Last winter photographer and PADI instructor Simon Lorenz took a tour along the entire coast of New South Wales in Australia. Australia is renowned for many famous dive sites, but this area often gets overlooked as a scuba destination. Simon found that this area has a lot to offer divers and chronicled his experience in order to share his discovery.

For more of Simon's work check out his website www.simonlorenz.de and Facebook page.

A Tour of New South Wales with Sharks, Seals and Dragons

What do you think when you imagine diving “down under”? Do you think of the colorful Great Barrier Reef, the Yongala Wreck or Ningaloo Reef? Widely overlooked, yet very worth a visit is New South Wales, the territory on the Eastern Australian coast stretching over 1000km of coastline. Its coast is lined with first class dive spots featuring seals, rays, sharks, and the weedy sea dragon. This coast mixes Northern warm waters and Southern chilled waters providing divers with the best of both water types, warm water species like mantas, mobulas and zebra sharks as well as humpback whales and scalloped hammerhead sharks.

The best way to explore these sites is a one-way road trip either from Canberra, Sydney or Melbourne towards Brisbane in a rental car.

Starting point of the aquatic journey is in the sleepy fishing village of Narooma, a town famed for golfing, fishing and whale watching. Here one can dive with the members of a fur seal colony of Montague Island, 2 miles off shore. Seemingly unfussed by your presence 30 or 40 seals swim, play and dive and pose puppy-eyed for the wide-angle cameras.

Further up north and closer to Sydney is Jervis Bay. Located on a 6km wide circular bay it has over 40 different sites on the inside and outside of the bays mouth. Bizarre layered lime stone cliffs create an outlandish world that continues underwater in dramatic swim throughs, caves and canyons, some of which you can surface on the inside. Sting rays, picture posing Port Jackson and Horned-Eyed sharks as well as friendly big blue groupers and big colorful cuttlefish hiding in the caves and swim throughs. The bay also features a wreck dive to a two-engine plane crash-landed in the 40ies and now rests well preserved at 12m depth on sandy sea floor.

Sydney is Australia's biggest city and the capital of New South Wales. The city is not only worth a tourist stop, it also provides its residents with a wide variety of cold water dive spots. Sydney is considered the best spot for the Weedy Sea Dragon, the funkiest member of the sea horse family. Sydney also features various rays, flatheads, in various sizes, port jackson sharks, blue groupers, octopi, some very sizable pacific cuttlefish, wobbegongs, moray eels, and various kind of nudibranchs. In certain times young silky sharks can be observed. For city diving, it’s pretty impressive.

Another hour north of Sydney is Terrigal. In 2011 the exHMAS Adelaide was sunk here as an artificial reef. The 138m long destroyer sits upright and is still very intact with the bottom of the hull below 45m. Penetration of the wreck is easy, big cutouts on every level allow divers to explore the wreck. Big schools of 1-meter long Jew Fish circle the hull and nurse sharks come visit in the mornings.

South West Rocks is a tiny beach side town popular with local tourists and is also the capital for shark diving. 3km off shore is Fish Rock Island. This rocky outcrop sits amidst a heavy current which can be seen rippling on the surface. Its key feature is a canyon filled to the brim with Grey Nurse Sharks (Sandtiger Sharks). At 25m an entire armada of these sharks circle above and around. Easily 30 or so of these 2-3m sharks can be seen at one time cruising blissfully through the canyon.

The second highlight is a cave tunneling 125m through the entire Island. It’s a hot spot for lobster with literally one on every rock. The opening at the end of the tunnel is filled with thousands of bait fish. If you are the first diver of the day you can see grey nurse sharks here too. Outside the cave there is another wall of current. Sometimes a school of 100 scalloped hammerheads can be seen gently working the stream.

A little bit further up the coast is the one-pub-type hamlet called Wooli. From here you can dive the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Its most famous dive site Fish Soup has an abundance of fish that attract a lot of sharks. Wobbegongs are literally everywhere here. This bottom dwelling shark occurs on the entire East coast of Australia. With his beard of tassels he hides his giant mouth while waiting for prey. Placid as he looks he is a snapper, and is known to strike at remarkably big prey. A divers hand can be misread as a fish, so beware as this shark will not let go and will have to be surgically removed. On one dive we see a 1.5m Wobby eating a bamboo shark half its size.

Final stop is the surf mecca Byron Bay. It’s the lively capital of backpackers and surfers. Yet behind Australia’s most famous left break is one the country’s best dive sites - Julian Rocks - the “Galapagos of Down-Under”. On these islands literally anything can happen. The seasons bring very different visitors. Giant bullrays, wobbegongs, lobsters, potato cods, big barracuda, logger head turtles and Spanish dancer nudibranchs are seen here on every dive. Eagle rays, bamboo sharks, shovel nose rays and guitar sharks are also common. In cold water season grey nurse sharks, hammerheads and fur seals come by, while humpback whales breach in the bay. The summer season from December to May host armadas of zebra sharks, with mantas and mobula rays soaring overhead. The currents are strong but manageable while every dive brings something new. It’s a place to definitely plan a few days.

After this it’s another few hours to Brisbane and an amazing tour has been concluded. From fur seals to manta rays, New South Wales has so much to offer. Sydney and Byron Bay are well known topside, yet as a dive location all dive sites are remarkably little busy. This is an opportunity to dive without the hordes of divers at the Great Barrier Reef or Coral Triangle. The local dive population is one of the most active in the world, now we know why.