East Coast Diving?

[Amphibious]

A trip to Aus in the works. not interested in scuba, and with that in mind is there any "Must Dive" spots on the east Coast? Spent LOTS of time diving the tropics, so something new and unusual would be nice.

[BennyB]

If you are in northern Queensland then definitely give the Great Barrier Reef a go.

But if you want to get away from the tropical thing...

If in New South Wales, i've heard Byron Bay is great, Sydney has some interesting dives, and south of Sydney Jervis Bay is pretty good. Around Sydney there's a few shipwrecks that can be freedived. The only one i've done is the Valiant, off the northern beaches (Palm Beach specifically).It sits on a sand bed at about 26m. ADR from this forum posted some photos in the OzFreediving forum a while back at www.ozfreediving.com.

A navy boat was scuttled off the Queensland coast a few months ago - it's open for divers. I believe it's off the Sunshine Coast (maybe Mooloolaba). Contact the Brisbane City Council as I think they administer that sort of thing.

Also go to these forums to ask around-
www.extremespearfishing.com.au (good range of QLD and NSW divers)
www.spearfishing.com.au (mostly QLDbased)
www.spearfishing.net.au (good range of QLD and NSW divers)

These websites are spearfishing based but have a few resident freedivers hanging around. Ozfreediving is the only one dedicated to freediving.

What time of year are you planning?

Cheers,
Ben

[Amphibious]

right on, will check those out. intend to do some spearing. will be spending a couple days going from Brisbane to Coffs and diving some beaches. Camping overnight at Byron Bay is on the list. Going to try to get up north for a few days at least.

thanks!

[Erik]

Willer, talk to Stu on Altasub too, he's done some good spots on that side.
Peace,
Erik Y.

[BennyB]

Hey I used to live real close to Coffs, gods country

If you are heading down that way then definitely get in touch with some guys on those websites I posted, particularly Extremespearfishing. There's a spot an hour's drive south of Coffs called South West Rocks, near Kempsey. Its got great spearing if you know where to go. The guys on the Extreme forum (look up Ash or Judge) go there regularly. Another spot about 3 hours south of Coffs is Seal Rocks, near Forster. It has great spearing and is very accessible from shore.

Coffs has great spearing offshore, not sure about shore based though. Just north about half hour drive is a place called Woolgooga, it has some good waters too.

Keep in mind that you need a fishing license in NSW, (these can be bought for about USD$5-15 for a week, month or year... no license needed in QLD) and in both QLD and NSW there are some species protected from all fishing, and some specifically from spearfishing (I got fined once in QLD for catching a fish that would have been a legal size in NSW ). There are also marine parks and other areas off limits to spearing around Byron and scattered around the coast of NSW. Have a look on http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries for NSW and www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/ for Queensland.

Have fun!

[lungfish]

Hi,
Port Douglas in NQueensland is a great jumpoff. I take the dive boat "Posiedon", they were quite freediver friendly if you have a partner. There are several other tour operators that are worth checking out. I go there two or three times per year....

Managed to get a couple of special swims. Got dropped off for a solo drift a quarter mile off the ribbon reefs at Opal reef and did a long solo swim (several miles) back to the boat on the incoming tide. WOW!!!! The fish life is crazy out there. Had very close encounters with lotsa neat critters...

Got lots a pics, drop me a PM.

[loopy]

Will - drop me a line