🇦🇺 Australia

Australia is a major scuba-diving destination thanks to its long coastline and reef systems, with conditions that vary a lot by region. Most diving is in salt water along the Pacific and Indian Ocean margins. The best-known area is Queensland, where divers base themselves around Cairns and the Sunshine Coast for access to the Great Barrier Reef, including shallow coral gardens and deeper drop-offs, with typical warm-water visibility that can be very good in the dry season. In New South Wales, diving is generally cooler and depends more on currents and seasonality, with rocky reefs and sheltered bays more common than large tropical reefs. Western Australia offers strong ocean diving along the coast, with temperate-to-warm conditions depending on the site, and many opportunities for boat dives. For inland freshwater diving, options exist in some areas but are not the main focus of Australian scuba travel, so most divers plan around coastal salt-water sites.