Some of Australia's best diving is at the end of a long ride: the Yongala from Townsville, the outer Great Barrier Reef from Cairns, the Abrolhos from Geraldton. This list ranks day-trip sites by the recorded boat time from the usual departure point.
Updated daily from the directory. 25 sites listed.
1. Cocos (Keeling) Islands · External Territory
Pulu Keeling Outer Reef
Boat ride: 90 min · Near-untouched national park reef with 40 m-plus visibility and plentiful sharks, dived by permit only on rare calm days.
2. Cocos (Keeling) Islands · External Territory
SMS Emden wreck site
Boat ride: 90 min · Propellers, shafts, engine parts and shells of the WWI raider SMS Emden, beached after the 1914 Battle of Cocos – one of the most historic and least-visited wreck sites in Australia.
3. Christmas Island · External Territory
Egeria Point
Boat ride: 60 min · Rated one of the island's best shark dives, with open-ocean pelagics and 40 m+ visibility at the south-west corner of the west coast.
4. Christmas Island · External Territory
Pig Rock
Boat ride: 55 min · Towering gorgonian fans on dramatic west-coast reef structures – a wide-angle photographer's site.
5. Christmas Island · External Territory
Winifred Beach
Boat ride: 50 min · A calm, sheltered west-coast reef of gullies and coral heads below a boat-access-only beach.
6. Christmas Island · External Territory
Perpendicular Wall
Boat ride: 45 min · A true vertical wall into the abyss at the island's north-western tip, with colourful fans, schooling fish and a real chance of sharks, mantas and whale sharks.
7. Christmas Island · External Territory
North West Point
Boat ride: 45 min · Sandy reef ledges with sleeping reef sharks and dense schools – the gentler companion dive to Perpendicular Wall.
8. Christmas Island · External Territory
Merrial Beach
Boat ride: 45 min · The island's smallest and one of its prettiest beaches, with grotto-like overhangs and a pristine west-coast fringing reef.
9. Christmas Island · External Territory
Boat Cave
Boat ride: 35 min · A sea cave big enough to park the boat in, with a floor carpeted in plate corals and colourful whips on the walls.
10. Christmas Island · External Territory
West White Beach
Boat ride: 30 min · Shallow coral reef with anemone fields off a remote rainforest beach, where whale sharks and dolphins are regular visitors.
11. Christmas Island · External Territory
West White Beach Cave
Boat ride: 30 min · A huge, bright sea cavern with twin entrances and a pillar, its roof and walls a riot of colour.
12. Christmas Island · External Territory
Steep Point
Boat ride: 30 min · An exploratory east-coast headland with a steep drop-off – rarely dived.
13. Christmas Island · External Territory
Leanne's Leap
Boat ride: 25 min · An easy one-way drift from drop-off into a lush coral garden, often linked with Submarine Rock.
14. Christmas Island · External Territory
Submarine Rock
Boat ride: 25 min · A submarine-shaped reef and 50 m drop-off with healthy boulder corals and passing mantas, eagle rays and grey reef sharks.
15. Christmas Island · External Territory
Ethel Beach
Boat ride: 25 min · A colourful sloping reef off one of Australia's best beaches – the island's wet-season shore dive and a red crab spawning site.
16. Christmas Island · External Territory
Thundercliff Cave
Boat ride: 20 min · Swim into the cliff and surface inside air-filled chambers decorated with stalactites – reef, wall and cave in one dive.
17. Norfolk Island · External Territory
Black Bank
Boat ride: 20 min · Colourful boulder reef riddled with caves, arches and swim-throughs.
18. Norfolk Island · External Territory
Cooks Arch
Boat ride: 20 min · Swim through an arch in a 12 m-high rock that drops to 21 m, with caves and crevices nearby.
19. Norfolk Island · External Territory
Fireplace
Boat ride: 20 min · Distinctive rock formations with coral on the eastern side of Duncombe Bay.
20. Norfolk Island · External Territory
Little Organ
Boat ride: 20 min · A huge arch and swim-through cave with a drummer school at the entrance and resident boarfish.
21. Norfolk Island · External Territory
Longnose Reef
Boat ride: 20 min · Coral-rich wall to 30 m with a shallow inshore reef for the second half of the dive.
22. Christmas Island · External Territory
Lost Lake Cave
Boat ride: 20 min · Entrance zone of one of Christmas Island's largest submarine cave systems, with overhangs, gullies and light shafts.
23. Norfolk Island · External Territory
Policemans Helmet
Boat ride: 20 min · Easy wall dive with overhangs beneath a helmet-shaped rock.
24. Norfolk Island · External Territory
South Rock (Phillip Island)
Boat ride: 20 min · Current-swept pinnacle to 40 m off Phillip Island, with black coral and abundant fish.
25. Christmas Island · External Territory
Thunderdome Cave
Boat ride: 20 min · A hidden entrance to a dome-shaped cave and an extensive, twisting system with air pockets and formations – the island's most serious recreational cave dive.
Frequently asked questions
Is a long boat ride worth it?
Usually yes: distance from the coast means clearer water, healthier reef and bigger animals. Take seasickness precautions and expect weather cancellations on exposed runs.
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