Queensland
Diving in Heron Island & Capricorn Group
Heron Island is a coral cay on the southern Great Barrier Reef where you walk off the beach into a reef, and the Heron Bommie, Gorgonia Hole and the Coral Cascades are a few minutes by boat. Turtles nest on the beach from November to March, reef sharks and rays patrol the harbour, and mantas visit the cleaning stations in winter. Wilson, Wistari and One Tree islands are nearby.
Dive sites in this region
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Blue Pools (Heron Island)
Shallow gutters and a sheltered Olympic-pool-sized hollow with resting turtles, wobbegongs and patrolling whitetips.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Coral Canyons (Heron Island)
Shallow canyons cut into the reef edge, where bigfin reef squid hang in colour-changing stacks.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Coral Cascades (Heron Island)
A 'macro dream world' of coral-covered bommies on sand, where rays queue at cleaning stations and fusiliers swirl overhead.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Gorgonia Hole (Heron Island)
A maze of cracks and small caves hung with gorgonians, where turtles wedge themselves in to rest and painted crays hide.
WreckHeron Island & Capricorn Group
HMCS Protector Wreck (Heron Island)
An 1884 colonial gunboat with Boxer Rebellion and WWI service, now a harbour breakwater and fish haven snorkelled at high tide.
Pinnacle/BommieHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Heron Bommie
Heron's signature dive: six coral heads from 5 to 20 m forming a manta and eagle ray cleaning station, with dense fish life…
Pinnacle/BommieHeron Island & Capricorn Group
North Bommie (Heron Island)
A giant mushroom-shaped bommie wrapped in glassfish and hunted by trout and cod, with mantas and turtles queuing to be cleaned.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
One Tree Island Reef
A closed Scientific Research Zone and world-class reef research station – not open to recreational diving.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Pam's Point (Heron Island)
Drift across a staghorn field to a 10 m bommie with a small cave and manta cleaning stations.
WallHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Tenements 1 (Heron Island)
A small wall of anemones and schooling fish above white sand at friendly 5-16 m depths, often the end of the Tenements drift.
WallHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Tenements 2 (Heron Island)
A wall behind a coral plateau where the incoming tide gathers fish shoals and grey reef sharks – Heron's best shark drift.
DriftHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Three Rocks (Heron Island)
Drift down a steep sandy slope past three big bommies at one of Wistari Reef's drains, with pelagics and olive sea snakes.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Turtle Gully (Heron Island)
A gully leading to a biodiverse coral wall, with schooling unicornfish and sweetlips and the odd great hammerhead.
WallHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Wistari 1 (Wistari Reef)
A steep channel wall from 18 m to 25 m capped with thriving branching coral, with unpredictable visitors from the blue.
WallHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Wistari 2 (Wistari Reef)
A deep wall dive from a 24 m mooring, looking out into the blue for rays, sharks and pelagics.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Bylund's Pass (Heron Island)
A hard-coral slope right outside the harbour where turtles feed in the current and great barracuda hang in the blue.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Coral Gardens (Heron Island)
A gentle, coral-carpeted slope on the Wistari Channel wall – Heron's pick for divers who just love coral.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Coral Grotto (Heron Island)
Zig-zag through coral gutters on a wall where turtles rest, feed and swim past on almost every dive.
Pinnacle/BommieHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Harry's Bommie (Heron Island)
Bommie after bommie through hard coral forests, with surprises like giant starry puffers and tawny nurse sharks.
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Hole in the Wall (Heron Island)
Swim through a two-diver-wide hole in the reef and drift to Paradise Bommie, where strong currents bring in mantas, eagle rays…
ReefHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Libby's Lair (Heron Island)
A shallow, low-current maze of Porites pinnacles where morays, cleaning stations and the vivid Elizabeth's chromodoris hide.
IslandHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Masthead Island Reef
A quiet camping cay with a closed lagoon and fringing reef, close to the Polmaise Bommies and Tambaroora wreck.
Pinnacle/BommieHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Ned's Bommie (Heron Island)
A glassfish-filled bommie where trout and cod hunt and turtles and reef sharks rest.
IslandHeron Island & Capricorn Group
North West Island Reef
The GBR's largest coral cay: camp-and-dive self-sufficiency, turtle nesting and gutter-cut southern drop-offs.