Scuba diving in Australia great barrier reef · Great Barrier Reef in Scuba diving in Australia
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Great Barrier Reef in Scuba diving in Australia
Great Barrier Reef in Scuba diving in Australia
The Great Barrier Reef, a long tropical reef system off Far North Queensland, is Australia's biggest dive attraction. Most divers will dive with shops in the Cairns and Port Douglas region or from the Whitsunday Islands. The reefs to the far north are generally visited by extended liveaboards rather than day trips. You can dive on the shallow Inner Reef or do shore dives from some of the islands in a day trip. Operators usually visit the Outer Reef on liveaboards, but some day trips are available. Week long liveaboards will take you to the ribbon reefs and the Coral Sea; huge tame potato cod and maori wrasse can be seen at nearby Cod Hole. Some liveaboard packages to the northern reefs include a flight to Lizard Island at the north of the reef system so that you don't spend so much of the trip getting to your destination.
The wreck of the SS Yongala lies towards the south of the reef in open water. The SS Yongala sank in a cyclone in 1911 and by the time the wreck was properly identified in 1958 it had become a haven for sealife. Thanks to the currents, the wreck is populated by oversized reef species. Other commonly seen sealife includes sharks, turtles, Queensland groupers as large as small cars, rays and sea snakes. The coast at Townsville is further away from the reef than the coast at Cairns, but some operators leave from Townsville, and Townsville is the obvious point of departure if you want to dive on the Yongala. Another operator leaves from Ayr, which is closer to the wreck.
The Southern Reef Islands have good diving on Heron Island and Lady Elliot Island.
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Scuba diving in Australia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.