Diving from Brisbane to Cairns

[aideen]

My partner and I are driving from Brisbane to Cairns this June.

We are really stuck for time and have to do the trip in 9 days.

We thought we would get some dives in along the way then do a 2day/1 night liveaboard from Cairns at the end of the trip.
Any suggestions for diving with very little time on our hands. Day dive in Whitsundays? Any other spots?

Is it worth doing a liveaboard from Cairns or would we get better diving further south/north?

Sorry for very naive questions... but I see all different kinds of opinions on over crowding of GBR etc.

Aideen

 

[h3o]

IMO, the best place for a daytrip dive between Brisbane in Cairns would be the Yongola Wreck off of Townsville. If you haven't heard, it is considered one of Australia's single best dives. The wreck is really secondary to the amount of marine life there. Many people say they saw more on one dive at Yongala than they did the entire time in Australia.

 

[Roz Amos]

Or, you could do a liveaboard out of Townsville rather than Cairns, and include the Yongala in that - there are several ops that offer 2 or 3 days out of Townsville, with 4 reef dives and a couple on the Yongala. Given that you will be doing a short trip, the reef sites will probably be just as good as those out of Cairns, and many of these are pretty reasonably priced. In my experience, the short trips out of Cains are not particularly worth it - the coral at many of the day sites is pretty bad, and there are likely to be lots of divers and often lots of OW courses/ discover scuba divers crash landing on you.

Other places to think about doing the odd day from - the Whitsundays, Bundaberg, Wolf Rock.

 

[h3o]

i agree with roz about the mediocre reefs that the day trip boats visit out of Cairns.

 

[ns2ny]

Last time we were there, we did some trips out of Gladstone and were very happy. Mainly hit Heron Is (again) but there are plenty of other locations available out of there.

david

 

[aideen]

We may try a 2day/1night liveaboard around Whitsundays. I would be keen to dive yongala. Any advise on dive operators. I assume it is better to dive from near Ayr rather than Townsville as it would be a shorter trip to oout on the boat.

I have heard good things too about Bundaberg. We may try a day tour from there. Again any advise on operators?

 

[DiverDebbie]

I was just in Australia in Feb/March (travelled up the coast from Melbourne to Cairns)
Pre certification I did a discover scuba dive on a day trip from Bundaberg to Lady Musgrave Island (a little uninhabited coral cay). I only did the shallow lagoon which was the best first dive a person could ask for! Certs who went to sites further out seemed to enjoy the diving there too. It's a beautiful spot for a day trip. You can go out of Town of 1770/Agnes water as well (if there are enough people)
I finished my certified (by referral) on the outer reef outside of the Whitsundays (left from Airlie Beach) on a 3 day/3 night liveaboard. It was great and no one else was around, but I don't know if they do shorter trips, as it took us overnight on a fast boat to get there. I don't recommend diving IN the Whitsundays. They are incredible islands to sail around, but the diving isn't the best, as many people say, and I discovered myself on a dive from the sailboat.
I dove out of Cairns on a day trip. It was good, but not nearly as spectacular as my trip further south.
I also have heard wonderful things about the Yongala. I would do it if I were you. I so wanted to do it, but wasn't advanced enough.... next time

 

[Valwood1]

[Whitsundays. I would be keen to dive yongala. Any advise on dive operators. I assume it is better to dive from near Ayr

Try www.yonagaldive.com.au. It's a fairly new operation operating out of Ayr. The ride is about 45 minutes vs. 2+ hours from Townsville.

Bill

 

[zilch]

If you are stopping over in Airlie Beach (whitsundays), and you want to stick to day diving, suggest you try out Reefjet (which goes from Able Point Marina), i did my O/W with Reef Safari and they try to get out to Bait Reef..However due to the weather conditions we ended up diving off of Hook Island, Maureens Cove and Butterfly Bay, the Coral and Fish life was amazing..Great crew, great laugh and definitely going back next year with them

Cheers

Jim

 

[Mortlock]

But townsville's a dusty, fly blown, rat hole! ;-)

Luckily you won't need to spend much time there if you're going to be diving! If you had time for a longer liveaboard Cairns would be better. As you don't I'd have to agree with most of these guys and say go from somewhere around Townsville.

Morty