Australia

Rowley Shoals is located about 260km west of

Much of the diving is done on the outside of the three coral atolls, where the walls plunge down into 50m-400m depth, and drifting through the channels. The drifts can be gentle, or swift, depending on the state of the tide, and the water is a very comfortable 27 degrees C to 28 degrees C.

With more than 200 species of coral and 700 species of fish, residents of the reefs include coral trout, clownfish, humphead parrotfish, Maori wrasse, Spanish mackerel, giant potato cod, dogtooth tuna and green turtles.

There is a small selection of dive liveaboards to choose from, all of which operate cruises of the rugged Kimberley Coast for most of the year outside the Rowley Shoals season. These include Odyssey Expeditions, a mid-range 24-metre catamaran with spacious air-conditioned cabins and shared facilities, Great Escape, a 26-metre catamaran with ensuite air-conditioned cabins, and for a truly high-end luxury cruise experience, True North.

Top Tip: because the season is so short, spots on the Rowley Shoals liveaboards quickly get booked up. It pays to plan ahead and book at least a year in advance.

The Rowley Shoals shelf atolls arise from depths of between 300m and 700m. They are the most-perfect examples of shelf atolls in Australian waters, believed to have formed over 10 million years ago. In comparison, the Great Barrier Reef is believed to have formed only two million years ago. There are three atolls: Mermaid Reef – Mermaid Reef is 15km long and 8km wide, with no landmass that remains after high tide, which makes it a National Marine Reserve under Commonwealth management. Therefore, no fishing of any sort is permitted on this reef and out to a designated zone approximately 1km off the reefs’ outer perimeter. Clerke Reef – Clerke Reef is 16km long and 8km wide and has a permanent sandy cay at the northern end of the atoll named Bedwell Island. Imperieuse Reef – Imperieuse Reef is 18km long and 8km wide, with small portion of sand that remains after the highwater mark called Cunningham Island. Originally it was on this sandy cay that a scientific recording post was established, one of only two stainless steel lighthouses that exist in Australia. Over the years, Cunningham Island has shifted around and now the lighthouse juts up out of shallow water.

Most liveaboard itineraries focus on Clerk and Mermaid Atolls, with a rare few also including Imperious Atoll. Here’s a guide to the sites you’re likely to experience on a Rowley Shoals liveaboard expedition.

Typical Rowley Shoals itineraries include three to four days diving Clerke Atoll, over half the week-long liveaboard trip, and you’ll see why – with such an abundance and diversity of dive sites.

Clerke Aquarium is usually the first dive, a check-out dive in a shallow,

Rowley Shoals was so named by Captain Philip Parker King in 1818 in honour of Captain Rowley, who first sighted Imperieuse Reef in 1800. It is believed the Shoals were visited by Indonesian fishermen from at least the mid-18th century.

The Rowley Shoals is one of Australia’s most-remote dive locations, and with one of the shortest dive seasons in the world, fewer than 200 people dive this isolated and pristine location each year

Photographs by Scott Portelli

protected area inside the atoll. Here you get a feel for the environment, navigating around the base of a large bommie in 12m depth. Large hard corals dominate, although many had been ‘flattened’ by the strong tides, and on the white sand surrounding the bommie, there are thick forests of staghorn, with plenty of reef fish darting around.

Often the first venture to the outside edge of the atoll. Jump off the boat into clear blue water, and you’ll immediately notice the pristine condition of the corals. The reef slopes down to a wall, then drops off onto the blue to 50m. A kaleidoscope of colourful coral grows out from the wall, including bright red gorgonian fans, yellow plate corals, and fuschia-pink soft corals. On your way back up the reef, explore the shallower gutters on your safety stop, with whitetip reef sharks resting on the sandy floors.

On this exciting drift snorkel, as soon as you jump in the water, the current will tug you away from the boat. Drift from the outside of the atoll, through the channel, to the inside of the atoll (preferable to drifting out of the atoll, out to sea!) With the incoming tide bringing in clear oceanic waters, the visibility is great, a good 20 to 30 metres. The walls of Imperieuse Reef was named by Captain Philip Parker King after the ship - HMS Imperieuse - from which the reef was sighted by Captain Rowley back in 1800. It is also home to a lighthouse - Imperieuse Reef Light.

the channel are lined with coral and you’ll see schools of snapper sheltering under coral outcrops and schools of huge bumphead parrotfish chomping loudly on the coral. Continue drifting fast through the channel – no need to kick, just relax and go with the flow – until getting pushed out into the inside of the atoll, where you slow down gently as the current dissipates. The boat will then pick you up and drop you in again into a narrower channel to repeat the ride.

A relatively shallow dive (12m) where the reef is full of tunnels, gutters and caves. Light beams penetrate through holes in the cave ceilings, and you’ll likely be joined by a school of trevally circling around in the sunbeams, a picturesque dive. One of the larger cave entrances is framed with an array of red gorgonian fans providing a beautifully framed view, looking out as trevally circle the entrance.

For this dive, you’re dropped into the channel to drift outwards towards the edge of the atoll. This is one of the fastest drifts you’ll ever experience! There’s no other option but to surrender to the tide, and zoom past the coral bommies, past the schools of sweetlips, bumphead parrotfish, and whitetip reef sharks. So much fun! When you get spat out of the channel exit, you’ll find yourself at a site called Coral Gardens, where you slow to a gentle drift along a colourful wall (which drops down to 50m plus). At this cleaning station, large grey pufferfish make use of the coral outcrops to lie and be cleaned by smaller wrasse and cod stop with their mouths wide open for the tiny wrasse to pick scraps from their teeth, a relaxing second half of the dive after the ‘adrenalin drift’. The max depth is 23m.

