Julian Rocks — Byron Bay

Byron has no harbour, so the boats launch off the beach: gear is loaded on the sand, a tractor pushes the inflatable out through the shorebreak, and you leave already suited up. The run out is short, trips are almost always a double dive with the interval spent on board, and departures cluster in the morning before the afternoon sea breeze gets up. Snorkel and freedive trips work the same rock, so a group with non-divers in it is easy to keep together.

One island, several quite different dives. The sheltered side is shallow, with sand between boulder patches, calm enough for a first dive in the ocean. The exposed outer side is deeper, cut into gutters, spires and short swim-throughs, and it takes the current. Which side you get is decided on the morning by wind, swell and tide rather than by request, so a few days here turn up more variety than any single trip suggests.

The rock carries long-standing cultural significance for the Arakwal Bundjalung people, known to them as Nguthungulli, a name the nature reserve now carries. It also sits inside Cape Byron Marine Park as a sanctuary zone, so fishing is off-limits over it and crews brief on approach distance and behaviour before every dive. Shallow depths across the island mean dives more often end on time than on air, which is part of why locals log hundreds of them here.

It fits new divers, mixed-ability groups and people already in Byron for other reasons, since the diving slots into a holiday rather than dictating it, while more experienced divers come for the seasonal headliners and the deeper exposed ground. Worth knowing before booking: this is one island rather than a spread of sites, it gets busy through school holidays, and the beach launch is the weak point, with nothing running when the swell makes getting off the sand unworkable.