Central Station

Meet the site

Central Station earns its name from traffic: it is a manta ray cleaning station where, as the Aussie Marine Adventures series puts it, the mantas line up to allow local cleaner wrasse to remove parasites. The maximum depth is about 15 m, making it accessible to Open Water divers, and it is listed on Ningaloo Whaleshark-N-Dive's west-side site list.

The station is a group of coral heads where cleaner wrasse set up shop; reef mantas approach, slow, and hover while being cleaned, sometimes several at once. Good manta etiquette — staying low, still and to the side, never chasing or touching — keeps them coming back. Around the station the reef has the usual west-side life: reef sharks, turtles, schooling fish and rays. Mantas are most active from April to November.

About the west side: Ningaloo is a fringing reef, and the west side of North West Cape is where the reef faces the open ocean beyond the lagoon. Only a handful of boats dive it, launching from Tantabiddi, and much of it is rarely visited. Topography ranges from shallow cracked reef and ledges near Tantabiddi Passage to surge channels, bommies and walls further out, with 'caves, swim-throughs, huge bommies or walls, and a truly diverse range of hard and soft corals'. Whale sharks, mantas and humpback whales are seasonal visitors, and humpback song is commonly heard underwater in winter. The 2025 marine heatwave caused significant coral mortality in northern Ningaloo, so expect some dead or recovering coral. A typical west-side day combines two sites chosen by the skipper on the morning, with lunch on board inside the lagoon; because swell and wind decide everything, divers visiting Exmouth for a week should book early in their stay and keep a back-up day. The same boats often snorkel with whale sharks, mantas or humpbacks in season, so a west-side dive day can deliver megafauna on the way out or back.

What you might see

Reef manta rays, cleaner wrasse, reef sharks, turtles, schooling reef fish, rays

Location

West-side Ningaloo reef off Tantabiddi with a manta ray cleaning station, maximum depth about 15 m.

Facilities nearby

Tantabiddi boat ramp: toilets, car and trailer parking; no shade or fuel. Air fills and hire in Exmouth.