Diving & Snorkelling

Mask and fins are the perfect holiday attire in Queensland.

A scuba and snorkel paradise, home to the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland offers a myriad of colourful and exotic marine life, isolated atolls, shark feeding stations and intact shipwrecks.

The reef is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and is a protected World Heritage area. Formed around 10,000 years ago, the coral reefs flourish in the warm seas of Queensland’s tropical coast.

Some 1,500 types of fish, 4,000 types of molluscs, 350 types of echinoderms and 400 types of coral attract divers from around the world each year. There’s a whole new underwater world waiting for you to explore.

Extending along Queensland’s coastline for more than 2000 kilometres, the colourful beauty of the world’s largest expanse of living coral is an unforgettable diving experience. The Great Barrier Reef comprises 2900 individual reefs and 71 coral islands.

From its famous Reef to the mysterious undersea mountains of the Coral Sea, Queensland offers a mythic range of excellent dive and snorkel locations, many of which are still unexplored.

Brilliantly coloured coral, magnificent underwater terrain and exotic underwater wildlife are immersed in warm, clear water where visibility is measured in the hundreds of feet.

Queensland's dive operators actively ensure the environmental protection of our coral reefs. The Reef is alive. When diving or snorkelling here, please keep this in mind and do all you can to ensure the protection of one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Some of the best diving spots and dive platforms can easily be accessed from the mainland by boat, and many companies operate day trips. Or why not simply walk from the beach to the water and snorkel your way around islands or in the nearby shallow corals off the mainland.

Heron Island and Lady Elliot Island are renowned for some of the best island diving experience on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Ribbon Reef in the northern tropical waters of Australia is also renowned around the world for it’s huge tame potato cod and colourful reefs.

Head over to North Stradbroke and Moreton Bay Islands to spend the day snorkelling and scuba diving in the crystal clear waters of Moreton Bay. From wrecks to reefs you will discover a world of marine life at your finger tips – turtles, dolphins, whales, manta rays, reef fish and elusive dugongs all make their homes in this underwater world.

You will find dive shops and day trip operators along the Queensland coastline, particuarly in the main centres of Port Douglas, Cairns, Townsville, The Whitsundays, Gladstone and Bundaberg.

To find out more about the Best Diving in the World and download your Queensland Dive guide click here

For non-swimmers

You don’t even need to get wet to appreciate the beauty and variety of this wondrous natural attraction.

For a non-swimmer or for those who just like to stay dry, there are pontoons or floating platforms in the ocean with underwater viewing areas, glass bottom boats and semi-submersibles. Land-based underwater observatories offer a very solid place to put your feet and the amazing opportunity to look up into the fascinating underwater world.

You can find out more information about land based options by clicking here.