Shore dives for a bum around GBR?

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fuzzybabybunny

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Messages
325
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Location
Australia
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100 - 199
I'm going to be in Aus (Melbourne) for a few months to ski and hopefully to dive later on. I'm from Northern California and in the past I have been able to live out of my car and do 4 great shore dives a day up in Monterey for like $20 total (obviously Aus would be more due to tank and weight rental).

I'm wondering if shore diving is possible around the GBR area? One guy I spoke to has done three trips out to GBR and says there is ZERO shore diving and it's all just jellyfish soup. I would have to do a liveaboard and shell out $1k+ for 3-5 days. Since I could theoretically be there for a couple of MONTHS, regular boat diving simply won't be economical...
 
regular boat diving simply won't be economical...

you can forget diving in that part of the world then. it's bloody expensive by anyone's standards. in the north, there is not much visibility inshore, as in zero, and you stand a very good chance of being eaten by a saltwater crocodile.
 
No, no real shore diving on the GBR per se. It's about 1.5-2 hours offshore to even really get to the GBR in most places. There's some shore diving to be had around North Queensland, but it's not really "GBR" diving. I live in Townsville and do shore dive, but you're looking at a 2-3 hour drive each way to do it, and it's shallow, low viz, and nothing noteworthy - done out of sheer boredom occasionally.

To get to the GBR itself requires a boat. Or a bigger boat (liveaboard) if you want to get to the really good stuff. Also, given that you mention skiing, presumably you'll be here in winter, so the "jellyfish soup" you refer to isn't entirely accurate - that's more of a summer phenomenon.
 
Hmmm... Are there any islands that I can stay on? I heard that diving off the mainland isn't that great, but shore diving off of an island is ok. Maybe a cheap hostel bunk bed arrangement on the island?
 
Heron or Lady Elliot on the southern part of the GBR would be your only real options for that. However they're not "cheap" (AUD$250+ per night just for accommodation). You'll be needing to stay in the island resort, there is no hostel accommodation. And that also means you'll be forced to pay resort dive shop rates. And camping is more or less prohibited, so that's not exactly an option either. Nothing on the GBR is cheap.
 
I see. It looks like if I want to do GBR I need to save up money and just do a special, short trip out of it.

What about shore diving in other places along the Aussie coast? I heard that Sydney is pretty good?
 
I haven't been there since 2001 but as have said, shore diving is lousy and you need to get to the outer reef for the best diving. Fortunately when I was there the US dollar was strong against the Aussie currency (2:1) so things were reasonably cheap. Maybe wait until (if?) the US dollar gets a lot stronger?
 
The GBR was named "Great" for it's size, not necessarily quality. There was a review of GBR diving once which referred to it as the "pretty Good Barrier Reef." Be aware less expensive options for a few days at the so-called "outer reef" are still going to areas relatively close and IMO not all that great. The good stuff is a much longer haul and pretty much the territory of the week long and expensive liveaboards. So you could easily spend what seems like an awful lot on a backpackers budget and wind up disappointed - you'll have technically dove on the GBR, but not actually anywhere near the places that made it famous.

You can do 3 or 4 nights on the Spirit of Freedom, which spends all it's time diving the good stuff - basically a half segment of their standard weekly run. But it's not a cheap boat and they don't come back to mainland port in the middle of the week - you fly out to meet the boat. So that's a timesaving but not so much moneysaving feature. TAKA is a somewhat more budget oriented boat which runs 3 and 4 night trips from Cairns that will get you a taste of the good stuff (and also some of the less good stuff) but it's still far from cheap.

I think you'd do better just focusing on the best diving you can get in Australia on your budget, which will probably involve some boats, and not get hung up on diving the GBR specifically.
 
You don’t have to shell out that much money for Outer Reef diving. As said already, the best stuff is by far the Ribbon Ref areas which are a long way from cairns (the centre really of GBR trips), and you usually fly one way (included in the price) due to the distance. These are all over AUD$1,000 per person.

Outer Ref stuff is still quite good in a lot of places and you can do day trips as well as 2 or 3 day over night trips.

For you it would probably be more economical to do an overnight on something like Kangaroo Explorer which is a "budget" trip compared to Ocean Quest and Scubapro which are newer boats with an arguably better service.

For a 2 day 1 night trip with 6 dives its around AUD$600 with the taxes. This includes equipment, food and accommodation etc. So if you added up accommodation and food plus hire of tanks etc. for shore dives it’s not that bad. Obviously more expensive that shore diving, but you will get a better experience.
 
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