How's the diving up in Darwin?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

John2006

Registered
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
I'm planning on visiting a friend in Sydney for a couple of weeks in August. We're talking about heading up to Darwin for 4-5 days, and I was wondering how the diving was up there. Any options for diving any of the WW2 wrecks with a decent dive operation?

Thanks,
John
 
All I saw were salt water crocs there... but I didn't actually go in the water!
 
Our ship divers were getting ready to do a hull inspection, their required monthly dive, while we were in Darwin. They asked the harbormaster if there were any sharks, he grinned and said, "Nah, the crocs eat em". They didn't know if he was kidding or not and decided to pass.

There are signs at the boat ramps telling you not to launch your boat at the same time every day, so the crocs don't see a pattern.
 
hahah... hubby and i might be heading that way ourselves for a few days...sight seeing only as diving with crocs isnt my thing

but these guys might be able to help you; http://www.divedarwin.com/

let us know how you go when you get there!
 
There are some very nice wreaks in Darwin Harbour - left over from Japanese bombing raids in WW2 and Cyclone Tracy. Most of the dive ops should go to them.

Friends who have dived there have metioned strong tides, with a short window for diving, and relatively low vis: but it sounds worth it.

Cheers,
Rohan.
 
Darwin has very big tides and is all mud.
Dive Darwin do a good job I am told (Was cullen bay dive centre)
 
I can second Dive Darwin, and yes tides play a large part in planning your diving day.
 
Don't worry, you would be exceedingly unlucky to encounter a croc while diving in Darwin. There are crocs in the harbour but they are really keen on lazing around in creeks and mangroves. I admit it's not a very comforting thought that there is even a slim possibility of seeing one, but diving in the harbour is not at all equivalent to jumping in a river, where your chances would be rather poor! Have only heard of one instructor up here who ever saw a croc, and it swam away. Diving not possible every day due to tides, but Dive Darwin and Coral Divers should be able to give you a Schedule in advance.
 
As stated in an earlier post, dives are dictated by the tides. There can be very large tidal flows up in the top end, up to 8 metres. This stirs up the silt and makes visibility quite low. They mostly dive on smaller tides so that the visiblity is better, but it is still only about 5 to 10 metres. Saying that though the diving is really good with heaps of wrecks to explore. The people are really friendly I recommend Coral Divers. I learnt to dive with them and they are a gret bunch of people with heaps of local knowledge
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom