AUSTRALIA

Queensland’s tropical north is the place many of us first discovered the Great Barrier Reef. From Cairns or Port Douglas, this is the closest jump-off point to the outer reef for a day trip or liveaboard expedition

With almost 3,000 individual reefs, 900 islands, and stretching for 2,600km there is no denying the reef is massive. If you want to get an idea of size, then imagine the country of Italy lying just off the coast of Australia and you begin to get an idea of its vastness.

Want to know the best spots to dive on the Great Barrier Reef? Deborah Dickson-Smith asked Master Reef Guides to choose their top 10 dives on this iconic dive location

Photographs by Michelle Barry, Lily Buchanan, Andrew Watson and Deborah Dickson-Smith

Queensland’s tropical north is the place

We asked the experts, Master Reef Guides working in this region, which reefs offer the best diving, to put together a list of the Top 12 Dives on the Great Barrier Reef.

Master Reef Guide: Dr Glenn Burns (and Dive Instructor Haylie Bennett) Dive it with: Quicksilver and Silversonic ‘The Point’ is at the northern-most point of Agincourt 3, on a section of the Reef that sits on the very edge of the continental shelf around 21 miles offshore. It is separated from Agincourt 4 by a narrow channel. These two geographical features combine to create a spectacular site for lovers of pelagic action.

Strong currents sweep plankton-rich waters from the surrounded deep sea into the channel attracting predators, with large schools of striped and yellow tail fusiliers patrolling the coral wall, and chasing them, larger predators such as big-eye trevally and barracuda.

Outside the lagoon, divers frequently sight larger pelagics, including gray reef sharks and the occasional bull shark, while inside the lagoon, whitetip and blacktip reef sharks.

The best way to dive The Point is a drift dive, dropping in on the outer wall just outside the channel, drifting swiftly around the Point itself into the channel, passing forests of enormous gorgonian fans along the way before being sucked into the lagoon, where you’ll likely meet Donut, the world’s friendliest, giant Maori wrasse.

When conditions allow, you can also dive along

The reef is home to an incredible diversity of species, including 30 species of whale, dolphin and porpoise, six species of turtle, 17 species of sea snake and more than 1,w500 species of fish! Incredibly, 10% of the world’s fish inhabit the Great Barrier Reef.

the outer wall, where you can expect visibility between 100-150 feet as the reef wall drop down, in stages, 165ft, 330ft, 3,280ft.

Master Reef Guide: Dr Glenn Burns (and Dive Instructor Haylie Bennett) Dive it with: Quicksilver and Silversonic, Nursery is a relatively shallow dive, starting at 82ft depth at the base of the bommie itself which sits on a sloping reef wall. Drop in on the deeper side of the bommies and gradually circle your way to the shallows. The marine life changes as you ascend, passing reef sharks, large schools of drummer, the occasional reef shark and other pelagics in deeper water, and in the shallows, clouds of purple anthias. Divers often see pods of dolphins and in winter, minke whales are occasionally sighted.

As you follow the reef wall into shallower water, you’ll pass a huge garden of staghorn coral in shades of brown, purple, blue and green before

Anemonefish are always a diver favourite

Shoal of yellow snapper

Reef sharks swarm round a bait box

The reef is pristine and healthy

Seemingly endless table corals

Snorkeller with giant clam

Protection of the Great Barrier Reef is a top priority for the Australian Government and conservationists with measures being taken to help protect this natural wonder. Tourism can play a part in the reef’s problems but it is also a part of the solution. With over 2 million visitors a year, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the most popular attractions in Australia and money from reef tourism contributes massively to reef protection.

Freediving over hard corals

Hard and soft corals with sponges

Moray eel on the reef

Classic tropical reef awaits

Vibrant soft corals ending your dive in ‘Fishbowl’, a bowl with a white sandy bottom, surrounded by staghorns, and brimming with pretty reef fish of all colors, including neon blue chromis, orange and purple anthias and damsels.

Dr Glenn Byrne explains: “One of the reasons I love this dive is that it’s so versatile, it has something for divers of all levels, from beginner to hardcore.”

Master Reef Guide: Dr Glenn Burns (and Dive Instructor Haylie Bennett) Dive it with: Quicksilver and Silversonic Helms Drift is channel between two Agincourt reefs, namely 2A and 2B, where strong currents carry you along the outer wall and suck you into the channel where you drift and an incredible pace until the current peters out inside the lagoon.

“On this drift dive, you fly,” according to Haylie.

And while you’re ‘flying’ you’ll pass turtles, gray reef sharks and barramundi cod, before you reach the gentler pace of the reef surrounding the mooring and the macro features to be found there, such as tiny pipefish and nudibranchs. Near the mooring you may also come across a couple of cheeky residents, Agro, a camouflage cod and Colin, a Malabar cod.

Master Reef Guides: Russell Hosp and Kirsty Whitman Dive it with: Passions of Paradise, Pro Dive Cairns The Three Sisters are three enormous bommies that sit on the very edge of Milln Reef, where the current brings in large amounts of plankton, a food rich environment for schooling pelagics such as fusiliers, red bass, drummer, and larger marine life including turtles, reef sharks, several species of rays including large smooth rays and cowtail rays.

