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. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Stony Point – Giant Cuttlefish Aggregation
Summer water: 22-26 °C · The world's only mass aggregation of giant Australian cuttlefish – tens to hundreds of thousands of displaying, mating animals in 1-6 m within metres of an easy boardwalk entry, May to August.
2. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Point Lowly
Summer water: 22-26 °C · Eastern end of the cuttlefish aggregation with deeper ledges and fewer crowds, below the 1883 Point Lowly lighthouse.
3. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Port Hughes Jetty
Summer water: 22-24 °C · A 417 m 1911 jetty with prolific cowfish, anglerfish, seahorses and weedy seadragons – one of SA's best macro and night dives, two hours from Adelaide.
4. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Fitzgerald Bay / Black Point
Summer water: 22-26 °C · Quieter cuttlefish viewing at the northern end of the breeding grounds, away from the Stony Point crowds.
5. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Wallaroo Jetty
Summer water: 22-24 °C · A well-kept macro secret on one of Australia's longest jetties, with dense nudibranch life and colourful growth on the wharf tyres to 14 m.
6. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Leeton Tug Wreck
Summer water: 22-26 °C · A small scuttled tug in 22 m in the Whyalla shipping channel – a slack-water, fish-rich challenge.
7. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Marek's Reef (Whyalla)
Summer water: 22-26 °C · Point Lowly's giant cuttlefish breeding ground, May to August.
8. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Whyalla Old Jetty
Summer water: 22-26 °C · Heavily encrusted piles of Whyalla's original 1901 ore jetty, disused for decades and now an artificial reef.
9. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Point Turton Jetty
Summer water: 20-24 °C · The lower Yorke Peninsula's go-to sheltered dive and a first-class night dive, with pyjama squid, slipper lobsters and nudibranchs under a long jetty.
10. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Port Victoria Jetty
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A short, pretty jetty dive in a historic windjammer port, best on easterly days, and the base for the Wardang Island wreck trail.
11. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Haystack Reef
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A kilometre-long wall from 22 m to 10 m, riddled with caves and swim-throughs and carpeted in red, yellow and orange sponges – about ten dives' worth of reef.
12. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Hougomont Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A dismasted 1897 four-masted barque of the Erikson grain fleet, scuttled as a breakwater with bow and stern still upright in 9 m – a rare shore-accessible windjammer wreck.
13. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Moorara Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · The most complete Murray River barge wreck in South Australia – wooden hull, two engines and deckhouse in 3-4 m, full of fish.
14. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Songvaar Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · The Wardang trail's largest wreck: an 1884 iron ship sunk on her own anchor in 1912, with the anchor still piercing the hull and prolific fish life at 9 m.
15. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS Australian Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A flattened but extensive 1879 Dundee-built steam coaster with a detached boiler and prolific fish, lying next to the MacIntyre.
16. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS Clan Ranald Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · The only turret ship lost in Australian waters, lying upside down in 18-21 m inside an aquatic reserve – a haunting and fish-rich wreck with 40 lives lost in 1909.
17. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS Investigator Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · Anchor and propeller of an 1882 steamer lying in just 3-4 m – ideal for snorkellers and new divers on the Wardang trail.
18. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS MacIntyre Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A converted river barge turned coastal steamer, lost in 1927 a short swim from the SS Australian – an easy two-wreck dive.
19. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS Willyama Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A 2,705-ton steel collier broken across the reef off Rhino Head, with sternpost and steering quadrant at the surface and boilers, engine and shaft tunnel below.
20. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Stenhouse Bay Jetty
Summer water: 20-24 °C · Clear-water jetty with basket stars and gorgonians rarely seen elsewhere on the peninsula, an upturned Ford Telstar and the Hougomont wreck within swimming distance.
21. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Troubridge Point
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A two-kilometre limestone reef with 8 m walls, a huge swim-through, chasms and pinnacles inside an aquatic reserve – the natural second dive after the Clan Ranald.
22. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Aagot Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · Scattered iron barque remains among the rocks of Wardang Island's wild western shore – an atmospheric snorkel on flat days.
23. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Althorpe Island
Summer water: 20-24 °C · Remote island with 50+ sites, 20 m walls, seal colonies, big blue groper and historic wrecks at the mouth of Spencer Gulf.
24. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Chinamans Hat Island
Summer water: 20-24 °C · A small island ringed by reef riddled with swim-throughs, chimneys and caves, a short boat ride from Marion Bay.
25. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Ethel Wreck
Summer water: 20-24 °C · South Australia's most photographed wreck: the iron ribs of an 1876 barque rising from the sand of a wild Innes surf beach, best seen on foot at low tide.
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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