UNDER THE SEA

The Great Barrier Reef is a scuba diver’s paradise.

With warm, clear waters teeming with marine life, rusting shipwrecks and coral pinnacles and drop offs galore – it’s no wonder the world’s largest coral reef system is teeming with incredible dive spots. Take the plunge and discover some of Queensland’s top diving spots, moving from the iconic Great Barrier Reef’s northernmost tip to the rich megafauna in the south.

COD HOLE

Made famous by internationally-recognised underwater photographers Ron and Valerie Taylor, Cod Hole is a renowned haven for friendly, giant potato cod (weighing between six and 100kg, growing up to two metres long) and giant Maori wrasse. Drop to the sandy floor area between the bommies, and enjoy the spectacle of tropical fish feeding above. The site is accessed by liveaboard dive tours leaving from Cairns or Port Douglas, or day excursions from Lizard Island.

Cod Hole

PIXIE PINNACLE & THE RIBBON REEFS

A 20km 'string' of 10 individual coral reefs, collectively called the Ribbon Reefs, extend from Cooktown to the eastern Torres Strait. They form along the edge of the continental shelf and, in some places, the outer edge is so suitable for coral growth, that the reefs grow high and form narrow walls. One of the sites often visited is the very colourful Pixie Pinnacle, a 15-metre-wide column of coral which rises from a depth of 40 metres to the surface. During June and July, dwarf minke whales are spotted on this remote section of reef.

Ribbon Reef

AGINCOURT REEF

Off Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef, Agincourt Reef is a series of smaller reefs with around 20 different dive sites. This clear water provides excellent underwater

Agincourt Reef

OSPREY REEF

Osprey Reef is one of the most spectacular dive sites in the world, located in the Coral Sea Marine Park nearly 350km away from Cairns and only accessed via a liveaboard. The North Horn site on the reef is a remote seamount rising 1000 metres from the ocean floor offering spectacular wall drop-offs, amazing visibility and a legendary shark-feeding location. Whitetip sharks and grey whalers cruise off the wall while hammerheads and oceanic silvertips swim in from deep water to check out the action. The northernmost point attracts reef fish and pelagic species including barracuda, dogtooth tuna and mackerel.

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions

WHEELER REEF

Off the coast of Townsville, you'll find Wheeler Reef – a platform reef perched close to the continental shelf drop off. Perfectly circular in shape, this magnificent example of marine biodiversity offers spectacular formations of plate, branching and soft corals in brilliant colours teeming with tropical life. Rated as one of the best night dives on the reef, you’ll find moray eels, epaulette and whitetip sharks, bull rays, as well as a myriad of shrimps and other crustaceans waiting to be discovered by divers who like the dark!

Wheeler Reef

SS YONGALA WRECK

More than one hundred years after sinking off the coast of Townsville, the SS Yongala is now one of the world's top wreck dives and one of Australia's best dive sites, thanks to the sheer proliferation of marine life in, on and around the 100-metrelong wreck. Here, giant Queensland gropers hang beneath the stern while schools of trevally and cobia congregate around the depths of the wreck.

Townsville wreck

SS Yongala

BAIT REEF

Bait Reef is one of the most pristine diving locations on the outer Great Barrier Reef. With a depth of between four to 18 metres and visibility of 10 to 20 metres, the well-protected Gary's Lagoon is an ideal site for snorkellers and beginner divers. Coral gardens, underwater canyons, swim throughs and dramatic walls provide a range of interesting underwater terrain to explore. This site is also easily accessible from either Airlie Beach (mainland) or Hamilton Island.

Bait Reef

HARDY REEF

The nearest cluster of reefs to the Whitsunday Islands, Hardy Reef (home to the celebrated Heart Reef) is a 42 square km 'patch reef' offering a shallow lagoon separated from surrounding reefs by a deep channel of water up to 60 metres deep, ideal for wall dives. Here, divers can expect to see a large variety of soft and hard corals and many species of 'people friendly' fish, including George the Giant Queensland Grouper, a curious resident since the 1990s estimated to be around three metres long. The Reefworld pontoon is located here, with guided diving, snorkelling and overnight stays available.

HERON ISLAND

Easily accessed from Gladstone, Heron Island is a true coral cay where you can step off the island to fantastic coral gardens and pinnacles, just minutes from the beach. The diving is so good that Jacques Cousteau listed the Heron Bommie as one of his top 10 favourite dive sites in the world.

Both Heron and Lady Musgrave Islands offer world-class diving and are just two of the places in the Southern Great Barrier Reef where you can spot the 'Great Eight' marine creatures: clownfish, giant clams, manta rays, Maori wrasse, potato cod, sharks, turtles and whales.

Heron Island

LADY ELLIOT ISLAND

The Southern Great Barrier Reef is known for its megafauna and Lady Elliot Island doesn't disappoint. Known as the home of manta rays, this coral cay – situated within a highly protected Green Zone – attracts divers from around the world for its diversity, quantity and size of the marine animals. Visibility is over 20 metres for much of the year and encounters with green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles are a daily occurrence. The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) recently named Lady Elliot as one of the top five locations in the world to dive with Manta Rays.

EX-HMAS BRISBANE (SUNSHINE COAST)

While it's too far south to be considered the Great Barrier Reef, we couldn't leave this one out. Queensland's newest shipwreck – ex- HMAS Brisbane – located off Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, is an ex-royal Australian Navy destroyer that served in the Vietnam and Gulf wars before being sunk in July 2005. Kept in its original condition (where possible), the grand vessel (133 metres long) is a flourishing marine habitat, sitting upright on the ocean floor, 28 metres below sea level. Now serving as an artificial reef, only certified divers can access this site through a licensed dive tour operator.

Ex-HMAS Brisbane

MAIN IMAGE : Osprey Reef