Bundy - 12/22/2012 1:02 AM
Hi Dale, the question really is what do you want to see? Most people read and hear about the Great Barrier Reef and want to see that, as you have stated. You are best to hop on plane and go straight to cairns or Port Douglass where you can get on any number of day boats to the outer reef. The diving there is warm( 28oC+ ), easy and reasonably clear water. You won’t need your own buddy as all dives are guided. You can find options for two or three day live aboards that will get you to the better reefs off shore. Someone above mentioned the Yongala out of townsville but it is a long boat ride. You can do one from Ayr (30 min) and it is an amazing dive (depth 30m). Night life in Townsville, Cairns and Port Douglass is good.
If you wish to dive in Sydney there are a lot of interesting places both from shore and by boat that you can visit, the climate is more temperate than tropical and water temp is around 22 Degree C mark that time of year. Sydney has a lot of wrecks but most are at or below the 45m depth range. I run a dive charter service in Sydney but spent 15years diving in Queensland. Any other questions give me a buzz.
Chris