Advice on sharks & Yongala

[duppy_conquerer]

Hello, first time posting!

Going diving in queensland for the first time soon, and i could do with some advice regarding diving
the yongala wreck.. Been wanting to book a couple day trips there but can't find any centers with
good reviews..

Also, does anyone know the best places for looking for with bull, tiger, or oceanic white tip sharks? I've heard they're found around the great barrier reef etc, and my trip won't be complete if I don't see at least one of these!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[ocdiver1]

Yes, use www.yongaladive.com.au out of Alva Beach. You can dive it out of Townsville, but that is an extremely long boat ride that very frequently gets cancelled due to wind/waves (I found that out the hard way). From Alva Beach, the ride out there is @less than 30 minutes, and they are often able to get out and make the trip while boats out of Townsville can't make it. It's an incredibly expensive dive...even by Australian standards...but also lives up to every bit of the hype. Well worth it even at the price. As to your shark question, while I've never seen any of the sharks you mention on the GBR, a couple of days before we dove the Yongala one time a bull was sighted there.

 

[Fina]

I'd also recommend Yongala Dive especially if you aren't keen on long boat trips.
There are a few very BIG bull sharks resident on the Yongala. They aren't sighted every day but if you dive there a few days in a row you have an OK chance of seeing them. A liveaboard to Osprey Reef/North Horn is a popular trip for other types of large sharks. Lots of reef sharks, you need luck to see anything bigger though. Probably your best bet if you really want to see tiger sharks etc is to look into a far northern GBR trip to some of the remotest sections of the park. Tiger shark satellite tagging is done around here. I've never done this, I know they only run for a short seasonal period each year, and I'm sure it's very expensive but the option is there...

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Agree with all the above. Yongala dive the best and either Mike Ball or Spirit of Freedom up north to do the Coral Sea trips and the shark feeds.

The Coral Sea trips are quite expensive but great diving. I think tehre are some good dives off of Jervis Bay that do Grey Nurse sharks. Both places far from the Yongala so depends on where and which diretion you are travelling.

 

[Peter69_56]

Yes we used Yongala Dive as well, and had no issue with them. Short trip off the beach to the wreck, stayed there at their accommodation which was ok.

 

[duppy_conquerer]

hi,

thanks so much for all the advice.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like i will be able to do a coral sea liveaboard, but will definitely
book with yongala dive, and will look into diving further up north for some tigers.

Thanks again!

 

[CoralSeaVideo]

If you are going to come up North, may I suggest Port Douglas. It is a wonderful little town with good day trips and lots of other great activities, such as the Daintree Rainforest.

 

[diver00014]

Nice Thread, I have been putting together a trip to The same place but I haven't locked down a date because of availability of flights.
My question to everyone who responded to this thread is, Is there a bad time of year to go?
I will have to book my trip farther out to get a flight so I may have to go sometime between Nov and March.

 

[Leo*]

I dove the Yongala about a month ago and it was amazing! I went with Yongala dive and they were really good! The weather can be pretty rough and they do have to cancel trips sometimes, maybe try to keep a couple of days free after your trip incase something goes wrong and you can go another day! I one of the crew members saying that they cancel a lot of trip during the wet season (Jan-May) and the visibility is meant to be pretty bad then too, so watch out for that!

As for the sharks... It's not on the GBR but there is a places called South West Rocks a few hours north of Sydney where you do a cave dive with grey nurse sharks! I've not been yet but apparently you can get within touching distance!

 

[Knackas]

Hey Semo the dates you have mentioned are in the cyclone season and also gets lots of rain during that period. June through to September is much nicer with way less humidity as well.