Diving the Gold Coast Seaway with Ian Banks
The Gold Coast is considered Australia's premier inshore dive site, boasting year round access and a fish diversity unequalled by any other city in Australia. If you are into diving you may know of many famous dive sites, but none are within the city limits of a major urban centre and enjoy the luxury of being primarily shore based.
What is special about the Gold Coast is the abundance and diversity of fish life. Over the past few years the Queensland Museum has recorded no less than 370 species of fish from the Gold Coast Seaway. Experts say a combination of generally good water quality, nutrient rich outflow from the Nerang-Broadwater estuarine system, inflow of clean oceanic water, and large boulder walls, provides an environment ideal for a huge range of fish, large and small.
The seaway is noted as the most reliable site in the region for Whitespotted
Guitarfish, Pink Whiprays and Cownose Rays. Groups of up to eight Queensland Gropers are not uncommon here, and large schools of Bigeye Trevally - rarely seen in such numbers in any other inshore locality - are a virtual fixture around the submerged pipelines.
There are five main dive site areas of the Gold Coast Seaway where the annual water temperature range is a mild 18-27 degrees celsius making it ideal for relaxed and pleasant diving. Dive areas inside the seaway are not affected by sea conditions and may be dived all year round.
1. South Wall Dive Area
By far the most popular year round dive location is the South Wall Dive Area whichencompasses the Short Pipe, Sand Pipe, and Eagle Ray Cleaning Station. Maximum depth across the seaway at the Sand Pipe is 15m. Fish species include colourful Butterflyfish, Wrasses, Surgeonfish, Bream, Tarwhine, Whiting, Flathead, Mangrovejack, Trevallies, Mulloway, Ghostpipefish, Seahorses, Waspfish, Anglerfish, Scorpionfish, Lionfish, Giant Queensland Groper, schools of Bigeye and Giant Trevally, Eagle Rays, Bull Rays and Guitarfish. If you are a conservative diver and don't like current, it is best to wait until the top of the tide. If you don't mind current and like drift diving, hop in early.
2. The South West Wall Dive Area
The South West Wall Dive Area has less current flow and an easy sandy beach entry point, so is an ideal location for new divers. Here you will find all that creeps and crawls such as the Highcrown Seahorse, the Stick and Tiger
Pipefishes, the Ornate and Robust Ghostpipefishes, the Dwarf and Zebra
Lionfishes plus many more fascinating creatures. A small seagrass bed is
located only metres from the shore. On night dives during the appropriate
season, Tiger Prawns can be seen creeping around the seagrass and during the
day squid are observed hovering over their egg clutches.
3. Wave Break Island Dive Area
Another area similar to the South West Wall is the Wave Break Island Dive Area. Wait until high tide before entering. Conditions remain pleasant for diving for up to four hours after the high tide. Wave Break Island is strictly a boat access area and for those without boats, two local dive operators run daily dive tours from Marina Mirage. Diving here is ideal for first timers and snorkelling - being more protected from boat traffic and having an easy beach start and a gentle drop to 11m.
4. South East Wall Dive Area
For big critter action, the South East Wall Dive Area and North East Wall Dive Area have more turtles, big pelagic fish and rays. Sea conditions very much dictate any diving here, but when it is calm there is a hive of activity on the walls towards the entrance. This is an area restricted to experienced divers and diving should be carefully planned according to tides and prevailing currents. The South East Wall Dive Area may be accessed from the shore, but it is more sensible from a boat. Visibility here is generally the clearest in the seaway and lots of Surgeonfish and other schooling fish are observed towards the entrance. Larger rocks here produce ideal habitat for resting turtles and
Wobbegongs.
5. North East Wall Dive Area
The North East Wall Dive Area reaches a depth of about 10m on the northern side of the tip but on the southern side drops to 20m. This location has the most pelagic fish activity and the cleaning stations host huge Bull Rays and Eagle Rays. Pickhandle Barracuda, Mangrove Jack and Mulloway are also sighted and seasonally large Queensland Gropers are encountered. Luderick gather here in their thousands at spawning time. Visibility is generally less at the wall on this side of the seaway.
The Gold Coast Seaway caters for entry level through to extreme diving and provides easy access to the most diverse fish life in any Australian city and the only relatively safe year-round mainland shore diving in Queensland. Local knowledge is important and daily dive tours are available from several local dive shops.