North Stradbroke Island — Point Lookout

Trips run Friday to Tuesday, twice a day, out of Manta Lodge & Scuba Centre, the island's only dive centre. The morning group meets at 6:45 and is back on land around 11; the afternoon group meets at 11:45 and returns about 4. The sites sit close enough to the launch that a trip is two dives with the surface interval spent on the water. When swell shuts the offshore reefs down, Shag Rock six to eight minutes out is the fallback, or the Amity Point shore dive on the sheltered side of the island.

The diving is rock rather than coral: outcrops and bommies rising off sand, ledges and gutters cut into them, and open water between. Manta Bommie is three shallow outcrops carrying cleaning stations. Flat Rock, several kilometres out, has Shark Alley on one side and Turtle Cave on the other, and prevailing currents there tend to bring clearer water. Boat Rock drops near-vertically to 25 m and is dived only in flat conditions. Shag Rock is the macro dive, with wobbegongs, turtles, schools of pomfrets, mantis shrimp and ghost pipefish. All of it lies inside Moreton Bay Marine Park.

Current is what sorts the sites: the outer rocks are prone to it, and the closer ones get used because they are sheltered. How much of the catalogue opens up then depends on certification. Open Water gets Manta Bommie, Shag Rock, the Nursery and Amity Point; Advanced gets Shark Alley and Turtle Cave; Boat Rock and Bull Shark Bommie are graded Master Diver, with live drop and pick-up. Seven's Reef runs 20 to 48 m on pinnacles with unpredictable visibility, and 29 Fathom Reef sits at 51 to 62 m — both technical dives. The hospital ship AHS Centaur lies far offshore in 2,059 m of water, a war grave inside a navigational exclusion zone rather than a dive.

It suits divers who want big animals on a seasonal calendar and are content with one operator, a five-day boat week and a short run of rock reefs dived repeatedly. Anyone wanting several dive shops or a wider spread of sites would do better at Julian Rocks off Byron Bay, about 130 km south. Winter here means 19–20°C water and a thicker suit, while the summer manta window comes with the poorest visibility of the year, averaging 5 to 11 m against the island's 12 to 16 m general average.