I can dive for two days and need advice

[bbaulier]

I'm planning a trip to the South Pacific next year, and part of that vacation will include several days in Australia. We are just now developing our itinerary, so nothing is off the table yet. I've negotiated for two days of diving while in Australia, and am looking for advice on where I should direct our group. There will be four of us traveling, but, I'm the only diver. That being said, I'd like there to be interesting shoreside things for the others in my group to see/do while I'm taking pictures underwater. So my question to the group is where do you recommend we go, if I'll only be in this part of the world for a few days, and won't get to ever dive here again. We're planning to be there in May 2016. Also, if there are any specific dive operators you would recommend connecting with, I'd be great flu to hear about the. Thank you in advance...Brian

 

[Wingy]

You first need to decide on which states you will be in Australia. You cant dive both sides of Australia in a few days. Once you have a destination there are dive spots nearby

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

That's a very open question! Like Wingy says Australia is a big place with an incredible diversity of diving.
I take it as the others in your party are not diving a live aboard is out of the question.
There are tons of threads on this forum about various locations, so maybe post where you intend to travel.
If Queensland for the GBR then you have cairns offereing varous day trips, Ayr has teh Yongala wreck as a day trip and nearby Sirlie Beach is a good tourist destination for the others.
Many Islands you can stay on e.g Heron, Lady Musgrave etc

 

[bbaulier]

I understand what you're saying, and perhaps I was unclear in my original post. Although I'm the only diver, I will get to choose where in Australia we stay, as long as there are some activities for the non-divers while I'm underwater. So if you only had two days to dive in Australia, where would you go?

A little about me- I'm an advanced diver living in Florida. I go shark diving about twice per month out of Jupiter, FL, and get down to the Keys several times per year for reef/wreck dives.

Thanks for taking the time to reply...Brian

 

[Wingy]

Hypothetically if you chose to dock in Sydney - distances will be your main factor. In Perth on the west coast Im 4110km away, and from here, the best diving at Ningaloo would be another 1700km north so roughly 5800km.
If you chose to dive the Yongala Wreck or some GBR sites you would need to get from Sydney to Cairns which would be 2730km.
If you chose to go for a cage dive with great whites in South Australia it would be approx 1400km.
If you chose to do sites out of Brisbane it would take you 1010km then onwards to the reef and islands.
You could dive the kelp forests in Tasmania but that is a 1611km trip that requires your car to be ferried across and is approx 30 hours travel time.
Sydney or Melbourne would offer your non diving companions the best variety of activities while QLD has the theme parks.....Perth has Rottnest Island where your topside friends could chill and you could dive but not a lot of the quintessential aussie landmarks your friends may want to see. Adelaide has lots of churches for your friends to pray in. Melbourne has lots of cafes and shops. Canberra has a bunch of idiots arguing in parliament so you probably wouldn't want to go there.
Theres 47000km of coastline with often a lot of nothing in between cities.

 

[Wobbegong wannabe]

Canberra has a bunch of idiots arguing in parliament so you probably wouldn't want to go there.

And lots of dives, unfortunately none of them are underwater...

Seriously though, Wingy's right. Distance will be the problem when it comes to the great dives in Australia. Your non-diving friends probably won't thank you for parking them in Exmouth (Ningaloo), Ayr (Yongala) or South West Rocks (Fish Rock Cave) because they're all small places that don't have much to do except dive. IMO Townsville and Brisbane are also borderline in this respect, although they're nice enough cities there are not a lot in the way of visitor attractions (much as their respective tourist boards would like to claim otherwise). You may face a mutiny.

Driving to any of these places apart from Brisbane takes an overnight trip or longer from the relevant capital city unless you're trying to stage an Australian version of the movie Vanishing Point (and he didn't have time for diving), so isn't feasible if you've only got a couple of days. If your friends are happy to stay in a small and rustic beachside place you could stay at Port Macquarie and commute up to South West Rocks, but again... a bit borderline IMO when it comes to non diving entertainment, and you'd have to drive from Sydney or Brisbane (about 550 km one way from either) unless you want to pay a fortune for regional domestic airfares.

Perth is a very nice city to visit and has diving. Likewise Sydney and Melbourne, and for non-divers with only a few days in Australia these three cities are probably the most interesting/entertaining. That said, it depends on what they'd like to do. Adelaide may also be an option but I know absolutely nothing about it... no doubt someone else will have suggestions! Certainly it's regarded as a nice place and I think it has shark diving?

If they're happy to enjoy the beach, sit beside a nice pool and see a few local attractions you could go to Port Douglas or Cairns and dive while they do that. Likewise the Island resorts; Lady Elliott Island has a good reputation for diving, though I haven't been there myself. IME the day diving off Port Douglas is nicer than what's on offer off Cairns, but they're both pleasant days out and in any case the PD operators can pick you up in a bus from Cairns.

Byron Bay or the Sunshine Coast would be other beachy options. In Byron you could dive Julian Rocks (and maybe do a day trip down to Wooli) while your companions enjoy laid back gentrified hippy stuff like day spas, beaches and art galleries. Noosa (Sunshine Coast) is another beach resort where you could dive the HMAS Brisbane and your friends could relax at the beach and visit the national park. Both are popular with international tourists and have good diving. Byron is 2-3 hours drive from Brisbane Airport, and Noosa is about 1.5 hours from there and has limited domestic flights into Maroochydore Airport. Both areas have good restaurants, accomodation and are well set up for visitors.

Anyway, just my two cents. If you do a bit of googling you can see if the attractions in those places would suit you and your companions. Or you could sign them up for an OW Course and convert them to the cause!

 

[DavidFL]

I have made several business trips to Australia and had a similar dilemma...just 2 or 3 days to dive, and sometimes with non-divers in a group. My choice: fly to Cairns; rent a car; go up and stay in or near Port Douglas. There are good day boats out of Port Douglas that go up to the Agincourt Ribbon Reefs in the GBR. There is also a rain forest and plenty of other stuff for non-divers to do. My last two iterations of this trip have been in the May / June time frame...similar to yours. I have had one day in which a booked/scheduled trip was cancelled the day before because of weather conditions (high seas/winds) but otherwise they have gone off like clockwork.

 

[WetPup]

I've recently relocated to Townsville, and while it's got a couple of things to do for non-divers (there's a wildlife sanctuary nearby and Magnetic Island...but that's about it), it's convenient if you want to dive the Yongala wreck near Ayr. There's not really much snorkelling around for the non-divers though.

Having had family come to visit me here from Europe not too long ago, we chose to go to Cairns for a few days instead of hanging around here. In Cairns, the non-divers can go out with you on the day trip boats and snorkel or do glass bottom boat rides while you're scuba diving. They can take day trips up to Kuranda on the skyrail, go visit the Daintree rainforest, visit native wildlife sanctuaries, hire a car to visit Port Douglas...

Cairns is probably the most tourist friendly option in Queensland that allows you to dive and for your non-diving friends to have multiple options. It also has good flight connections to most other major cities in Australia.