North Stradbroke Island · Australia · Reef · Muck & macro
Shag Rock
The area's shelter dive, 800 m off Home Beach
Area photo: Tanya Dedyukhina · CC BY 3.0
Shag Rock is the closest site to shore at Point Lookout, a rocky reef 800 m directly off Home Beach and a six to eight minute boat ride from the launch. It is generally the most sheltered site in the area and the one that runs when conditions elsewhere turn. The dive works 5 to 18 m of rock for turtles, wobbegongs, schools of pomfrets and macro life such as mantis shrimp, ghost pipefish and frogfish.
Also known as Sanctuary Cove, Horseshoe, Coral Gardens, Sunken Reef.
Where it is and how deep
27.4144° S, 153.5266° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Shag Rock is a rocky reef 800 m directly off Home Beach, a six to eight minute boat ride from the beach the dive boats are launched from. There are several diveable spots around the two rock outcrops and depths run 5 to 18 m, so any of them is a long dive on a single tank. Because it is generally the most sheltered site in the area, this is what gets run when conditions elsewhere take a turn for the worse.
It is the macro dive of the area rather than the big-animal one. Turtles and wobbegong sharks are on the rock, large schools of pomfrets and other sub-tropical fish move over it, and the small things are what people come back for: mantis shrimp — peacock mantis among them — ghost pipefish and frogfish tucked into the reef. Shallow depths and a short boat ride make it the site for photographers working slowly and for divers early in their training.
Marine life and season
- Sea turtles
- Wobbegongs
- Reef fish swarms
- Macro critters
- Frogfish
| 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.
Questions divers ask
Where do you dive when the swell is up at Point Lookout?+
Shag Rock. It sits 800 m off Home Beach, six to eight minutes by boat, and is the most protected dive site in the area, so it offers diving when conditions elsewhere take a turn for the worse. The shore dive at Amity Point is the other fallback.
Sources
- Dive Sites — Manta Lodge & Scuba Centre — Manta Lodge & Scuba Centre
- Shag Rock - Horseshoe — Scubago
- Shag Rock - Sanctuary Cove — Scubago
More dive sites in North Stradbroke Island
Shore dive timed for slack water at the top of the tide
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
Similar dives elsewhere
A tennis-court-sized reef with resident green turtles
Grey nurse sharks on the rock from July to October
Sheltered ledge from 16 m up to 5 m, thick with nudibranchs
Nature-reserve island with wobbegongs in the rocks and stingrays on the sand