Best Western Australia diving option advice needed

[Stein Grubben]

Hi everyone,

I am currently travelling through Australia and will be doing a trip up from Perth to Broome in April. During my trip I have the budget to go diving once, and ofcourse I want to make the most of it. I did my research and I came across the following options:

1. Ningaloo Reef (outer reef I quess) double dive day with Exmouth Diving/Dive Ningaloo;
2. Exmouth based Murion Island double dive day with Exmouth Diving/Dive Ningaloo;
3. Steep Point / Dirk Hartog double dive day with Denham Based SharkBayDive;

I am also doing a snorkel day trip to swim with the Whale Sharks nearby Exmouth, so the diving does not have to be about the Whale Shark. The greatest thing about diving for me is seeing big marine life. I have seen a lot of Reef/Blacktip sharks when I went diving in Sipadan Island, but my dream would be comming across a big shark (Tiger/Hammerhead/Whaler). I also like diving on nice colourfull corals, and I did not include the Navy Pier on my list because I want to do boat dives.

The website from SharkBayDive listed March-May as a good time to see Tigers/Whalers, but I am wondering how big the chance to see one actually is in the shallows.

I hope you guys can help me find out which option is the best for me, also if you know any other options every input is appreciated! I am Open Water Certified so only able to do 18M dives, unless they offer the possibility to do the deep dive for advanced.

 

[chris kippax]

Navy Pier, Exmouth

 

[Wingy]

You can fit in two dives at Ningaloo - outer reef - if anyone has a permit for night dives at Navy Pier??

I don't like diving that doesn't include a boat but Navy Pier is worth including.

 

[garycrano]

There is a little place called Coral Bay 150 Km south of exmouth that you are likely to visit. They have snorkelling day trips where they snorkel with mantas and grey reef sharks. Youtube Coral Bay shark cleaning station. I have heard they will sometimes let you jump in with tigers. They can find the tigers easily as they have planes up looking for the mantas. I am talking big tigers in four metres of water. I have jumped in with a couple but they do not stop to say hello.
Keep in mind between 9th and 28th of april is school holidays and all these coastal places will be packed

 

[Stein Grubben]

Navy Pier, Exmouth

Thanks, I will check this one out again and maybe include it in our trip.

 

[Stein Grubben]

There is a little place called Coral Bay 150 Km south of exmouth that you are likely to visit. They have snorkelling day trips where they snorkel with mantas and grey reef sharks. Youtube Coral Bay shark cleaning station. I have heard they will sometimes let you jump in with tigers. They can find the tigers easily as they have planes up looking for the mantas. I am talking big tigers in four metres of water. I have jumped in with a couple but they do not stop to say hello.
Keep in mind between 9th and 28th of april is school holidays and all these coastal places will be packed

Good to know about the school holidays, I got a 4x4 with roof tent but I should probably book the dives/campsites in advance then.

I will contact Diving Tours - Ningaloo Reef Dive to see if I can join them on a trip to the outer reef (and the cleaning station), sounds really great.

 

[Stein Grubben]

Also any great snorkeling locations around the west coast are always welcome thanks in advance.

 

[Wingy]

Definitely book camping spots in advance. My info may be a little out of date (any norwesters here?) but it may help as a starting point -

Cardabia Station was run as a dry 'alcohol free' indigenous development initiative so all camping fees directly contribute to the aboriginal people working the station, it's the first station after Coral Bay before Ningaloo Station, Defence force land and the creek crossing. That "track" is actually a gazetted road which meets up at the boat launching ramp near Tantabiddy where they have put camping amenities in. I'd personally camp there and Cardabia on your way down from Exmouth if you came along the coast road that turns into dirt all the way to coral bay.

