Location: Milln Reef

Maximum Depth: 30m

Visibility: 15 - 25m | Average: 15m

Site: An excellent wall dive site offering good depth, the 'Whale' is a large isolated bommie with abundant marine life - the best deep dive! One a low tide, waves break at the top of the bommie creating a plume of water similar to a whale, hence the site's name. A great night dive - expect to see sleeping turtles, reef crabs, painted lobsters and some great soft corals and Gorgonian fans.

Marine Life:

Location: Milln Reef

Maximum Depth: 20m

Visibility: 15 - 25m | Average: 15m

Site: An excellent wall dive and swim through, Petaj is home to resident Turtles and White Tip Reef Sharks. Most of the walls are full of sleeping Parrot Fish in their mucus sacks, Turtles, Barracudas and the occasional Bull Ray. Features Fan Coral and Staghorn Thickets in the sand.

Marine Life:

Location: Milln Reef

Maximum Depth: 21m

Visibility: 15 - 20m | Average: 15m

Site: A dive amongst the coral outcrops and small bommies over a sandy seabed. Average dive depth is about 10 metres, a very popular site for its abundance of fish in the shallows. An excellent night dive with sleeping turtles and barracudas sighted regularly.

Marine Life:

Look out for Gorgonian fans on the outer bommie and swim through.

Location: Thetford Reef

Maximum Depth: 18m

Visibility: 10m

Site: A very protected reef site. Lagoon with surrounding bommies and shallow sand areas. Sloping sandy bottom best up in the shallows and a great snorkel site. Thetford Reef is made up of numerous coral bommies where you can experience some very exciting wall dives and many swim-throughs. This reef is home to many soft and hard corals like Staghorn, Boulder and Plate coral, and an abundance of marine life.

Marine Life:

Location: Thetford Reef

Maximum Depth: 30m

Visibility: 15 - 20m

Site: A dive amongst the coral outcrops and small bommies over a sandy seabed. Average dive depth is about 10 metres, a very popular site for its abundance of fish in the shallows. An excellent night dive with sleeping turtles and barracudas sighted regularly.

Look out for the Gorgonian fans on the outer bommie and swim through.

Marine Life:

Location: Pellowe Reef

Maximum Depth: 15 - 20m

Visibility: 15 - 20m

Site: Pellowe Reef is a very exciting dive site! A small isolated reef located close to the edge of the Continental Shelf. For this reason, access to the reef is very weather and tidal dependent. The reef drops away very quickly at places to 30 metres, and stronger currents can be present as well. This site offers divers and exciting wall dive and one great swim through. The majority of the dives will be in depths between 5 – 20 metres.

Marine Life:

Location: Norman Reef

Maximum Depth: 3 - 18m

Visibility: 10 - 20m

Site: Coral Gardens feature a 30 metre wall. Flynn Reef offers excellent wall dives, swimthroughs, overhangs and night diving. See giant clams, fan coral and staghorn thickets in the sand, and pelagics including trevally and Spanish mackerel. During summer months, leopard sharks and occasional whale shark sightings.

Marine Life: The site is located in the protected waters of the Norman Reef adjacent to the Reef Flat and lagoon. This area offers snorkellers and introductory divers a great opportunity to explore the shallow, sandy reef areas without the worry of current or swells.  The point of difference for this site is the large coral outcrop (Flat-Top Bommie) that sits behind the mooring location.

This isolated coral structure is separated from the main reef by a deep channel offering intermediate and advanced SCUBA divers a diverse underwater landscape featuring undulating reef scapes, swim-throughs, and coral canyons, with visibility often reaching up to 20 meters.

Location: Norman Reef

Maximum Depth: 1 - 15m

Visibility: 10 - 15m

Site: The site is the most protected location on Norman Reef nestled within the crystal clear waters and white sands of the lagoon. Providing year round protection from wind, waves and swells, this lagoon paradise offers a coral garden of delicate hard corals teeming with marine life.

Resembling a natural aquarium, this shallow water location is perfectly suited for novice to advanced snorkellers and the white sands and shallow water ensures a high light reflection that maximises the colours of the Great Barrier Reef. This site also offers a deeper option with a separate coral bommie outcrop with several swim throughs that will excite the SCUBA enthusiasts.

Marine Life: Mother Nature will not disappoint here with high coral cover and white coral sands providing a cryptic and diverse habitat for an incredible amount of marine life. Like a natural aquarium, the protected lagoon supports a very high biodiversity of reef fish species including anemone, angel, parrot, butterfly, surgeon, rabbit and damsel fish. The sandy seabed also provides the perfect habitat for bottom dwelling fish, giant clams, sea cucumbers and stingrays and the sea turtles are often see resting and feeding in the lagoon during the day.

The highlight for the divers will be exploring the deeper coral bommie. Orientated at the back of the lagoon and influenced by a mild tidal flow, baitfish surround the coral outcrops and the excellent coral cover support significant reef and pelagic fish life. The swim throughs at the outer edge of the bommie will also surprise those keen to experience darker habitats which support a variety of nocturnal marine life and large predatory fish such as cod, coral trout and sweetlips.

Location: Michaelmas Reef (Michaelmas Cay)

Maximum Depth: 15 - 20m

Visibility: 15 - 20m

Site: Welcome to one of Silverswift’s most unique locations. Michaelmas Reef is located 40km from Cairns and is the location for one of the most important sand cays on the Great Barrier Reef, Michaelmas Cay. With up to 20,000 breeding pairs of seabirds on the island at one time, Michaelmas Cay is one of the most important nesting sites in the GBR World Heritage Area.

The marine life this reef supports is also unique, and the location for the Three Sisters site is nothing short of spectacular. Situated at the back of the reef system and separated from the main lagoon, this site offers three isolated coral outcrops called bommies that rise to the surface like a city skyline. Unlike the coral garden effect within a protected lagoon and sandy bottom, this site provides a cluster of dramatic coral reef plateaus that rise from the seabed.

With the Cay as the perfect backdrop, divers can circumnavigate the Sisters and explore the deeper reef habitats that surround them whilst the snorkellers drift effortlessly over the top and experience what is arguably one of our best hard coral cover sites on the GBR.

Marine Life: Thanks to the isolated nature of these bommies, a feature of this site has to be the amount of fish life that exists both on the reef and adjacent to it in the open water. The tidal flows and gentle currents have a lot to do with this, ensuring plenty of opportunities for larger predators such as sharks, barracuda and trevally to also find a meal or two.

The tops of each of the bommie resembles an underwater city of colour and movement with every inch of space occupied by branching and plate corals. Divers also have the opportunity to explore the deeper coral assemblages where your daytime predators such as coral trout and snapper lurk. Look closely in the coral rubble areas and you might also spot the elusive nudibranchs, starfish and moray eels.