Blue Lagoon is a spectacular site. There are multiple lagoons with white coral-rubble floors at 8m-12m, enclosed by sheer walls of coral. There is abundant fish life, including anemonefish, a large school of trevally and whitetip reef sharks. After the dive, you’re normally allowed to drift with the current all the way back to the mothership Reef Prince, instead of being driven back the usual way in the dive tender.

This dive is named after its cupcake-shaped coral bommies, but the main portion of the site is a stunning gradual sloping reef that disappears into the depths. As on all the sites here, there are large healthy corals and abundant fish life, including lots of curious batfish. The maximum depth is approximately 23m, although the reef slopes off to 50m.

This wall is, again, covered in wonderfully healthy and colourful corals and slopes steeply into the dark blue depths. There are so many tiny schooling fish around the corals here, sparkling in the sun, as they flit around, like each coral fan has its own light show going on. As with most of the dives you can pick your depth (the wall descends from the shallows to 50m plus), but it’s worth staying in the 5m-20m range as there is so much to see here.

After winding through coral bommies in the shallows, you’ll reach a white sandy expanse that slopes off onto the deep. All over the sand at 20m depth are hundreds of little garden eels poking their bodies above the sand.

This dive site gently slopes, then plunges down to 50m. The water is so clear, at 20m, you can look down and see the sandy sea floor, with corals as vibrant and colourful as usual.

Mermaid Atoll is a three-hour steam north of Clerke Atoll and the dive sites here are spectacular, a great place to end a great week of diving.

Cod Hole is like a cauldron – coral walls and white sandy base – churning with massive bumphead parrotfish, reef sharks, barracuda and trevally. There is a lot of action on this dive, just watching the fish swirl around you is an incredible experience. Halfway through the dive, the current picks up and the dive turns into a fast drift, through gutters leading back towards the boat. On the drift, look out for more bumphead parrotfish, whitetip reef sharks and the odd nurse shark laying on the sand.

At Mermaid Atoll, the drop-offs are deeper, with a sheer wall of coral plunging down 400m. Of all the walls at Rowley Shoals, this is one of the most vibrant and colourful. The wall is covered in large red gorgonian fans and bright pink soft corals sprouting out between myriad hard coral formations. Grey reef sharks circle in the dark blue below as you drift gently along the wall, with trevally gliding above you. n

Contact Diveplanit Travel now for Rowley Shoals liveaboard availability in 2023. Email: enquire@ diveplanit.com or visit the website for more details: Diveplanit.com

The Rowley Shoal S 17°20’ S 119°20 e

What’s your definition of adventure? We reckon it’s any experience that takes you into your unknown. And that’s what we do, every day. An adventure on the TRUE NORTH is not a typical expedition cruise. We have been exploring the Kimberley coast for more than 30 years, tracking down the region’s most unique experiences. And the TRUE NORTH is built for purpose – designed to sail off the beaten track, designed to uncover hidden coastal gems in maximum comfort.

We can’t necessarily say what you’ll be doing each day. Because it’s up to you. With six dedicated adventure boats and an onboard helicopter at your disposal – you can choose if today is the day that you catch your first barramundi or, perhaps you might choose to fly to an otherwise impossible‑to‑reach spot that others don’t even know about.

An adventure on the Kimberley coast is a once in a lifetime experience. Make sure you Choose the Best and, here’s to not knowing the rest, here’s to your next adventure.

After over a year out of service due to Covid-

Known mainly as a shark-feeding dive, the site’s location ensures plenty of pelagic action. Located at the northernmost tip of Osprey Reef, food-rich currents from the surrounding deep water attract large pelagics such as grey reef sharks, whitetip and silvertip sharks, hammerheads and the occasional thresher shark.

The shark spectacular itself happens at the tip of the reef, with divers seated around natural coral amphitheatre while the sharks are lured in for a thrill (and photo opportunity) with a bucket of chum. Once the sharks have had their feed, drift along the Western Wall, which is festooned with vibrant soft corals and forests of gorgonian fans while clouds of purple anthias add to the whole rainbow of colours.

This drift dive runs along the outer edge of Osprey Reef, dropping down to unimaginable depths. After dropping in at around 30m, drift past huge gorgonian fans and soft corals of all sorts, and in all sorts of candy colours – yellow, pink, orange, blue, red… populated by clouds of reef fish.

Be sure to look out into the blue for sailfish, hammerheads, dogtooth tuna, eagle rays and big schools of bigeye jacks, barracuda and herds of bumphead parrotfish. The drift ends with a finale of sharks at North Horn, where even the odd whale shark has been sighted.

Bougainville Reef is one of the more-remote reef systems in the Coral Sea. The reef here is one of the healthiest in the Coral Sea, and even in the shallows you can expect to see large schools of drummer, trevally, barracuda and bumphead parrotfish. There is a fantastic drift dive here between the western reef wall and a row of five or six pinnacles where you’ll drift by large schools of fish before reaching the end of the slipstream to be greeted by the friendliest potato cod.

Two Towers is located on the northern tip of the Ribbon Reefs, and there are two big reasons to love it. Firstly, this reef is a poster child for coral resilience, showing remarkable recovery from damage from two cyclones in 2013 and 2014. In just seven years, the coral cover on the shallower parts of this once dead reef is dense and diverse. There is a high density of fast-growing branching and plating corals, bringing with them fish species such fusiliers, chromis, damsels, blue line snapper, turtles and black anemonefish.

Secondly, the reef’s unique topography forms a perfect nursery (in winter months) for brooding dwarf minke whales. Between this long section of reef and the mainland, there are no large reefs or bommies, just a wide-open paddock with a sandy sea floor, protected from the open ocean by Ribbon Reef 10. n

For more information about Spirit of Freedom pricing, availability and itinerary, email enquire@diveplanit.com, call 1800 607 913 or visit Diveplanit.com/specials