4. Rottnest Island · WA
Parker Point Drop-off
An easy-to-follow limestone wall with ledges, gutters and protected crayfish in the Parker Point Sanctuary Zone.
5. Ningaloo – Exmouth · WA
Blizzard Ridge
Lighthouse Bay's standout site: a simple reef crack swarming with fish, with turtles, sharks and a manta cleaning station.
6. Ningaloo – Exmouth · WA
Cod Spot
Friendly giant potato cod and a manta cleaning station on the Muirons' signature reef.
7. Rottnest Island · WA
Crystal Palace
Rottnest's signature cavern reef: hundreds of metres of limestone chambers and swim-throughs lit by light shafts and full of schooling fish.
8. Rottnest Island · WA
Lady Elizabeth Wreck
Substantial remains of an 1878 composite barque on clean sand in calm, clear water behind Dyer Island, with caves nearby.
9. Geographe Bay & Busselton · WA
Lena Wreck
A 55 m toothfish poacher captured by the Navy, now an upright artificial reef at an easy 8-18 m with open holds and engine room.
10. Perth · WA
Point Peron
Perth's best natural shore dive in the south: limestone pinnacles, arches, caves and swim-throughs in 3–10 m, with sheltered seagrass on the eastern side for beginners.
11. Ningaloo – Exmouth · WA
The Labyrinth
A maze of limestone gutters and swim-throughs with a turtle cleaning station.
12. Perth · WA
Key Biscayne Oil Rig Wreck
An upturned oil rig in 26–42 m of often clear blue water, known for grey nurse sharks and large fish.
13. Perth · WA
Gemini Wreck
An upturned 36 m hopper barge in 30 m of often clear blue water, surrounded by schools of samson fish and kingfish.
14. Rottnest Island · WA
HNLMS K XI Submarine Wreck
A 1924 Dutch colonial submarine, lost for almost 80 years and found in 2025, lying in 38 m with torpedo tubes still visible.
15. Esperance & Recherche Archipelago · WA
Sanko Harvest Wreck
Australia's largest wreck dive – a 174 m bulk carrier broken into giant sections in 13-44 m, protected by a 500 m no-take zone.
16. Rottnest Island · WA
Shark Cave
Protected grey nurse sharks resting in an arc-shaped cave at 24-26 m off the West End - Rottnest's premier shark dive.
20. Rottnest Island · WA
Thornliebank Wreck (Graveyard Site 44)
Standing masts on an 1886 Glasgow-built barque hulk, discovered in 2024 - the shallowest known wreck in the Rottnest graveyard.
21. Geraldton & Abrolhos Islands · WA
Batavia Wreck Site (Morning Reef)
Cannons and anchors of the 1629 Batavia – Australia's most notorious shipwreck and mutiny – in 7 m on Morning Reef.
22. Geraldton & Abrolhos Islands · WA
Hadda Wreck (Beacon Island)
Iron knees of an 1877 guano barque amid lush coral gardens in a sanctuary zone near Beacon Island.
23. Margaret River & Augusta · WA
SS Pericles Wreck
Three boilers and 10 m-high engines of a 152 m Edwardian liner in 35 m off Cape Leeuwin - all 413 aboard survived.
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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