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. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Neptune Islands – Great White Shark Cage Diving
Boat ride: 165 min · The only great white cage diving in Australia, from Port Lincoln.
2. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Wedge Island – West Bay
Boat ride: 80 min · Sheer walls, deep ledges and boulder crevices with leafy seadragons and catsharks at one of SA's most remote island sites.
3. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Wedge Island
Boat ride: 75 min · Remote island with 150 m cliffs, walls and drifts to 50 m and Shark Cove's undercut ledge and tunnel through North Point.
4. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Hopkins Island – Australian Sea Lions
Boat ride: 60 min · Playful, endangered Australian sea lions spinning around snorkellers in a clear, shallow cove, plus a 30 m-to-4 m pinnacle for divers.
5. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Langton Island Sea Lions
Boat ride: 60 min · Uncrowded shallow-water swims with Australian sea lions in the Sir Joseph Banks Group.
6. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Point Sir Isaac
Boat ride: 60 min · Big blue groper on every dive at the remote tip of Coffin Bay Peninsula – reached by a classic 4WD track.
7. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Stickney Island
Boat ride: 55 min · A shallow reef honeycombed with caves and crevices full of gorgonians, soft corals, blue devils and boarfish in the Sir Joseph Banks Group.
8. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Grindal Island – Sea Lions
Boat ride: 50 min · An alternative sea lion swim venue in Lincoln National Park, with boulder bommies and swim-throughs on its south-side reefs.
9. Yorke Peninsula · SA
CD's Bommie
Boat ride: 50 min · An offshore pinnacle rising from 35 m to 12 m near Althorpe Island, packed with fish and gorgonians.
10. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Dangerous Reef
Boat ride: 50 min · The historic white shark cage-diving and filming site of the 1970s, now a protected pinniped breeding colony with no recreational diving.
11. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Lewis Island
Boat ride: 50 min · A seal colony dive with colourful bommies off the south-west tip, in the tidal channels of Thorny Passage.
12. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Memory Cove
Boat ride: 50 min · A sheltered wilderness cove with a granite fringe and fish nursery, in one of Lincoln National Park's most beautiful settings.
13. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Mylor Star Wreck
Boat ride: 50 min · The youngest wreck on the Investigator Strait trail, a 1982 steel fishing boat half-buried under Althorpe Island's exposed south-west cliffs.
14. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Spilsby Island
Boat ride: 50 min · The largest island of the Sir Joseph Banks Group, with clear water, rich fish life on south-east reefs and a sheltered jetty – a base for island diving off Tumby Bay.
15. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Topgallant Island
Boat ride: 50 min · Rarely dived walls and gutters to 20 m in clear Bight water off Elliston.
16. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Althorpe Island
Boat ride: 45 min · Remote island with 50+ sites, 20 m walls, seal colonies, big blue groper and historic wrecks at the mouth of Spencer Gulf.
17. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Ardrossan Barge
Boat ride: 45 min · A 1911 Sydney-built hopper barge scuttled in 1984 as a fish haven beside the protected Zanoni – no permit required and plenty of snapper and mulloway.
18. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Seal Cove (Althorpe Island)
Boat ride: 45 min · A narrow cove where more than 150 diver-habituated seals play around divers, with two huge friendly blue groper.
19. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS Pareora Wreck
Boat ride: 45 min · Boiler, engine, anchor and windlass of a 1919 zinc-laden steamer that took 11 lives, lying in a reef gully on remote Althorpe Island.
20. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Taylors Island
Boat ride: 45 min · Boulder field at 12 m riddled with small caves, swim-throughs and gutters in Thorny Passage.
21. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Zanoni Wreck
Boat ride: 45 min · One of Australia's best-preserved 19th-century composite sailing ships, lying intact on her side in 18 m with masts, rudder and bowsprit still recognisable.
22. Eyre Peninsula · SA
Eleni K Wreck
Boat ride: 40 min · An upright 134.6 m WWII Liberty ship in 11-13 m with her bridge 2 m below the surface – one of South Australia's best wreck dives.
23. Adelaide Metro · SA
John Robb Wreck
Boat ride: 35 min · A rarely visited, broken-up 1879 Port Adelaide-built vessel far offshore, with its bow still recognisable.
24. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Point Lowly Artificial Reefs
Boat ride: 35 min · Fish-attracting tyre reefs in 18 m off Point Lowly – a slack-water dive for artificial-reef enthusiasts.
25. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Point Lowly
Boat ride: 30 min · Eastern end of the cuttlefish aggregation with deeper ledges and fewer crowds, below the 1883 Point Lowly lighthouse.
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.
More rankings
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- Australia's Most Remote Dive Sites
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- The Coldest 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 →