Ranked by how many distinct species or groups are recorded for each site in this directory. It rewards the thoroughly surveyed sites, the Nelson Bay sponge gardens, the Mornington piers, Julian Rocks and the Solitary Islands, as much as the tropical reefs.
Updated daily from the directory. 30 sites listed.
1. Sunshine Coast · QLD
Mudjimba Island
23 species recorded · The Sunshine Coast's all-weather site: a sheltered wall from 16 m to 5 m and coral gardens from 2 m, rich in macro life and ideal for training and snorkelling.
2. Gold Coast · QLD
Wonder Reef
23 species recorded · Nine floating spiral sculptures rising to 8 m from 30 m – the world's first buoyant reef, opened in 2022.
Our takeNine floating steel sculptures off the Gold Coast, moored to the seabed and swaying in the current, opened in 2022 as the world's first buoyant reef. The species count is climbing every season as the structures colonise; the design means there is life from 8 m to 30 m.
3. Sunshine Coast · QLD
Ex-HMAS Brisbane
21 species recorded · A 133 m destroyer scuttled off Mooloolaba in 2005, with cut-outs that make it one of the best penetration wrecks for recreational divers.
Our takeThe scuttled destroyer has more than a thousand species recorded on and around her, the highest count of any artificial reef in the country, from resident groupers and eagle rays to the nudibranchs on her rails.
4. Gold Coast · QLD
Gold Coast Seaway – South Wall (Sand Bypass Pipe)
21 species recorded · Australia's best city shore dive: giant groupers, rays and 400+ species along a breakwater and sand bypass pipe, with easy stair access.
Our takeA breakwater and a sand pipe in the middle of a city, with more than 400 species recorded along them: giant Queensland groupers, rays, wobbegongs, turtles and schooling fish. Australia's best urban shore dive, on the slack of the tide.
5. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Pixie Pinnacle
21 species recorded · A small pinnacle packed from top to bottom with fish and critters, including the flashing 'disco clam'.
Our takeA single pinnacle on the Ribbon Reefs, small enough to circle several times in a dive and packed from the sand to the surface with fish, anemones, flashing disco clams and macro life. Guides call it the best small dive on the reef.
6. Bundaberg & Agnes Water · QLD
Hoffman's Rocks
21 species recorded · 'Nudibranch Park' – the Woongarra Coast's richest macro site, with soft-coral bommies, a gentle current that brings in eagle rays, trevally and gropers, and some of the most unusual nudibranchs on the coast.
Our take'Nudibranch Park' on the Woongarra Coast near Bundaberg: soft-coral bommies, a gentle current that brings eagle rays and trevally through, and the richest macro life between Brisbane and the reef.
7. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Curtin Artificial Reef
20 species recorded · The world's first diver-built artificial reef – 30+ wrecks, a Brisbane tram and resident giant Queensland groupers.
8. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
SS Yongala
20 species recorded · Australia's greatest wreck dive by consensus: a 1911 steamer that has become a fish-covered reef in open water off Townsville.
9. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
Alma Bay (Magnetic Island)
19 species recorded · Easy beach entry to granite-boulder canyons, swim-throughs and coral gardens with 50+ nudibranch species, turtles and rays – Magnetic Island's classic shore dive.
10. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Flinders Reef
19 species recorded · The most diverse coral reef in Moreton Bay, an hour from Brisbane.
11. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Lighthouse Bommie
19 species recorded · The classic dwarf minke whale site in June–July, and a pinnacle packed with fish, turtles and sea snakes all year.
12. North Stradbroke Island · QLD
Shag Rock
19 species recorded · A sheltered rock with a swim-through cave linking both sides – Straddie's go-to dive for beginners, macro and night dives.
13. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
SS Moltke Wreck (Geoffrey Bay)
19 species recorded · Coral-encrusted 1870 iron barque scuttled as a breakwater, alive with sweetlips, batfish and fusiliers, 100 m from an easy ramp entry – and a first-rate night dive.
14. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Steve's Bommie
19 species recorded · A single pinnacle from 30 m to 3 m on the Ribbon Reefs covered in fish; often called the best single dive on the reef.
15. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Gotham City
19 species recorded · A 30 m-long Pavona clavus colony, dusk mandarinfish and a lively night dive with hunting trevally and sharks.
16. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Vertical Gardens
19 species recorded · A fan- and soft-coral-covered wall likened to Osprey's North Horn, open only in rare calm windows.
17. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
Wheeler Reef
19 species recorded · Small reef with every habitat within reach of one mooring – deep bommies, sand, gutters and a cleaning station – plus good shark and pelagic action; a no-fishing zone.
