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World | Australia:
Australia overview
Other Information Online:
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Scuba Diving in Australia
Water temperature: |
Variable - see different sections for more info |
Suit: |
3mm - 7mm wetsuit |
Visibility: |
5 - 30 metres (15 - 100 feet) |
Type of diving: |
Wrecks, reefs, caves |
Marine life: |
Grey nurse sharks, guitarfish, leopard sharks, stingrays, turtles, reef fish - again check each section for regional variations |
When to go: |
Year round |
How to get there: |
From the UK flights go via Singapore or Hong Kong and take around 22 hours - serious long haul! |
With Australia being such a vast country, it is difficult to summarise what it is like in a few paragraphs. If you consider that to fly from Darwin in the north to Melbourne in the south takes 4 hours 10 minutes - the same time that it takes to get to southern Turkey from the UK and only 50 minutes less than getting to Sharm or Hurghada - then you begin to realise just how big it is. When in Australia itself, if you drive you really start to notice just how far things are away from each other. Trundling along a road that's hundreds of kilometres long with nothing particular along it except eucalyptus trees and the occasional services before you reach your destination 3 hours later is the norm!
There are a few key things you have to see if you visit Australia such as kangaroos and koalas, but as a diver the most obvious destination is the Great Barrier Reef on the north east coast. However, all is not as it seems: despite the massive size of this reef, the volume of divers combined with long boat trips and pesticide run off from farmland means that a lot of people come away disappointed. That's not to say that there isn't good diving available, you just need to travel that bit further to get healthier coral and away from the crowds. There is also the world famous wreck of the Yongala near Townsville which many would consider one of the best wreck dives on the planet.
Wherever you end up in Australia, if you are in a coastal region then it is highly likely there will be some diving nearby. If you are not on the Barrier Reef itself, some of the best dives in the country are Ningaloo Reef to the north of Perth on the west coast, or Fish Rock Cave at South West Rocks about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane. Realistically however, if you are travelling to Australia you should really plan your trip around what you want to see on land and then fit some diving in around that. It would be a shame to go all that way and not see some of the great scenery on offer topside!
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