Scuba Diving & Snorkelling

Moreton Island, is the ideal place for your next dive trip with rich offshore reefs, several shipwrecks and an impressive variety of marine life and the water is clear year round.

Dive or snorkell the Curtin Artificial Reef and the Tangalooma Wrecks, both manmade and closer to shore making for of the best viewing of marine life. Most diving is done on the north side of Moreton Island where you can find Flinders Reef, the only true coral reef near Brisbane accessible by boat. The rocky outcrop Smiths Rock has turned out to be a hazard for ships. This has resulted in several wrecks, such as the Saint Paul, Marietta Dal and the Aarhus. The crystal clear waters at Moreton Island offer fine conditions for scuba divers and snorkellers.

FLINDERS REEF

Most diving is done to the north of the Island at Flinders Reef. Flinders Reef is the only true coral reef in the area. Located about 5km northwest of Cape Moreton, there are more than 175 species of fish and at least 112 different coral species at Flinders Reef. The diving is good all around the reef on walls, swim throughs, ledges, gutters, caves and pinnacles scattered in depths from 3m to 28m.

Abundant coral growths of staghorn, brain, plate and many other hard coral species, as well as soft corals, gorgonians, sponges and sea whips are found in the shallow waters. You will find plenty of reef fish, turtles, stingrays, wobbegong sharks and the occasional manta ray. If you are Scuba Diving at Flinders Reef during Whale Season you might be lucky enough to hear a whale song echoing through the water.

CURTIN ARTIFICIAL REEF

Named after Frank Curtin, a member of the Underwater Research Group of Queensland, who have been sinking large vessels, concrete pipes, vehicles, pontoons and tyres at the site since 1968 to create the Curtin Artificial Reef. To date there have been a total of 32 ships laid to rest on this site with the last one, The Hustler sunk on the 13th September 1998.
Today the reef is abundant with marine life , tropical fish, gropers, turtles, wobbegong sharks, stingrays, and many schooling fish like barracuda and trevally which will almost always be seen. This artificial reef is famous for giant groper that inhabit these waters. Most of the wrecks have been cleared of obstructions and can be safely entered and explored. The reef is just off Cowan Cowan on the western side of Moreton Island, marked by 2 white signs at the north and south end of the reef on the beach. Depth ranges from about 16 meters to the 27 metre sand bottom, the tops of some wrecks are only 12 meters deep.

THE WRECKS

Fifteen vessels were deliberately sunk to form a breakwall for small boats and a wreck dive and snorkel site. Snorkelling and scuba diving at this site is an amazing experience. The crystal clear waters provide fantastic visibility to view an abundants of marine life and coral formations such as wobbegongs, trevally, kingfish, yellowtail and an array of tropical fish. The Wrecks offer every diving environment in one dive, including reef, wreck, drift and naturalist, in an average of about 12 metres of clear water. You can swim from the beach out to the wrecks. See more on the Tangalooma Wrecks

THE CAR BODIES

Located near the south end of Bulwer township on the western side of Moreton Island about 80m off beach with depths of 8-10m, this is a small artificial reef that consists of old car dumped off the barges back in the 80's. "The Bus" is the heavily encrusted remains of an old bus Home to a range of fish including morays , wobbegong, red emperor and other small fish. Further along is the remains of a VW Beetle, old cut open gas cylinders and a pile of old tyres. You will have to swim across the sand to move between the wrecks these lie approx east, and north and south east of the bus itself. The wreckage can be dived from the beach but can be hard to find the first time.

BULWER WRECKS

The Bulwer Wrecks provide great snorkelling with depths from 1-2m, with the dropoff 5m out from the wrecks. There are 3 sunken ship in this area two coming directly out of the beach and one at the back parallel to the beach. Even in this shallow water, the wrecks attract an amazing amount of marine life, including wobbegongs, bream, whiting and lots of tropical fish.