Ranked by recorded summer water temperature: the Top End, the Kimberley, the far northern reef and the Indian Ocean territories, where 30 °C water is normal and a 3 mm suit is for sun protection.
Updated daily from the directory. 25 sites listed.
1. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Elbow Cave
Summer water: 25 °C · 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.
2. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – The Boulders
Summer water: 25 °C · Massive boulder topography and a canyon-like channel between the island's two sections, with grey nurse sharks and giant groper — one of the park's best big-animal dives.
3. Tweed & Byron Bay · NSW
Cook Island – Northern Ledge
Summer water: 24-27 °C · Turtle-rich aquatic reserve minutes from Tweed Heads/Coolangatta with multiple moorings so it can be dived in almost any swell; an easy first shark and turtle site.
4. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Mutton Bird Island (Coffs Harbour)
Summer water: 24-26 °C · An easy, boat-free island shore dive right at the end of Coffs Harbour's breakwall, with turtles, groper and good macro life on the sheltered inner side.
5. Tweed & Byron Bay · NSW
Nine Mile Reef
Summer water: 24-27 °C · One of the region's best-known winter grey nurse shark aggregation sites, in a natural amphitheatre nicknamed the Shark Pit, 15 km off the Tweed/Gold Coast coast.
6. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – Buchanan's Wall
Summer water: 24-26 °C · The best macro and invertebrate photography wall at South Solitary Island, with abundant nudibranchs and Spanish dancers.
7. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – Cable Trail
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A boulder-and-gutter site with the remains of an old trawl cable, a resident giant black stingray, and a reputation among regulars for unusual fish sightings.
8. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – Cleaner Station
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A natural cleaning station with long-resident, well-known turtle and groper 'characters', plus excellent macro life including ghost pipefish and frogfish.
9. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – Manta Arch
Summer water: 24-26 °C · The signature dive of the Solitary Islands Marine Park: a natural arch through a boulder field with one of the most reliable winter grey nurse shark aggregations on the NSW coast and regular manta ray sightings.
10. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – North Boulder Wall
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A sheltered, boulder-covered wall on the lee side of the island with reliably high fish density — the easy, dependable South Solitary Island dive.
11. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – Shark Gutters
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A shallow, swim-through gutter that has historically been one of the most productive grey nurse shark sites at South Solitary Island, at a depth accessible to Open Water divers.
12. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – South Boulder Wall
Summer water: 24-26 °C · Sheltered boulder wall with abundant reef fish, linking with North Boulder Wall for a longer drift along the island's lee side.
13. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South Solitary Island – The Gantry
Summer water: 24-26 °C · Historic lighthouse-supply gantry wreckage, now a sheltered artificial-reef-style dive below South Solitary Island's 1880 lighthouse.
14. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Split Solitary Island – Cod Rock
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A compact bommie separated from the plateau by a deep gutter, home to a resident two-metre black cod under its overhangs.
15. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Split Solitary Island – Coral Corner
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A rare, close overlap of kelp forest and plate coral growth in a single easy dive, illustrating the tropical/temperate transition unique to this coast.
16. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Split Solitary Island – South Side Moorings
Summer water: 24-26 °C · The closest and most reliably diveable island in the Solitary Islands Marine Park, with a rich, densely encrusted drop-off supporting exceptional macro life.
17. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Split Solitary Island – Turtle Cove
Summer water: 24-26 °C · One of the most reliable turtle encounter sites in the Solitary Islands Marine Park, in a sheltered, life-filled gutter.
18. Tweed & Byron Bay · NSW
Tweed River – Jack Evans Boat Harbour / Rock Wall
Summer water: 24-27 °C · Surprisingly rich muck/critter shore dive right in the river mouth; tropical juveniles recruit here in summer and autumn on the East Australian Current.
19. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Diggers Beach (Coffs Harbour)
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A sheltered training/skills site used for open-water course transitions, of limited interest to certified divers.
20. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North West Solitary Island
Summer water: 24-26 °C · 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.
21. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
South West Solitary Island (Groper Island)
Summer water: 24-26 °C · Extensive plate coral cover and a reputation for unusual fish sightings, in shallow, sheltered water close to the coast.
22. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Black Rock (Coffs Harbour)
Summer water: 24-26 °C · Gutters and grottos with a good torch-and-search macro dive, used when the islands are unreachable.
23. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Anemone Bay
Summer water: 24-26 °C · Claimed to hold the densest population of anemones and clownfish on the Australian mainland coast, on the sheltered side of remote North Solitary Island.
24. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
North Solitary Island – Fish Soup
Summer water: 24-26 °C · 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.
25. Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands · NSW
Pimpernel Rock
Summer water: 24-26 °C · A remote, U-shaped pinnacle with a semi-trailer-sized tunnel through its base, huge jewfish and kingfish schools, and grey nurse sharks — one of NSW's great deep dive sites.
Pinnacle/BommieMax 40 mExpert/TechnicalDeep/Advanced + experienceMore in Coffs Harbour & Solitary Islands →
Frequently asked questions
Where is the warmest diving in Australia?
Darwin Harbour and the Top End reach 29–32 °C in the wet season, with the Kimberley, Torres Strait, Christmas Island and Cocos close behind at 27–30 °C.
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