12 wild water encounters
Your guide to Australia’s top 12 underwater adventures, where encountering the locals is the name of the game.
1. Eye To Eye Marine Encounters, QLD
marineencounters.com.au
John Rumney is one of Australia’s most esteemed marine experts, so to go diving with his outfit is an adventure with a scientific heart. Expedition-style journeys include six-week dwarf minke trips, where divers learn about the biology, behaviour and life history of the whales. Or take a trip on a live-aboard dive and research vessel with Richard Fitzpatrick, world-renowned shark scientist and cinematographer. Divers become a part of ‘Team Tiger’, tagging and tracking various sharks, including white tips, grey reefs, silver tips, hammerheads and tigers. A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
2. Turtle wrestling, Queensland / NT
worldexpeditions.com conservationvolunteers.com.au capeyorkturtlerescue.com
No, this isn’t about getting a poor Leatherback in a headlock until he surrenders. It’s about saving turtles at risk of ghost nets by finding and freeing the poor buggers. That involves four-wheel driving, trekking and boating to get to remote locations, and then, sometimes, jumping in and wrestling the turtles aboard. World Expeditions runs marine rescue trips in northeast Arnhem Land. Conservation Volunteers Australia runs marine debris surveys in three NT locations. Cape York Turtle Rescue runs trips near Mapoon, 90km north of Weipa.
3. Shark Cave Dive, Norfolk Island
bountydivers.com
This one’s a gimme as it’d be a first. The cave, located under Philip Island just off Norfolk Island proper, is half full of ocean and absolutely full of sharks, according to Jamie Edward at Bounty Divers. This was a mission originally slated for an Outer Edge feature, but a swell that would have splattered us against the back wall before the sharks even had the chance to nip prevented the mission from going ahead. So, keen to beat us to the punch? Jamie’s waiting for your call…
4. Antarctic diving, Antarctica
diveadventures.com.au
Perhaps the most untouched dive wilderness in the world, and obviously the coldest: you need cold water diving experience for this one – no beginners. But it’s worth getting your quals: sea lions, leopard seals, penguins and whales are on the viewing menu, plus the crystalline beauty of diving along ice walls.
5. Caves and creatures , Bicheno, TAS
bichenodive.com.au
The marine environment off Governor Island features plenty of caves and swim-throughs with attendant marine creatures for the spotting. Pristine waters harbour a garden of sponges, zoanthids, butterfly perches, trumpeters, and huge boarfishes. The Canyon hosts huge rock lobsters while the exquisite Bird Rock has grand caverns and swim-throughs where seahorses, marble fish, morwongs and bullseyes are abundant.
6. Crocosaurus Cage of Death , Darwin, NT
crocosauruscove.com/cage.htm
We’re not really up for pre-arranged dates – we prefer our wilderness experiences authentic and raw. But as much as we push things to the edge, we still value our lives and, unlike with sharks, you’re never going to find anyone to take you into the murk of Top End rivers to meet the prehistoric locals face to face. So we’ll let this cheap thrill experience slip on through the gates – just – and purely because there’s no other way to do it while keeping hold of all your body parts.
7. Manta ray dive, Ningaloo Reef, WA
ningalooreefdive.com/mantaray.html
Although the oceanic manta rays at Coral Bay only get to around 4 metres across (the species can grow up to 7 metres), dive next to one you’ll still feel over-awed. Of course, Ningaloo is an underwater forest full of marine life – snorkeling with whale sharks is by far the most publicised, but you can also hang with turtles, dugongs, dolphins…take your pick.
8. Weedy Sea Dragon, Tasman Peninsula, TAS
eaglehawkdive.com.au
Eaglehawk is best known for its giant kelp forest diving but there are plenty of creatures lurking around, too. The historic wreck of the SS Nord harbours huge fish schools, while Fortescue Bay is home to bizarre weedy seadragons, wrasses, banded stingarees, skates, cowfish (boxfish), octopuses and the occasional bigbelly seahorse, among many others. The giant macrocystis kelp can grow more than 50cm per day, forming towering columns to the surface from up to 20-metres deep, creating a unique, shaded environment.
9. Seals and sea lions, Kangaroo Island, SA
kidivingsafaris.com
Kangaroo’s north coast is home to 270 different fish species, along with sea dragons, seals and dolphins. KI Diving Safaris says its divers interact with seals or sea lions 90 per cent of the time, and encounter dolphins about 60 per cent of the time. Smaller creatures also abound, namely the leafy sea dragon, regarded by many as being rare and difficult to find. In season, divers are able to take the occasional cray or abalone, which adds to the flavour of the dive, as do a range of reefs, walls, drop offs and swim throughs.
10. Whale Sharks, Christmas Island
christmas.net.au/exp_diving.html
Sure, Ningaloo is the more famous spot for diving with these majestic creatures, but for something a little different, head further afield. Christmas Island’s tropical reef system is laced with corals boasting rarities such as Acropora and plate corals, which play host to a wide variety of tropical species including surgeon fish, wrasse, butterfly fish, gobies, anemones, and eels. But it’s the larger locals that will get your bubbles blowing, starting with rainbow runner, trevally, tuna and the occasional shark. Then, between November and April, the majestic whale shark glides on in, making best of the currents awash with food.
11. Fish fest, Stradbroke Island, QLD
mantalodge.com.au
Straddie’s reefs are teeming with marine life – so much so that they have annual Shark and Manta festivals. Manta rays and leopard sharks are abundant during summer (November–April), endangered grey nurse sharks and humpback whales during winter (June–October), plus bull and eagle rays, guitar and wobbegong sharks, turtles, dolphins, octopuses, various pelagics, hard and soft corals, nudibranchs and hundreds of tropical fish species.
12. Tuna thrill, Port Lincoln, SA
adventurebaycharters.com.au
OK, so you’re sick to the back teeth of reading about cage diving with great white sharks in SA. Yeah, they’re big, it’s scary etc…yawn. But why are the great whites there in the first place? For the tuna steaks of course. So why not do something different – and a whole lot cheaper – by meeting the main attraction. Another slightly conspired encounter, in that it takes place in floating cages, this experience is nonetheless pretty wild and definitely alternative. No scuba needed – it’s a swim-style undertaking that has you in the mix with hundreds of tuna.
