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. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Stony Point – Giant Cuttlefish Aggregation
Winter water: 11-15 °C · The world's only mass aggregation of giant Australian cuttlefish – tens to hundreds of thousands of displaying, mating animals in 1-6 m within metres of an easy boardwalk entry, May to August.
2. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Point Lowly
Winter water: 11-13 °C · Eastern end of the cuttlefish aggregation with deeper ledges and fewer crowds, below the 1883 Point Lowly lighthouse.
3. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Fitzgerald Bay / Black Point
Winter water: 11-13 °C · Quieter cuttlefish viewing at the northern end of the breeding grounds, away from the Stony Point crowds.
4. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Leeton Tug Wreck
Winter water: 11-13 °C · A small scuttled tug in 22 m in the Whyalla shipping channel – a slack-water, fish-rich challenge.
5. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Marek's Reef (Whyalla)
Winter water: 11-13 °C · Point Lowly's giant cuttlefish breeding ground, May to August.
6. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Whyalla Old Jetty
Winter water: 11-13 °C · Heavily encrusted piles of Whyalla's original 1901 ore jetty, disused for decades and now an artificial reef.
7. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Edithburgh Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A macro photographer's jetty: blue devils, pyjama squid, seahorses, tasselled anglerfish and nudibranchs in 6–9 m.
8. Adelaide Metro · SA
Port Noarlunga Reef & Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · South Australia's most popular shore dive: a sheltered reef lagoon reached by jetty stairs, with an underwater trail, nudibranchs galore and Port Jackson shark aggregations in early summer.
9. Adelaide Metro · SA
Port Noarlunga Reef Underwater Trail
Winter water: 12-14 °C · Australia's pioneering 1994 underwater interpretive trail: 12 marked plinths leading from the sheltered lagoon through the Gap to the outer reef.
10. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Rapid Bay Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · The most reliable leafy seadragon dive in the world, on the pylons of the old and new jetties.
11. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Ex-HMAS Hobart
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A 133 m Adams-class destroyer off Yankalilla with wide-open penetration routes and a resident school of bullseyes.
12. Adelaide Metro · SA
Glenelg Barge
Winter water: 12-14 °C · Adelaide's first purpose-sunk wreck, a 1911 hopper barge in 20 m that can be combined with the Dredge on a single dive via a star-dropper trail.
13. Adelaide Metro · SA
Glenelg Dredge (SS South Australian)
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A near-intact 1911 Dutch-built dredge sitting upright in 20 m and packed with fish – Adelaide's most dived boat wreck, easily combined with the Barge.
14. Adelaide Metro · SA
HA Lumb Wreck
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A 1943 US Navy tug scuttled in 1994 with cut deck holes for easy penetration, lying beside the Seawolf and the Noarlunga Tyre Reef.
15. Adelaide Metro · SA
MV Andrew Wilson Wreck
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A 1962 grab hopper dredger scuttled in September 2026 as Adelaide's newest wreck, with bridge, galley and engine room accessible.
16. Adelaide Metro · SA
MV Seawolf Wreck
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A 1940s Japanese tuna boat lying on its side in 20 m, a club-built wreck that forms a two-wreck dive with the HA Lumb.
17. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Point Turton Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · The lower Yorke Peninsula's go-to sheltered dive and a first-class night dive, with pyjama squid, slipper lobsters and nudibranchs under a long jetty.
18. Adelaide Metro · SA
Port Noarlunga Southern Reef
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A quieter, beach-accessed section of Adelaide's most popular reef, away from the jetty crowds.
19. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Port Victoria Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A short, pretty jetty dive in a historic windjammer port, best on easterly days, and the base for the Wardang Island wreck trail.
20. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Second Valley
Winter water: 12-14 °C · Small caves and a right-angled swim-through in folded cliffs, with occasional seadragons, at one of the Fleurieu's most scenic coves.
Shore/Rock PlatformMax 9 mIntermediateOpen WaterShore accessMore in Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor →
21. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Second Valley Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A shallow, easy jetty and seagrass site with a good chance of leafy seadragons, ideal for snorkellers and new divers.
22. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Star of Greece Wreck
Winter water: 12-14 °C · An 1868 Belfast-built iron ship wrecked in 1888 with the loss of 17 lives, lying in snorkelling depth 200 m off Port Willunga with a mast showing at low tide.
23. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
The Bluff (Rosetta Head)
Winter water: 12-14 °C · Arguably the most reliable leafy seadragon dive in South Australia, among stacked granite boulders below a historic whaling headland.
Shore/Rock PlatformMax 18 mIntermediateOpen WaterShore accessMore in Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor →
24. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Wool Bay Jetty
Winter water: 12-14 °C · One of the most reliable leafy seadragon sites in South Australia, in water so shallow a single tank can last well over an hour.
25. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Aldinga Drop-off
Winter water: 12-14 °C · A 10 m limestone cliff riddled with caverns and overhangs in a no-take sanctuary zone – one of the most spectacular dives near Adelaide.
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.
More rankings
- The 25 Deepest Dive Sites in Australia
- Australia's Most Remote Dive Sites
- The Longest Boat Rides to a Day Dive
- The Warmest Dive Sites in Australia
- Australia's Clearest-Water Dive Sites
- The Most Biodiverse Dive Sites in Australia
- The Oldest Shipwrecks You Can Dive in Australia
- WWII and Wartime Wrecks You Can Dive in Australia
- All rankings →