Heron Island is in the Southern Section of Great Barrier Reef, North East off the coast of Gladstone. Gladstone is 534 kilometers north of Brisbane (a 6 hour drive). There is a boat transfer service over to Heron Island and also a helicopter service.

I have a friend who’s been diving from Heron Island and said it was one of the most beautiful places he’s dived. There are over 20 dive sites, so Scuba Divers can easily enjoy up to 3 full dives a day and an occasional night dive too.

Here’s what AusEscapes.com.au say about a Scuba Diving Vacation at Heron Island

“Heron Island Resort is one of the few Queensland island resorts situated right on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. It’s what you don’t see around Heron Island that makes the resort so special. You won’t see any buildings above the tree line. And you won’t bump into any daytrippers either. The reef experience on Heron is exclusively for guests, a unique experience few other resorts in the world can offer. There’s a relaxed island lifestyle that sets Heron Island Resort apart, a sophisticated yet casual resort atmosphere. Here the emphasis is on exploring and discovering the natural attractions that have made Heron famous around the world.

You’ll enjoy some of the world’s best reef diving. There’s a choice of spectacular sites just minutes from the beach, and can you imagine a better place to learn to dive? There is no need for day trips to the Great Barrier Reef, because you are already there! So you can easily enjoy 2 dives a day. There are over twenty different dive sites close to Heron Island.

Join a guided reef walk to learn more about the unique ecology of the Great Barrier Reef or snorkel off the beach and come face to face with the kaleidoscope of marine life just below the surface. Enjoy a day trip to explore an uninhabited coral cay or just spend the day lazing by the pool. At night there’s live entertainment, dancing or a quiet drink in the Pandanus lounge. All meals are included in your tariff and the Saturday night seafood buffet comes highly recommended. You’ll find a range of accommodation to suit your budget. As you would expect, Heron Island takes great pride in maintaining their high standards of food and service.”

And, we dived on it!  We were there the day after the 2nd anniversary of it being sunk.  It was very exciting to see the ship and I took some movie of our first dive.  The second dive, we went inside the Engine room, but I didn’t take the camera down for that dive.

The ship was sunk especially for divers to play on, so it was a very easy dive. Very long ship - 33 metres long and the deepest end is only 27 metres.

Here’s the movie I took, can’t see much of me because I haven’t learnt to take good shots of myself yet:-)

 

I heard some news that sounds Exciting. The Gold Coast council ( in Queensland Australia ) are considering the sinking of a large navy vessel and some other things like old planes, cranes and some other stuff.

If this is done, the Gold Coast Seaway will become one of the best scuba diving spots in Australia, because people can just walk down the rocks to go diving there. Having an artificial reef will make this spot really really popular!!

Here is an article in the Gold Coast Bulletin about Spitting Distance to Best Dive Spot

I am looking forward to seeing this happening!!

Most people have probably heard of Cairns in the north of Queensland. Port Douglas is about an hour north of Cairns.
Port Douglas - top of Queensland and still part of the Great Barrier Reef.

Undersea Explorer take Scuba Divers to Ribbon Reefs, Cod Hole and Osprey Reef on their LiveAboard boat.

At North Horn, Osprey Reef, where the currents meet, they all see the large schools of tuna, barracuda and sharks - white tips, grey and silver tip whalers, leopard sharks, thresher sharks and schooling hammerheads. There are also Manta Rays.

Undersea Explorer have been studying sharks at Osprey Reef since 1995 and their researchers capture the sharks underwater while guest observe, then bring them to the surface for measurement and tagging. Read more here about a Scuba Diving Vacation on the Undersea Explorer around North East shores of Australia.

Read more about a
Scuba Diving Vacation Port Douglas

Scuba Diving Vacations in Australia - Great Barrier Reef

A Scuba Diving Vacation at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is something many divers dream about. There are approximately 2,000 individual reefs and 71 coral islands, scattered in the ocean.

OzDive say that Scuba Divers will get the most value if they go on a Live Aboard boat trip, because most of the best spots are quite a distance from the shorelines. They provide a list of Live Aboard Boat Dive Operators here for a

Scuba Diving Vacation at Great Barrier Reef Australia. The list is a great place to start looking and many of them have specials on offer at certain times of the year too.

I started looking at the Tourist like websites, and they’re all so good, and there’s so many, it must be difficult to choose which one to go with. Here’s a Great Barrier Reef Map

I found some reviews of the Great Barrier Reef which have been written by people who’ve been there themselves. Read the reviews about a Scuba Diving Vacation Great Barrier Reef

Scuba Diving vacation a Live Aboard at Moreton Bay.

This is a story about my first Scuba Diving vacation a Live Aboard Trip, and it’s going to be the first of many trips. I loved it!!

Here’s a picture of the boat we went on - The Big Cat Reality.

We arrived at the boat about 9 pm on a Monday night, and loaded all our gear on board. I found a bunk in the “ladies” room - 14 berths in each room downstairs. The crew sleep upstairs in part of the wheel house.

Not much unpacking to do and the beds were all made up. I climbed into bed a couple of hours after the boat took off, wanting to get a good nights sleep ready for diving the next day.

Funny, I’ve never gone to sleep on a boat and I let the movement rock me to sleep.

I was woken up at 1 am by some wierd noise, and thought it must be time to wake up. The boat stopped in a safe haven for a few hours, then at 5:30 am the engines started up and we took off for our first dive spot. I just lay back in bed enjoying the rocking and waiting for the rooster alarm I’d been told about.

The “rooster” came on at 7 o’clock, then music - “who Let the Dogs Out”. It was so funny!!!

Read the rest of the story about a
Scuba Diving vacation Moreton Bay