Adventure of a lifetime - Dive Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Welcome to the Scuba Centre - Dive Australia website. The Scuba Centre has been a part of the Queensland and Great Barrier Reef diving industry for 27 years. We have a wealth of information and knowledge of the boats, operators and dive sites in the region to pass on to you so that you can select the most suitable PADI course, liveaboard cruise or day dive for your adventure on the Great Barrier Reef.

Safety and professionalism are the main features of our cruises and diver training. The Great Barrier Reef in all it's splendour should be treated with great respect by divers and snorkelers alike. You will most certainly be relying upon the experience and integrity of your vessel's crew to ensure that your Great Barrier Reef experience is safe and enjoyable. The Whitsunday Islands, Cairns and Port Douglas are Australia's premier destinations to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns and Port Douglas

At Cairns and Port Douglas the reef comes very close to the coast of the Australian mainland and so dive boats taking liveaboard cruises are able to get to the continental shelf where the reef drops off into deep ocean. Day boats and 3 day liveaboards can access a large number of sites, each one unique in it's own way. This means that dive operators can provide repeat customers with a good variety of dive sites.

The Coral Sea

Extended liveaboard cruises can go to Osprey Reef. This reef is the most beautiful and ecologically significant reef in the Coral Sea. Osprey is the most northerly Coral Sea reef, being 350 km away from Cairns. There is a deep-water lagoon in the middle of Osprey Reef, which is a perfect safe anchorage. Vertical walls rise up from more than 1000 metres (3300 feet) to just below the surface. Large sharks and every type of marine life abound here in crystal clear waters.

The Whitsunday Islands

The Whitsunday Islands situated, approximately 600 km South of Cairns and 1200 km North of Brisbane, are also adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. Located 38 kms from the mainland, The Stepping Stones reef complex is a spectacular dive incorporating more than a dozen individual sites that would take a month to explore

The great joy in the Whitsundays is the ability to combine sailing on a world class yacht or tallship with quality scuba diving. Another added advantage is the protection from adverse weather that is afforded by the 74 islands and many sheltered bays.

There are many excellent dive sites around the islands themselves and divers can see magnificent soft corals that do not grow on the outer reefs because of their requirement for protection from the sometimes intense wave action of the exposed reef.