Ranked by recorded winter water temperature: Tasmania, Victoria, the South Australian sinkholes and the Southern Ocean coast, where 11–13 °C is the winter norm and drysuits are standard equipment.
Updated daily from the directory. 25 sites listed.
1. Merimbula · NSW
Merimbula Wharf
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Easy shore dive with an exceptional critter list – sea dragons, seahorses, angel sharks and cuttlefish – beside an historic wharf.
2. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
Henry Bolte
Winter water: 12–14 °C · A broken but intriguing tug wreck with a high stern section full of nannygai, propeller and towing winch, beside the Tasman Hauler.
3. Merimbula · NSW
SS Empire Gladstone
Winter water: 12–14 °C · The largest remaining wreck in NSW, a 137 m wartime freighter spread across 100 m of shallow reef, with engine, boilers, flywheel and propeller.
4. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
Tasman Hauler
Winter water: 12–14 °C · An intact, upright tug with engine room, corridors and bridge to explore, covered in an extraordinary display of jewel anemones.
5. Merimbula · NSW
Bar Beach (Merimbula)
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Sheltered beach for snorkelling and first dives beside the Merimbula Wharf headland.
6. Merimbula · NSW
Haycock Point
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Haystack Rock bommie and reef beside NSW's largest remaining wreck.
7. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
Jacko's Cave
Winter water: 12–14 °C · A huge low cavern and 40 m tunnel behind a sponge-covered wall – one of McFadyen's top temperate reef dives.
8. Merimbula · NSW
Short Point (Merimbula)
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Easy calm-weather beach dive a few minutes from Merimbula town.
9. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
Lanercost
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Scattered remains of an 1872 timber barque, identified by an 1864 US cent, in two gullies near Mowarry Point.
10. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
Olive Cam
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Boiler, engine and anchor of a WWII minesweeper-turned-trawler in shallow gullies south of Eden.
11. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
SS City of Sydney
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Engine, prop shaft and upturned stern with broken propeller of an 1854 steamer, in a wild corner of the coast.
12. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
SS Ly-ee-Moon
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Wreckage of one of NSW's worst shipwrecks, lying below the Green Cape lighthouse it struck in 1886.
13. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
SS New Guinea
Winter water: 12–14 °C · Shallow wreck with keel, hull sections, cargo propeller blades and lead ingots below the Green Cape cliffs.
14. Batemans Bay · NSW
Dragon Rock (Tollgate Islands)
Winter water: 13–15 °C · Close encounters with resting grey nurse sharks in a shallow, sheltered gutter inside a marine park sanctuary zone.
15. Batemans Bay · NSW
Bubble Cave (Black Rock)
Winter water: 13–15 °C · Surface in an air pocket formed by divers' bubbles inside a cave at 13 m, then follow a long sandy gutter to a second cave.
16. Batemans Bay · NSW
Burrewarra Point
Winter water: 13–15 °C · Stepped, colourful wall to 30 m below the Burrewarra lighthouse, often with the clearest water near Batemans Bay.
17. Ulladulla · NSW
Burrill Rocks
Winter water: 13–16 °C · Interconnected caves and swim-throughs through a collapsed boulder field, the fish-filled Arch, and a sheer southern wall; often the clearest water around Ulladulla.
18. Ulladulla · NSW
East North Bommie
Winter water: 13–16 °C · Close-to-harbour bommie with a sponge-covered wall, weedy sea dragons and schools of yellowtail and pomfrets.
19. Batemans Bay · NSW
Guerilla Bay
Winter water: 13–15 °C · Easy, sheltered shore dive with a small island to circle, big stingrays and good night diving.
20. Ulladulla · NSW
Home Bommie (Ulladulla)
Winter water: 13–16 °C · Close-to-harbour bommie with a sponge-covered double-ledged wall, small caves and occasional visiting seals.
21. Batemans Bay · NSW
Jimmies Island
Winter water: 13–15 °C · Easy island reef inside the bay with gutters, swim-throughs and weedy sea dragons.
22. Ulladulla · NSW
Lighthouse Wall
Winter water: 13–16 °C · Relaxed 600 m drift along a cracked wall below Ulladulla Lighthouse with angel sharks and rays on the sand.
23. Ulladulla · NSW
North Bommie (Ulladulla)
Winter water: 13–16 °C · Big schools of yellowtail and pomfrets around boulders and canyons five minutes from the harbour, plus The Penthouse cave.
24. Batemans Bay · NSW
Occy Point (Tollgate Islands)
Winter water: 13–15 °C · Octopus dens at the base of sheltered bommies – a reliable dive in most conditions.
25. Batemans Bay · NSW
South Broulee Cave
Winter water: 13–15 °C · A shallow shore-dive cave of 60–90 m with multiple openings, resident wobbegongs and summer tropical fish.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the coldest diving in Australia?
Tasmania's east coast and Port Phillip Bay drop to 11–13 °C in August; the Mount Gambier sinkholes are a constant 14–16 °C. A drysuit is the norm from May to November.
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