This section is home to some very good coral reefs for
scuba diving and snorkelling. Diving is easy and perfect
for beginners.
These reefs are home to abundant fish life and healthy
coral. Due to a vigorous code of practice by all operators,
those heavily visited reefs are in very good condition.
This is very good tropical diving, especially if you have
not dived tropical reefs before. However, if you want to
see the best of tropical diving in Australia, you need to
travel a little further to areas like the Ribbon Reefs or
in the Coral Sea. Experienced tropical divers will appreciate
the pristine dive sites that are the reward of the extra
time and distances travelled.
Location
The reefs are located around 50 - 65 km (30 to 40 miles)
off the coast from Cairns or Port Douglas (90-120 minutes
by boat). Out of Cairns you can visit reefs like Norman,
Saxon, Hastings, Flynn and Milln Reef. The most popular
reefs out of Port Douglas are Tongue and Opal and Agincourt
Reef.
In only 45 minutes you can drive from Cairns to Port Douglas
by car or bus. The coastal road is a scenic treat that you
should not miss! Transfers between the towns can easily
be organised.
Logistics For Dive Excursions
It is easy to get to these inner reef sites. You have the
choice of day trips to the reef and over-night live aboard
trips. The dive school live aboards visit the reefs out
of Cairns. With them you can take 1 to 5 night excursions.
They have mostly open water students and snorkellers on
board, but they do cater for certified divers as well.
If you prefer to take a day trip, take one of the fast
vessels that travel at 20-24 knots to the reef and you will
arrive at the reef within 90 minutes. Day boats out of Port
Douglas allow up to 3 dives per day. You receive a concise
dive briefing and a dive master to guide you on the dives.
With day trips out of Cairns, up to 3 dives per day are
offered. A good dive site and safety briefing is given and
a buddy allocated, if you do not already have one.
What To See
Features of these reefs are pinnacles, lagoons, drop-offs,
caves & gutters and very pretty coral gardens. The reefs
display a huge variety of tropical marine life with big
schools of colourful reef fish such as parrotfish, sweetlips
and others. You may see also blue spotted stingrays in the
sand, eels, octopus, molluscs, flatworms and sea stars.
Pelagics are rather rare. You might come across small
whitetip sharks and with a bit of luck barracudas or grey
reef sharks. The typical features for the GBR are the beautiful
giant clams. There are many clams, all adorned with different
colours.
Types Of Diving
Diving here is pretty easy, ideal for novice divers. Hardly
any currents, and the best diving is to be found in the
shallows, where most of the activitiy is happening. Maximum
depth is between 15 and 30 meters (45-100 feet), average
depth about 18 metres. The reef tops come up to about 2
to 4 meters below the surface - ideal for snorkellers as
well. Average visibility is about 10 to 20 meters (30-60
feet), on a very good day even 30 meters (100 feet).
Dive Sites Out Of Cairns
- Milln Reef: "Whale Bommie" is located 100 metres
out from the main reef and starts in 25m of water. Small
caves and large gorgonian fans along with hard and soft
corals and many, many tropical fish can be found here.
"The Swimming Pool" is a shallow dive, 10-12 m offering
a large selection of fish and corals. This is a very nice
site for night dives too.
- Flynn Reef: "The Coral Gardens" is a unique dive
site and as its name implies, divers are rewarded with
a "garden" of coral incorporating a wall dive, dropping
off to 27 metres. Along the wall you might see barracuda,
mackerel, stingrays, turtles and sharks. One of the best
dives in that price range out of Cairns!
- Gordon's Reef: This reef has excellent corals
and some turtles. It has its share of swim throughs. It
is almost like being in a maze. There is one spot with
beautiful anemones with clown fish, called "Clownfish
city".
- Saxon Reef: Saxon Reef is quite large with over
20 moorings, meaning 20 different dive sites. For example,
you can do a wall dive or shallow dive, with the wall
ending in 8 metres of water. In the sandy area, you come
across a number of small coral heads, which have all sorts
of interesting creatures living on them - nudibranchs,
the odd lionfish and damselfish.
- Norman Reef: Fantastic Swim throughs and gullies.
Beautiful hard coral gardens with many giant clams in
all sizes and colours. During your dive you might come
across a huge maori wrasse or a few friendly batfish.
- Michaelmas Reef: A beautiful sandy cay (Michaelmas
Cay) with the reef close to it. There are a couple of
dive sites at Michaelmas Reef. You dive amongst coral
bommies where you find sea stars, batfish, lionfish, turtles
and more.
Dive Sites Out Of Port Douglas
Reefs such as Agincourt Reef, Tongue Reef, Opal Reef are
visited by the day vessels. The dive sites are comparable
with the sites in the Cairns area however, the visibility
is often a bit better in the Port Douglas area.
- Agincourt Reef: There are about 16 diferent dive
spots at Agincourt Reef, and they are superb. This is
the best diving you can get during a day trip. "Nursey
Bommie" is a large coral head in 24 metres, with pretty,
spiky soft coral. While cruising aroud the bommie you
might meet the huge 2 resident moray eels that live here.
There is no shortage of giant clams and anemones with
their clown fish.
- Tongue Reef: There are some large plate corals
at Tongue Reef. Sweetlips like to hide underneath them.
A 35 kg (87 lbs) maori wrasse might be waiting for you
under the boat and follow you during the dive. He is hoping
to get something to eat, as the dive masters feed him
from time to time. The giant clams here are quite large
and extraordinarly pretty.
Seasonal Events
November - Coral Spawning: Coral Spawning is often
called "Sex on the reef". That's what it is! Each year,
corals release their eggs and sperm at the same time which
makes for a visual feast for the voracious scuba diver !
It usually happens 4 nights after the first full moon in
November. It is an impressive event and night dives are
spectacular. A lot of critters are active, as this is a
feast for all reef dwelling creatures!
Live Aboard Dive Operators
This
is the most prominent and most visited area of the entire
Barrier Reef. The reefs in this section are closest to the
coast and easily visited by day trips and short overnight
trips out of Cairns - very handy if you do not have much
time for diving. 
Independent
