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. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Anemone Bay
Boat ride: 75 min · Claimed to hold the densest population of anemones and clownfish on the Australian mainland coast, on the sheltered side of remote North Solitary Island.
2. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Bubble Cave
Boat ride: 75 min · A novelty air-pocket cave where divers can briefly surface inside the rock, set within North Solitary Island's rich broader reef system.
3. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Elbow Cave
Boat ride: 75 min · An easy, current-free swim-through cave surrounded by extraordinarily dense anemone beds and a 1980s trawler wreck, allowing unusually long bottom times of 75-80 minutes.
4. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Fish Soup
Boat ride: 75 min · A small point where an extraordinary density of fish concentrates in the current — one of the most photogenic schooling-fish spots in the Solitary Islands Marine Park when it is accessible.
5. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Grey Nurse Gutters
Boat ride: 75 min · A remote, lightly dived grey nurse shark gutter system at North Solitary Island, offering quieter encounters than the busier South Solitary Island sites.
6. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Muttonbird Gutter
Boat ride: 75 min · A reef gutter named for the wedge-tailed shearwater (muttonbird) colony nesting on North Solitary Island above.
7. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – The Aquarium
Boat ride: 75 min · An exceptionally fish-dense, easy patch of reef near Anemone Bay, valued for sheer density and variety rather than any single headline species.
8. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
SS Ly-ee-Moon
Boat ride: 75 min · Wreckage of one of NSW's worst shipwrecks, lying below the Green Cape lighthouse it struck in 1886.
9. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
SS City of Sydney
Boat ride: 70 min · Engine, prop shaft and upturned stern with broken propeller of an 1854 steamer, in a wild corner of the coast.
10. Eden & Green Cape · NSW
SS New Guinea
Boat ride: 70 min · Shallow wreck with keel, hull sections, cargo propeller blades and lead ingots below the Green Cape cliffs.
11. Sydney Northern Beaches · NSW
Canoe Barge (Long Reef)
Boat ride: 60 min · A canoe-ended barge, fully intact with its winches, whose hold fills with schools of jewfish – the furthest out of the Long Reef barges.
12. Sydney Northern Beaches · NSW
Hopper Barge 656 (Long Reef)
Boat ride: 55 min · An intact 50 m MSB hopper barge on the Long Reef reef ground with an accessible bow void, in the clear water 3 nautical miles out.
13. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Looking Glass
Boat ride: 50 min · A natural inverted-V rock arch with a sunlit 'fish bowl' chamber and near-guaranteed grey nurse sharks — one of the most photographed dives in NSW.
14. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – North Rock
Boat ride: 50 min · A kelp-and-sponge bommie site increasingly used for grey nurse shark encounters to spread pressure away from the main Shark Gutters aggregation.
15. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Shark Gutters
Boat ride: 50 min · Broughton Island's benchmark grey nurse shark dive — a varied gutter, kelp and amphitheatre system anchored at 14 m, best approached still and quiet to let sharks come to you.
16. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Looking Glass Wall
Boat ride: 50 min · A 40 m boulder wall beside the Looking Glass, with caves holding the rare eastern blue devil fish and dense sponge growth.
17. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Spider Cave & Bubble Cave
Boat ride: 50 min · Two adjoining caves — a documented grey nurse shark breeding site and a chamber with an internal air pocket and resident cod.
18. Lord Howe Island · NSW
Balls Pyramid – Ballina Rock
Boat ride: 50 min · The best chance of the rare Ballina angelfish, in a boulder field at the foot of a surface-breaking bommie with Galapagos sharks in 40 m visibility.
19. Lord Howe Island · NSW
Balls Pyramid – Observatory Rock
Boat ride: 50 min · Drift through 5–8 m rock stacks and caves packed with lobsters, with Galapagos sharks circling on the safety stop and a chance of the rare Ballina angelfish.
20. Lord Howe Island · NSW
Balls Pyramid – South East Rock
Boat ride: 50 min · Easy-profile Balls Pyramid dive on a boulder and ledge shelf with lobster-filled overhangs and plate coral – long bottom times in 30 m+ visibility.
21. Lord Howe Island · NSW
Balls Pyramid – Sunken Rock
Boat ride: 50 min · Deeper Balls Pyramid pinnacle with bommies, gutters and ledges from 12 to 36 m – pelagics, Galapagos sharks and Ballina angelfish.
22. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Cod Rock
Boat ride: 50 min · A reef with a distinctive volcanic lava tube swim-through, home to resident cod.
23. Port Stephens · NSW
Broughton Island – Providence, Esmeralda Cove & Coal Shaft Bay
Boat ride: 50 min · Broughton Island's sheltered, camping-permitted southern and western bays — a scenic, calm-water complement to the island's famous northern shark-diving sites.
24. Port Stephens · NSW
Little Broughton Island grey nurse shark habitat
Boat ride: 50 min · A separately declared satellite critical habitat site adjoining the main Broughton Island grey nurse shark aggregation.
25. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North West Solitary Island
Boat ride: 50 min · The best hard-coral gardens in the Solitary Islands Marine Park with regular summer manta ray sightings, in a quieter, lower-visibility setting than South Solitary Island.
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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