Jervis Bay

A day here can be run from the beach or from a boat, and plenty of visitors do both. Charters leave from Huskisson and run two dives, with the skipper picking a side of the bay to suit the wind: the mouth faces the open ocean, so swell from the wrong direction shuts the outer headlands and everyone works the sheltered inner rock instead. Shore entries need only a car and a walk down a track, which makes an extra dive before or after the boat easy to fit in.

The sandstone weathers into shapes you swim through rather than just along: gutters running out from the cliff base, undercut ledges, low arches and cavern mouths. Depths sit between about 5 m and 30 m, so bottom times are long and repeat dives are easy on the plan. Vertical faces carry sponge, sea tulips and other ascidians that only show their colour under a torch, while the open flats between the reefs are where you cover ground looking for rays and cuttlefish.

Sites divide roughly into three kinds. The inner-bay reefs are shallow and forgiving, and they reward slowing right down, hovering over the weed fringe until the camouflaged animals separate themselves from the background. The offshore pinnacles start deeper, with tops nearer 18 m than 12 m, so bottom times shorten and the dive becomes a single circuit of the rock. The outer headland caverns are the most dramatic and the least dependable, dived on the days the swell allows rather than on demand, so treat them as a bonus rather than the reason you booked.

It suits divers who like looking closely: macro photographers, people who enjoy temperate life, and mixed groups where one diver wants a cavern and another is happy spending an hour over shallow sand. The trade-off is seasonal. April to July is when the summer runoff has cleared and the water is at its most transparent, and it is also when the cool-water animals are in. The summer months are warmer but greener, on a coast busy with holiday traffic. Water runs 14°C to 22°C, so bring proper exposure protection and the rest is straightforward.