Australia - Any Tips?

[Jim Hallyburton]

I'm at the very early stages of planning a trip to Australia next year and I plan to escape for a weeks diving during my visit, I've only dived in Scotland and the Med, so this will be a new experience for me,I will be looking at the great barrier reef and hopefully the wreck of the Yongola, my thoughts are at the moment for a weeks realistically priced liveaboard that caters for relatively experienced divers but I'm open to any suggestions! also, as I'm used to Scottish weather,when is the best time to go ? I'd like it to be relatively cool by Australian standards but I'd obviously still want some good diving - any thoughts on any or all of the above would be much appreciated.

[David Hatch]

I'm at the very early stages of planning a trip to Australia next year and I plan to escape for a weeks diving during my visit, I've only dived in Scotland and the Med, so this will be a new experience for me,I will be looking at the great barrier reef and hopefully the wreck of the Yongola, my thoughts are at the moment for a weeks realistically priced liveaboard that caters for relatively experienced divers but I'm open to any suggestions! also, as I'm used to Scottish weather,when is the best time to go ? I'd like it to be relatively cool by Australian standards but I'd obviously still want some good diving - any thoughts on any or all of the above would be much appreciated.
Hi, well if youre thinking about liveaboards and the gbr then try the cairns dive centre, we went with them a few years back and they were excellent value...i think 3 days 2 nights 12 dives on the outer reefs was only ?120 odd.that included full equipment hire and all meals.
further south you could try Noosa (cant remember the dive centre there but it was ok)

[fionaB]

Last year I went on the Undersea Explorer, this is a less glamorous liveaboard but you get a truely memorable experience. The boat always has a marine biologist onboard and they do specialist weeks. Crew were fabulous and they took still and video on each dive after the diving you could view their pictures and they put together a picture CD and video of the trip.

We took part in the shark identification at Osprey reef, you don't have to you can just watch all the sharks, they also do Nautilus research.

[Colin Knight]

Aside from the Barrier Reef, I can recommend diving at the following places:
Jervis Bay (South of Sydney) - interesting marine life, including sea dragons. Lovely area to visit.
Bicheno, Tasmania (see URL for my trip doc) - Tassie is a must see place. The diving at Eaglehawk Neck is supposed to great - that peninsula is well worth a visit anyway for sightseeing. Enjoy Oz, we just returned from out fourth visit.
Colin

[Dave]

I would also recommend Melbourne. Down in Port Phillip Bay at Portsea, there is some good diving; wrecks, drifts, walls et al. Being down south the water is a bit colder than sydney; last weekend it was 12C at 27m, though it will probably be a bit warmer in a month or 2

Dave

[james rawlinson]

Some mates and I went to Oz a couple of years ago and used Taka out of Cairns for a liveaboard. See <a href="http://www.taka.com.au" >http://www.taka.com.au</a> - can't praise them enough. It was cheap(ish) and you won't get a jacuzzi on the boat but it was comfortable, plenty of space and the atmosphere very relaxed. The crew were great - there was a videographer on board who not only took a video of the week's dives (which you could buy at the end) but also knew lots about the local marine life. There was a wide range of experience on the boats from people with relatively new qualifications to instructors - all seemed to enjoy the diving. All I'd say is that I'm sure there are other good operators out there - it's the diving that's the mopst important and it was GREAT!!! Enjoy...

J