The Great Barrier Reef is an iconic scuba diving destination, yet few people realise it is ideal for going off the beaten path and exploring rarely-visited dive sites.
The remote far northern reefs of the Great Barrier Reef are less accessible to boats than other areas and are well away from the crowds. There are numerous dive sites to visit at the northern reefs, with deep walls and coral reefs full of marine life. Upwelling currents attract big pelagics to the area including trevallies, barracuda, tuna, sharks, manta rays, mobula rays and eagle rays.
Remote Tijou reef offers exciting wall and drift diving at a variety of dive sites. It is a great spot for colourful corals, schools of pelagic fish and numerous sharks, including grey reef and silvertips. The coral at Pussy Galore is especially beautiful, and Catchers Mitt is a dive highlight with plummeting cliffs and plenty of shark action.
The rarely-dived Broken Passage offers wall and drift diving, and is worth visiting for the sheer diversity of marine life. It is ideal for macro photography and schooling pelagics. Cupcakes at Broken Passage has a shelving sandbank covered in bommies and a drop-off that stretches over 1000 meters along the reef edge. Usually done as a drift dive, Cupcakes is a great reef dive with abundant marine life.
Whilst exploring northern dive areas, divers can also visit classics such as Ribbon Reefs, Osprey Reef and Cod Hole.
Ribbon Reefs, a 55-mile long chain of reefs from Lizard Island to Cooktown, is known as one of the best Great Barrier Reef dive areas for abundant fish life, plus encounters with everything from tiny critters through to manta rays and whales. Divers can night dive with moray eels and sharks at Gotham City, plus find the Barrier Reef’s largest clams at Clam Beds.
Osprey Reef is the place to visit for shark dives and seeing numerous sharks, especially at North Horn. A controlled shark feed dive there brings in numerous grey reef sharks, whitetips and silvertip sharks. Keen photographers can even do a private shark shoot.
Cod Hole is famous for diver-sized potato cod that are also very inquisitive. They come close to divers and make for great photographic opportunities.
Northern Reef Exploratory Expeditions
The M/V Spoilsport offers Northern Reef Exploratory Expeditions, travelling 300 miles into the unknown, northwest of Cairns. It is exploratory diving at its finest and is suitable for advanced recreational divers and technical divers alike.