The Sisters’ position at the edge of the reef assures excellent visibility, upwards of 65 feet, perfect for shark and ray spotting!

Start at the third sister and swim a figure eight

It’s the only place on Earth where two UNESCO World Heritage Sites meet.

pattern around the second and third sister before heading to Sister No. 1. Reef fish you’re likely to see along the way include fusiliers, damsels, purple and orange anthias, bright blue chromis, yellow spotted and diagonal banded sweetlips and parrotfish.

Master Reef Guides: Russell Hosp and Kirsty Whitman Dive it with: Passions of Paradise, Pro Dive Cairns Good for snorkelers and divers, this shallow dive (so named for its deepest point: 10m, or 32ft), has vibrant coral cover and several species of anemones in one of the largest fields of anemones you’ll ever see. Just beneath the mooring there are large clusters of blue and brown staghorn corals, and huge boulder corals.

In the surrounding shallow coral gardens you’ll find a wide variety of reef life: damselfish, blue tangs (Dory), cuttlefish, butterflyfish, turtles and several species of sharks, including epaulette sharks, tawny nurse sharks and reef sharks.

When conditions are right, often after a full moon, the incredible phenomenon of coral reproduction takes place.

Master Reef Guide: Michelle Barry Dive it with: Divers Den Saxon Reef is one of the best Great Barrier Reef dive and snorkel sites. Set between Norman and Hastings Reefs, there are calm lagoons ideal for snorkeling – as well as the famous Twin Peaks coral ‘mountains’ where a deeper scuba dive offers the chance to spot species like reef sharks, trevally, large cod, and moray eels.

Master Reef Guide: Pablo Cogollos Dive it with: Sunlover Reef Cruises Located about 650 feet from the Sunlover Pontoon, City Hall is a large pinnacle, festooned at depth with giant gorgonian fans and healthy, vibrant and diverse coral cover in the shallows. It is surrounded by at least ten swim-throughs where you might find wide-eyed red cardinal fish, here and there clouds of glassfish and the odd coral trout darting in and out.

Turtles are almost guaranteed at this site, with 18 individual resident turtles identified: two hawksbill and 16 green sea turtles. As you circle and ascend the pinnacle, you’ll see lots of damsels fluttering about the thick outcrops of branching coral and huge schools of yellowtail fusiliers darting scaling the coral wall at high speed.

Master Reef Guide: Pablo Cogollos Dive it with: Passions of Paradise, Silverswift, Pro Dive Cairns Flynn Reef has some of the best coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef, in fact Master Reef Guide Pablo Cogollos compares it to Lady Elliot Island for its coral density and diversity. Huge boulder corals fight for space with plate corals, branching and bushy corals, and this diversity attracts a diversity of fish life.

Exploring the gardens, you’ll come across coral trout, sweetlips, trumpetfish, several different angel fish, damsels, chromis and anemonefish.

Master Reef Guide: Michelle Barry Dive it with: Spirit of Freedom, Mike Ball Dive Expeditions This drift dive runs along the outer edge of Osprey Reef, dropping down to unimaginable depths. Normally a tender will drop you at the start of the drift where you descend to about 100-130ft. Drift along past huge gorgonian fans and soft corals of all sorts, and in all sorts of candy colors – yellow, pink, orange, blue, red… populated by clouds of reef fish.

About halfway along the drift, wall becomes inverted, transforming into an overhang, while everything below you falls away and you find

Destinations such as Heron Island, Lady Elliot Island and Lady Musgrave Island are award-winning for their eco-sustainable accommodation and on-site research and volunteer programs. Ensuring facilities and guests leave no footprint, you can be beachside one day, rehabilitating a baby turtle or learning about coral health the next.

Anemonefish on the reef

Healthy brain coral front and centre

Aerial shot of the fringing reef

Vast shoal of snapper

Turtle swimming over the reef yourself in a candy-colored hanging garden. The inversion adds drama to this beautiful underwater landscape, the kaleidoscope of colors further enhanced by all colorful reef fish including fusiliers, chromis and damsels.

Be sure to look out into the blue for sailfish, hammerheads, dogtooth tuna, eagle rays and big schools of big-eye jacks, barracuda and herds of bumphead parrotfish.

Master Reef Guide: Pablo Cogollos Dive it with: Mike Ball Dive Expeditions Bougainville Reef is on the ‘Fair Weather’ Coral Sea itinerary for Cairns’ based liveaboards, being 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 and barracuda.

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 (yet to be named) potato cod. n

Getting there It is possible to fly direct into Cairns, or you can get a flight into Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide and get an internal flight up to Cairns.

When to visit You can visit North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef all year round. Clarity on the Reef is optimum between December and February (Aussie summer).

Currency Australian dollar (US$1 = AUD$1.41). Credit cards are also accepted.

Entry Requirements US citizens will require an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) or valid Australian visa to travel to Australia. CHECK CURRENT COVID RULES.

Electricity Type I plug, which is the plug with three flat pins in a triangular pattern. The voltage is 230V, so you will need an adaptor for US devices.