When most people think of scuba diving, pictures of the Great Barrier Reef, Bali and Vanuatu spring to mind — a tropical paradise teeming with coral and fish. What they don’t always realise is that there’s very likely a wealth of diving opportunities right in their own back yard. It’s not always going to be as colourful, or as warm, but it can still be quite an adventure nonetheless. To that end, I’ve put together a list of some of the dive sites in Adelaide and the surrounding areas, along with a few of my photos and video clips from each one. This list isn’t every dive site around, it’s just the sites that I’ve visited so far. Fortunately, there’s plenty of them to keep me going so I won’t run out any time soon.

Boat Dives

• 

  Aldinga Drop Off

• 

  Aldinga Pinnacles

• 

  ex-HMAS HOBART

• 

  Glenelg Blocks

• 

  Noarlunga Tyre Reef

• 

  Seacliff Reef

• 

  Stanvac Barges

• 

  The Barge

• 

  The Claris

• 

  The Dredge

• 

  The John Robb

• 

  The Lumb

• 

  The Norma

• 

  The Sea Wolf

Shore Dives

• 

  Edithburgh

• 

  Point Lowly

• 

  Port Noarlunga

• 

  Port Victoria

• 

  Rapid Bay

• 

  Second Valley

• 

  Stenhouse Bay

• 

  Wool Bay

To get an idea of where the sites are, here’s a Google Maps representation of the sites I’ve managed to pin down a location for (yellow for sites I’ve visited, blue for sites I haven’t visited, and green for boat ramps):

Dive sites I haven’t visited yet

As mentioned at the top of the page, this list is just the sites that I’ve had the opportunity to visit. There are plenty more sites available to divers in South Australia. Here are some of them, in no particular order (hopefully I’ll get to visit them all at some stage!)

• Somerton Reef
• Grange Tyre Reef
• Glenelg Tyre Reef
• Broken Bottom
• Mac’s Ground
• Milkie’s Reef
• The Bluff
• The Investigator
• The Australian
• Point Turton
• Port Hughes
• Port Giles
• The Songvaar
• The Zanoni
• BHP Jetty
• Ardrossan
• Star of Greece (tried it and missed!)
• AV Ulonga
• Victor Harbor — The Bluff
• Clan Ranald
• Anything near Mt Gambier

Diving is a remarkable sport — being able to visit the underwater world adds a whole new dimension to life.

There are two parts to the Claris, a 12m long boat and a wheelhouse from another boat. The fish are abundant and its quite an interesting spot. It seems very popular with the anglers too. The wrecks lie in 25m of water which means you don’t really have much time to try and find it if you happen to anchor nowhere near the thing (as we found out on one rather uneventful “sand” dive!).

The gurnard perch cover the sandy bottom, so you really need to be careful when settling down on the sand since they are quite well camouflaged. There are bullseyes everywhere in quite large schools, and plenty of magpie perch, moonlighters and the occasional snapper. We even managed to find a 2m wobbegong swimming around us.

Site details

The Claris

The Claris

Gurnard perch

The Claris

Sea gnome

It’s often touted as one of the best local jetty dives around. The long T-shaped steel jetty can pro­vide a very nice, easy dive on a good day. The cur­rent can get pretty strong too, so that’s one thing to watch for.

Over the years, the jetty became has slowly decayed, and has been closed to fish­ers since 2004. A new jetty has been built along­side the old one and was opened in March 2009. Since it’s still new, there’s not that much life on the pylons yet, but in time it will hope­fully blos­som. There’s a great diver’s plat­form near the end of the jetty which makes get­ting in and out a very relaxed affair.

Once you’re in, you can fol­low a line which runs between the two jet­ties. Its a very pretty dive with lots of smaller fish, sponges and nudis all the way along the jetty, and huge schools of fish liv­ing under the T-section. Its also a good place to find both leafy and weedy sea dragons.

Rapid Bay Jetty

Ascidians growing on the pylons

A juvenile leatherjacket

Nudibranch, Ceratosoma brevicaudatum

We’ve just come back from an amazing weekend of diving on the Yorke Peninsula. It has to be one of my favourite places to kick back, relax and get in some fantastic dives.

Our first day was one of adventure. We had no real plans for where to go, it was going to be a “see what we could find” day. We travelled down the coast from Edithburgh and out towards Troubridge Point. We came across a site that could maybe possibly be dived, but the sheer drop from the cliff face was a bit much for us. The decision was made to give a go.

After a fairly long drive, we would up at Innes National Park, and after paying the entry fee we were on our way. We managed to get the key to unlock the bollards and get the trailer down to the jetty. Its quite a drop from the jetty to the water, so it was one-by-one down the ladder and into the water.

Stenhouse Bay Jetty

Descending the Stenhouse ladder

Once in, it proved to be a spectacular dive, one that we’d never done before. The jetty pylons are covered in vibrant gorgonian fans and sponges. There’s lots of little fish around, and the girls even managed to find a seal.

