Dive holidays in Sydney are both fun and fascinating. With more than seventy harbor and ocean beaches, plus a diverse number of offshore dive sites all along its submergent coastline, where the ocean rose to flood what were once deep river valleys, Sydney offers some of the world’s best diving. Let’s take a look at just eight top Sydney dive sites.
Wedding Cake Island
Sitting just a mile off the shore of Coogee Beach, Wedding Cake Island is so named because when sea conditions are rough, the frothy white water that engulfs the island makes it look just like a lovely white wedding cake. Best undertaken as a drift dive, beginning at the southeastern point of the island, the site features a gorgeous wall and a series of gutters, each packed with invertebrates and swarming with fish. Maximum depth here is just 22 meters, and when conditions are calm, even novices can enjoy this magnificent site.
The prolific fish life here includes yellow banded sea perch, wobbegong sharks, blue gropers, combfish, a variety of different leatherjacket species, rainbow runners, cuttlefish, and brilliant blue eastern devils.
Gap Caves
This is a fun and challenging dive, in just 15 meters of water. If you’ve got the time and are easy on your tanks, then you can spend plenty of time enjoying all the swimthroughs and tunnels you’ll find here. Beautiful boulders covered in masses of ascidians and sponges in all sorts of shapes and colors attract a variety of fish, including sea bream and snappers, plus some larger kingfish, and the caves are a popular hideout for Port Jackson Sharks and massive groupers. You never know what will be right around the next corner! Maximum depth is just 15 meters, but the overhead environments and the need for superb buoyancy control reserves this site for experienced divers.
Fairfax Lookout
Named for the popular lookout point on shore, this south-facing site slopes to 22 meters. Consisting of rocky swimthroughs and overhangs along a sandy bottom, the site features magnificent sponge growth and fish life galore. Expect to meet up with swirling clouds of reef fish and some larger fish species, including snappers and sea bream, and even some blue devils and hogfish, plus the occasional grey nurse shark or wobbegong! Fairfax Lookout is often subject to a current; even though the site is not very deep, it requires some expertise to dive here.
Cascades
Often dived in conjunction with Fairfax Lookout or Old Man’s Hat, Cascades is a series of overhangs and swimthroughs, plus a sandy area that still holds artifacts left over from the shipwrecks that occurred here when Australia was just a young British Colony. Features are at depths between 15 and 22 meters, and the site is fantastic for photography.
Sponges, ascidians, and hard coral create a fantastic backdrop for all the fish that live here, including yellow banded sea perch, old wife, blue groper, six spined leather jacket, rainbow runners, and even the occasional eastern blue devil. There are lots of different kinds of nudibranchs crawling the walls, plus a variety of sea stars and basket stars.
Old Man's Hat
Named for the shape of the tongue of land that extends into the water here, Old Man’s Hat is a rocky outcrop with lots of overhangs below the surface, where all manner of fish hide, against a colorful backdrop of sponge and soft coral growth. Red drums and kingfish, rainbow wrasse and bonito, smaller tuna, and blue mackerel are just some of the fish you will see here! Maximum depth is 27 meters, and there can be a bit of current at times.
Quarantine Reef
The rocks and bits of reef here are teeming with life, including seahorses and several species of fish. While there can be quite a current here at times, this is a fascinating site, which is often explored in conjunction with nearby Quarantine Bay. Once the area where ships were quarantined before passengers could disembark, there is quite a lot of old litter, including crockery and lost personal effects scattered through the area. Part of Harold Holt Marine Reserve, the site has a well-enforced “no touch” policy. Maximum depth here is 25 meters, and you can only dive during ideal weather conditions.
Dobroyd Bombora
This is an incredible system of shallow fissures and gullies, formed by wave action over the millennia. You can sometimes see breakers with six to eight foot faces and marvelous tube formations here, and some very brave surfers enjoy riding these waves. You won’t be diving here if there are breaks, but when calm, Dobroyd Bombora is a very interesting junk dive, where you can find lots of old bottles and even some pieces of pottery scattered around the bottom. Be sure you look inside and under these, if you can do so without disturbing things, since they often shelter small creatures and offer juvenile fish a place to hide out. Maximum depth in this sheltered location, with its’ beautiful white boulders and neighboring Crater Cove is just 15 meters, making it a fascinating site for all to enjoy.
The Apartments
The main attraction at The Apartments, which consists of both a dropoff and a bommie, is the fish life! Here, you will find a colorful parade of fish, like nothing you’ve probably ever seen before. The wall starts at 8 meters and descends to 15, while the bommie comes back up to 10 meters, then drops off to 20 meters on the seaward side. A tightly packed ball of schooling fish is normally here, and that attracts larger predators. What a show!
While these are only a handful of Sydney’s top dive sites, they are some of the best the area has to offer. Sydney’s dive operators are consummate professionals, and will do all they can to help you make the most of your trip. Be sure to book in advance, since diving here is world class, and people flock from all over to enjoy a holiday here!