18. Bundaberg & Agnes Water · QLD
Barolin Rocks
18 species recorded · Queensland's best-known shore dive: a sheltered, shallow soft-coral reef with prolific nudibranchs, turtles and sea snakes, toilets and showers at the car park, and the rare chance of a dugong.
19. Lady Musgrave & Bunker Group · QLD
Manta Bommies (Lady Musgrave)
18 species recorded · Lady Musgrave's flagship drift over scattered bommies that act as manta cleaning stations, with sharks, rays and turtles along the way.
20. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Turtle Cleaning Station (Flinders Reef)
18 species recorded · Turtles queueing at a coral bommie in about 5 m to be cleaned by surgeonfish and wrasse – close-range turtle behaviour in shallow, clear water.
21. Lady Elliot Island · QLD
Severance Wreck (Lady Elliot Island)
17 species recorded · A coral-encrusted 16 m yacht on sand at 21 m, home to sweetlips and grouper, with mantas passing overhead.
22. Lady Musgrave & Bunker Group · QLD
The Aquarium (Lady Musgrave Lagoon)
17 species recorded · Step off the pontoon into a sheltered lagoon of turtle cleaning stations, giant clams and juvenile fish – ideal for first dives, snorkelling and night dives.
23. Rainbow Beach · QLD
Wolf Rock
17 species recorded · Four pinnacles off Double Island Point with resident pregnant grey nurse sharks and ripping current.
24. Bundaberg & Agnes Water · QLD
Burkitt's Reef
17 species recorded · The easy-entry Bargara shore dive: walk off the beach onto a shallow soft-coral reef with wobbegongs, sea snakes and occasional schools of barracuda and trevally.
25. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Coral Kingdom
17 species recorded · Dense, colourful branching-coral gardens in the shallows with cuttlefish and bumphead parrotfish.
26. Sunshine Coast · QLD
Jew Shoal
17 species recorded · Noosa's best dive: an 11 m solitary pinnacle and a cave-and-gutter system in sheltered Laguna Bay, with more than 100 nudibranch species and seasonal mantas and grey nurse sharks.
27. Cairns · QLD
Coral Gardens (Flynn Reef)
16 species recorded · A 30 m wall with swim-throughs and overhangs beside a shallow garden of staghorn and plate corals; a favourite liveaboard night dive.
28. Gold Coast · QLD
Scottish Prince Wreck
16 species recorded · An 1887 Glasgow barque whose whisky cargo was looted by locals, now wrapped in enormous schools of yellowtail scad in only 11 m.
29. Hervey Bay & K'gari · QLD
ex-HMAS Tobruk
16 species recorded · Australia's largest military dive wreck – a 127 m landing ship lying on her side, with the shallowest point at 11 m for Open Water divers and a 100 m swim-through tank deck and eight deck levels for trained wreck divers.
30. Ribbon Reefs & Lizard Island · QLD
Flare Point
16 species recorded · Bright, shallow Acropora gardens with light rays and lagoon rays – the classic final dive of a Ribbon Reef trip.
The guide
Counting species
The ranking counts the species and groups recorded in each site's marine-life entry, which favours sites that have been surveyed and written about carefully. That is a reasonable proxy for biodiversity, and it produces a list that experienced divers will recognise: the great macro piers of Victoria and South Australia, the subtropical convergence sites of southern Queensland where tropical and temperate species overlap, and the pinnacles of the Ribbon Reefs.
It undercounts the Great Barrier Reef, where every outer-reef site has hundreds of species and the site records simply say 'reef fish, corals'. It also reflects the temperate south's real strength: southern Australia has the highest proportion of endemic marine species of any temperate coast on earth, and the sponge gardens of Port Phillip and the gulfs are where they live.
Where the overlap is
The subtropical coast from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast and around to Bundaberg is the biodiversity sweet spot for a visiting diver. The East Australian Current brings tropical species south; the temperate species reach north; and structures like the Brisbane, the Seaway walls and Wonder Reef give them all somewhere to live. Winter brings grey nurse sharks and clear water, summer brings mantas and leopard sharks, and the macro life is there all year.
Editorial last reviewed September 2026. The list itself is regenerated from the directory daily.
Frequently asked questions
Which Australian dive site has the most marine life?
By recorded species, the temperate sponge-garden and pier sites (Fly Point, Blairgowrie, Edithburgh) and the subtropical islands (Julian Rocks, the Solitaries) lead, alongside the Great Barrier Reef's best bommies.
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