There is an oyster spit at Doddies bay - one side of the spit is an open bay the other side is reef to the waters edge (Ningaloo being a dual fringing reef). When I was working up there one night there was a mass spawn of something ... Midnight wandering and I saw the water almost bubbling so waded in and found mm thick 2mm long newborn something in unbelievable amounts - the water was almost like Jelly walking through the billions of whatever. Didn't take long for the Pelagics to arrive for the more than all you can eat buffet and myself and my field assistants waded amongst the sharks and mackerel and dolphins until dawn. I'd give anything to know what we saw but it was magic. Other side of the spit was where my 3yo self first saw a Spanish dancer. Coincidentally that was 50 years ago today. Wander around that area with your snorkel.
At the Exmouth side of the Point going out to Janes bay about 3km further along swim out about 500m there is sometimes a pair of potato cod in that area, between the two reef structures.
Continue further down towards Cardabia about hmm..ten minutes drive but before you hit Norwegian bay whaling station ruins there's a weird bowl shape hole in the reef. If you get there as the tides going out it's an interesting dive/snorkel because you never know what is in there waiting for the tide to come back (hint - don't try and catch a tuna by hand...you will end up bloodied and possibly drowned the tuna will just be offended).
There's a spot at the base of the forever sliding Sand dune that has or had some amazing corals about 50m swim directly opposite the sand dune. Definitely take a dip there because it's exhausting getting back up the sand dune.
Turtle hatching sites around Maud's landing are obviously dependant on many factors as is chance of spotting something special like a snub fin or a dugong but...there's a lot of coast with a lot of amazing things to find if the planets align for you.
Also buy your groceries at Carnarvon because you will pay triple the price for the exact same tomato at Coral Bay.
If you're driving back to Perth there's heaps more

 

[garycrano]

Some additional info on Wingys post. These days Warroora,Cardabia and Ningaloo stations all require booking. You cannot just rock up and camp these days and all these places will be really busy during the school holidays. Camping in these places is really cheap but there are no facilities except dump points for chemical toilets which you must have. You have to be totally self contained as in power water and firewood. They are great places. the only one I would avoid is Bruboodjoo on Cardabia commonly known as the nine mile camp as it is pretty much just a salt flat and snorkelling at Coral Bay nine miles away is way better. I have not been to the bottom end of Warroora but I have heard there is some good snorkelling there.
Be aware that most of the time over the last few years Yardie creek has been impassable to vehicles which prevents you driving from Coral Bay to Exmouth along the coast track. I have seen heaps of pics of vehicles drowned in Yardie Creek.
A good place for a snorkel is Turqoise Bay which is a drift snorkel just off the beach but you will not be alone there.
Coral Bay has good snorkelling right in the bay and other nearby spots are five fingers and oyster bridge.
I have been to Coral Bay for the last twelve years and will be there for seven weeks at the end of April so I have seen a bit there. Keeping that in mind I would not recommend scuba diving there unless the swell is right down and they can get in close outside the reef. The places the companies take scuba trips are not that exciting and you can see everything there with a snorkel
Youtube Coral Bay dugong,it is some footage I took there of a dugong that was happy to hang out with us for about ten minutes.
Once you get north of exmouth you can pretty much forget about diving unless you can find a local to get you out away from the coast.
Check out a place inland called Karajini, it is amazing.

 

[Manuel Sam]

In late April-early May 2002, I spent close to two weeks diving and snorkeling mostly around Ningaloo Reef out of Exmouth. One of those days was spent in Coral Bay for mantas. I don't know if things have changed but the one place that I wouldn't mind diving again.....and again would be - as already suggested by others - the Navy Pier. I did four dives there. The density of fish life is amazing and if you spend the time to look, there is also good macro stuff to be found.

I understand that you want to see big stuff, and there may be the possibility that you will see a tiger sometime during your stay there. I saw one from the boat at Coral Bay. However, you can go to other places to go see tigers and other big sharks, where the sightings are fairly reliable. Tiger Beach (Tigers, Reef, Lemon and Nurse, and sometimes Great Hammerhead sharks) and Bimini (Great Hammers, Bull - maybe what you call whaler - and Nurse) in the Bahamas, and Cocos off of Costa Rica are three places that come to mind. But in my years of diving, no other dive site has made me forget the Navy Pier.

I digress but, on the lighter side, since the subject of spotter planes was brought up, some years ago, the story goes that a spotter plane was up there in Ningaloo Reef looking for whalesharks for the boats below, and when they spotted one, they radioed the boats. One of those boats launched their snorkelers. Upon seeing the shark, the snorkelers were alleged to have hydroplaned back to the boat when they realized that the whaleshark turned out to be a big tiger.