Fans and pylon growth on the jetty

Some of the gorgonian fans on the jetty pylons

We had quite a long dive, so that pretty much killed off the rest of the day, until the sun set…

After a quick bite to eat at the Edithburgh Hotel, we kitted back up, switched on the lights and jumped back into the water at the . Almost instantly we encountered a treasure trove of critters — pyjama squid, seahorses and crabs everywhere.

Short-head Seahorse

A pyjama squid buried in the sand

The next day we had another leisurely dive on the Edithburgh jetty. This was a great chance to get stuck into some macro photography and sure enough there was plenty to find. Nudibranchs were everywhere, but we only managed to find one sneaky little seahorse off to the side of the jetty.

Fan worm

White fan worm

Ceratosoma brevicaudatum

All in all, it was a blast, and I can’t wait to get back out there again!

The jetty at Edithburgh is one of the most colourful shore dives around. The pylons are incredibly rich in life, covered with sponges, fans and little critters. The jetty itself is reasonably short but wide, supported by pylons in rows of 4. Don’t bother trying to count pylons as a mode of orientation — it can get a bit confusing!

The water ranges from 3m to 12m+ and visibility is usually decent (6-8m). Entry points are steps on either side of the jetty, giant stride off the side, or for the more adventurous, a giant stride off the deep end.

Site details

There’s always plenty to see both under the jetty and off to the sides. There’s always lots of fish, blue swimmer and decorated crabs, sea horses, eagle rays, conger eels and even anglerfish. Nudibranchs are also quite common.

A night dive at Edithburgh is really quite special. You’ll very likely find the sea horses out and about, and if you’re really lucky, some pyjama squid. If you get the chance, its well worth it.

Pyjama squid

Conger eel

Short-headed sea horse

Hypselodoris saintvincentius

White fan worm

Estuary catfish

Stenhouse Bay is quite a challenge to get to, but it’s well worth the trip. The jetty is located in the Innes National Park, and there are restrictions on getting down to the jetty. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get the key to unlock the bollards and drive down to the jetty. Otherwise, it’s a long walk down from the car park.

From the jetty, entry is via the ladder on the side of the jetty. It’s a long way down too, a little precarious really. But once in the water, everything is forgotten. The number of gorgonian fans is simply amazing. The pylons are covered in vibrant growth, and the sea creatures are everywhere. There’s even a few seals making the rounds.

Off to the site of the jetty are piles of rocks that are home to some impressively sized lobsters.

Site details

Stenhouse Bay jetty

A friendly and very tasty looking local

Some of the colourful growth on the jetty pylons

Some alien-looking items under the jetty

I decided to put together a page listing all the dive sites I know about in Adelaide and South Australia. After a bit of research, it turned out to be quite a long list! Its taken quite some time to gather all the info, along with the physical locations of the sites, as well as photos and videos that I’ve taken while under the water.

Take a squizz and see if you’re not amazed at how many sites we have in this great little state of ours.

Adelaide & South Australian dive sites

We spent a week on the island of Espiritu Santo, primarily to dive the SS President Coolidge. The experience was very different to our time on Hideaway Island — a much more “regimented” feeling was apparent. Still, we had a great time, and again, the diving was extraordinary.

SS President Coolidge

The first dive on the Coolidge took us to the Promenade Deck

The dive guides had a thing for removing their regs and blowing bubble rings — quite clever of them!

Million Dollar Point

We decided to try a dive at Million Dollar Point — basically a huge rubbish pile, full of tractors, bulldozers, trucks, jeeps and other assorted machinery that the US Army decided to dump after World War 2. Quite a waste really, but it does make for a great dive.

Fish feeding

The fish at the deco stop on the Coolidge are very much used to divers, so much so that when anyone brings along a bit of food, there’s a mad dash and a feeding frenzy ensues.

Lionfish

Our last dive on the Coolidge was a night dive — and the most amazing part of it was the lionfish activity! These fish come out at night to hunt the smaller reef fish — watch the video to see how it all works out!

The following videos were taken during our week on Hideaway Island in Vanuatu. We had the most amazing experience during our time there — the people were amazing, the food was fantastic and the diving was out of this world!

We couldn’t believe how many different dives there were for such a tiny place, and all within a 15 minute boat ride of the island. We saw so many creatures, and such fantastic reef life — it was a true adventure. There’s no doubt — we’d go back at the drop of a hat!

Clown Colony Reef

The Clown Colony Reef was an amazing place, full of clown fish and the anemonies that they live with.

The Aloara

The wreck of the Aloara lies on its side, which allows a pocket of air to remain trapped in the hull. This means you can take out your regulator at 20-odd metres, and have a chat at the bottom of the ocean. The air’s a bit stale, but still breathable!

The christmas trees on the corals are really beautiful, but they’re very timid — its quite a bit of fun to swim over them and watch them shrink back into their holes!

Another swim through on one of the amazing reefs

Red Flame File Clam

This was one of the most amazing sights I have experienced to date. This brilliant red clam has a “flaming” white lip that flashes and streaks vibrantly in the night. I’d only ever seen them on David Attenborough documentaries. I couldn’t believe that I was seeing one!