Diving Australia in April (GBR, Cairns, Around Darwin?)

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adad28

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Hello Everyone,

I hope you can help me with some suggestions. We are planning to travel to Australia for 16 effective days. We are thinking to focus in the north (around Kimberly), blue mountains, 2 days Sidney and a few days for diving.

First question, How are the 2 first weeks of April for diving in Australia?
what diving areas are recommended? Cairns/outer reef/GBR are good options?
What about around Darwin, Kimberley, or on the way to Cairns?

We might consider to do a 2-3 Days LOB in some of the outer reef area if the season and timing allows us. But if there are any other areas we could visit that are accessible and make sense for such a short trip I would appreciate your feedback.

First time diving in Australia!

Thanks all
 
Darwin doesnt have a whole lot
To offer for diving. You can dive there but its very tidal, vis will never be anymore than 3-5m.
April is a good time to dive. Heading towards winter for us which is when the water tends to clear up and be more predictable.


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North West/Kimberleys you have quite a few options. Rowley Shoals, Montebelo Islands, Mackerel Islands and Dampier Archipeligo. Im sure there are more options but Rowley and the Montebellos are excellent diving - Rowley shoals has some fast drift thats are heaps of fun. I would recommend Rowley shoals if you can get a LOB in the timeframe you are looking for. Further up around Wyndham - Faraway Bay area I dont think you see many divers, but you see a lot of crocs.

Rowley Shoals - Australia's North West
 
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Thanks both!

I will definitely check out the Rowley Shoals in the North West.

I haven't found much information regarding diving around the GBR in the first weeks of april. I just find the advertisement from operators mentioning you can dive all year round, I'm sure you could, but i but info isn't very specific. What can we expect to see in terms of fish during these first two weeks of the month? what about visibility? wind/currents? are most operators working during these dates? is there any other thread I could refer to in this forum? anyone that can recommend dive sites considering the time of the year?

If its my first time diving to Australia, where would you go for diving a few days... also thinking i might not be able to come back soon!

Thanks a lot for the information!
 
look for climatic charts rather than operator information.

It's not a bad time of the year to dive. the monsoon season is roughly speaking December to March. so you might get some rain, you might not.

as for life, I think around then the smaller fish are starting to come out and as always there are heaps of nudies (if you're into them). other than that, there's the usual.... jacks, reef sharks, a great array of reef fish and life. above the day boat reefs the reef is very healthy.


there is no way in the world you'd catch me diving anywhere near darwin. it's Croc country.
 
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If you are limited to a time frame diving the top end of Aus will take you a fair amount of time - its a big place!. Port Hedland or Broome boats leaving for Rowley Shoals and Montebellos would mean at the least a flight up to Hedland or Broome after a flight to Ningaloo unless you wanted to spend 4 days driving time, perhaps you might be better looking at GBR - have you heard about Osprey Reef?

The Entrance - Osprey Reef - Great Barrier Reef, Cairns - YouTube
 
Thanks Wingy... Seems Australia needs too many visits and better planning if you want to match non diving and diving activities...

As for GBR I contacted Spirit of Freedom but they aren't operating at the time. Seems there aren't many companies doing the north part... And reviews on Takka arent great (not to mention diving prices in Australia). I checked out Rowley Shoals, they look impressive but i almost faint when I saw the LOB prices...

Now I don't know what to do... as the rest of the operators just do day trips from Port Douglas... and we would like to go a further than a day trip. Perhaps we should reschedule to another time of the year... As its also hard to swim at the beach due the box jelly season around Broom, plus crocs, etc.. never thought i had to consider so many things to visit Australia :shocked2:
 

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