St Helens Island

Meet the site

St Helens Island is the premier boat dive of the St Helens area, rated 8 out of 10 by the Marine Life Network guide. It is a granite island off St Helens Point with dramatic underwater topography, where the granite drops away abruptly into 15-20 m. The guide describes long-snouted boarfish, trumpeter, colourful sponges and strapweed, and good visibility thanks to the island's position in clean ocean water.

Getting there requires crossing the Georges Bay bar, which limits trips to good conditions, and the island is exposed enough that the skipper must pick the lee side on the day. The reward is a clean-water granite wall with the kind of sponge growth normally associated with Bicheno.

St Helens Island suits Advanced Open Water divers with a capable boat. It has been largely neglected since the regional guide was written, and it would reward exploration by divers with a sounder.

The north-east coast from St Helens to the Bay of Fires is built of the same orange-lichen granite as Freycinet, and under water it forms rounded boulders, cracks and swim-throughs. The regional guide notes damage from the long-spined black sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) on several sites; this urchin has spread south with the warming East Australian Current and grazes kelp and weed down to bare 'barrens', so expect patches of bare rock among the weed.

The north-east sees far fewer divers than Bicheno or the Tasman Peninsula. There is no regular charter boat, so most diving is done by Launceston club members and visitors towing their own boats, and conditions are checked on the morning rather than booked in advance. The nearest hyperbaric chamber is the Royal Hobart Hospital, more than three hours' drive away; Launceston General Hospital has no chamber, so evacuation planning and oxygen on board matter here.

What you might see

Long-snouted boarfish, trumpeter, colourful sponges, strapweed, butterfly perch, banded morwong, wrasse

Location

A granite island off St Helens Point whose sides drop away abruptly to 15-20 m, with sponges and strapweed.

Facilities nearby

St Helens: boat ramps, toilets, supermarket, cafes, fuel and accommodation. Binalong Bay: ramp, toilets, cafe. Air fills unconfirmed locally - nearest reliable fills in Launceston.