North Stradbroke Island · Australia · Night
Amity Point
Shore dive timed for slack water at the top of the tide
Photo: Mark Gillow · CC BY 2.0
Amity Point is the area's shore dive and the dive centre's standby for night dives and course dives when the weather offshore is too rough for the boats. Depths run 5 to 15 m over an easily accessed site teeming with resident wildlife: wobbegong sharks, large schools of fish and the occasional dolphin or bull shark. The site is very tidal and is dived around the top of the high tide.
Where it is and how deep
27.4019° S, 153.4375° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive is entered from the shore and timed by the tide. The site is very tidal, with the best diving an hour before the top of the high tide, and a dive-site listing puts the entry at half an hour before high water — the point when visibility is at its best and the current will be slack. Get the timing wrong and the tidal movement, not what is on the bottom, becomes the story of the dive.
Depths run from 5 to 15 m across an easily accessed site teeming with resident wildlife: wobbegong sharks, large schools of fish, and the occasional dolphin or bull shark passing through. The dive centre uses it for night dives and for course dives when the weather offshore is too rough to launch, so it works as the fallback of the area rather than its headline dive.
Marine life and season
- Wobbegongs
- Dolphins
- Bull sharks
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good |
Season follows North Stradbroke Island: Mantas work the Manta Bommie cleaning stations Oct–Apr; grey nurse sharks and humpbacks arrive Jun–Oct, when visibility is also at its best. Boats run Friday to Tuesday.
Know before you go
- Fishing lines, boat traffic, tidal movement and a large population of stonefish all need care here — watch where hands and feet go down.
- Keep a dive flag up, carry an SMB at all times and have a surface watch: there is boat traffic and there can be a lot of line in the water.
Photos from Amity Point
Mark Gillow · CC BY 2.0
Sources
- Dive Sites — Manta Lodge & Scuba Centre — Manta Lodge & Scuba Centre
- Amity Point — Scubago
Photo credits
- Wobbegong shark resting near the surface at Amity Point, Stradbroke Island by Mark Gillow, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Two bottlenose dolphins surfacing near Amity Point, Stradbroke Island by Mark Gillow, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in North Stradbroke Island
Wall
Near-vertical walls dived four or five times a year
Deep reef at 28 to 45 m with resident bull sharks
Flat Rock's shallow corner, 4 to 18 m over juvenile fish
Winter sand channel where grey nurse sharks gather
Small cave at 10 m on Flat Rock's northern side
Reef
Shallow cleaning stations that mantas work from October to April
Reef
Decompression depths, strong current, whaler sharks
Reef
The area's shelter dive, 800 m off Home Beach
Similar dives elsewhere
Bridge pylons and an 18 m artificial reef, dived at slack or as a tidal drift
Blue-lined octopus and pyjama squid along a submerged pipe
Shallow coral regrown since the 1992 cyclone, and a strong night dive
Wobbegongs and grey nurse under a working navy jetty