Yongala, Townsville, Australia
What to see: Wreck of the SS Yongala passenger ship, guitar shark (shovelnose ray), eagle rays, marble rays, potato cod, queensland grouper, banded and olive green sea snakes, schools of barracuda, schools of sweetlips, sea turtles (green, loggerhead and hawksbill), napoleon wrasse, mantas and small stuff if there would be time to look at them. Occasional humpback whales in winter (Jun-Aug). Find a more detailed report about the diving in Yongala here.
Level: Advanced divers, the wreck lies at 30 m with the uppermost deck at 15 m. Open water divers can do a “deep adventure”. Nitrox definitely makes sense here.
How to get there: Either from Townsville (2.5 hour boat ride to the wreck) or Alva Beach by Ayr (20 min boat ride to the wreck). Alva Beach is 2 1/4 hours north of Airlie Beach and 1.5 hours south of Townsville. There is also a liveaboard run by Mike Ball
Water temperature: 21-25°C
Visitbility: 10-25 m
Season: All year round, slightly better visibility in winter
Price: AUD 220 – 250 for two dives
My trip: We stayed at the camp ground in Alva Beach and did dive with the only operation there – Yongala Dive, make sure to have some “spare days” as when the weather is bad the boats cannot go to the wreck; I heard from many people that they missed the Yongala dive because of the weather. Book in advance! You don’t want to miss this dive 😉 Alva Beach is a small village without shops and not many restaurants. Buy your food in the stores at the main road. Alternatively you can stay, eat and drink at Yongala Dive.
Hi Goni!! Melody and I will be housesitting in Townsville from Sep 27 to Oct 18. From reading your site, I know I shouldn’t miss the Yongala. Do you recommend any other GBR sites? It sounds like you were a bit disappointed with your other dives there. Thoughts?
Thanks, Cliff
Hi Cliff! Did I say you should not miss Yongala? Make sure to dive it on Nitrox. It is fairly deep and even on Nitrox you won’t have a very long dive (and it is quite expensive to dive there) and you might have to try several times. If the conditions aren’t too great the boats will not be able to go there.
Don’t dive the GBR from Cairns, it is too crowded, the reefs are not in a great condition and there were not many fish around. I don’t know about other areas.
Ask around about the state of the reef before you go. I hear 60% of the coral bleached.
Thanks, Goni! Geez, I just now remembered to look here for your reply since I thought I’d emailed you. Duh! I hate it when I do that. LOL!!
Definitely will dive the Yongala – especially since it sounds like it’s even more exciting than the USAT Liberty off of Tulamben which I really enjoyed. Since we’re staying in Townsville, I’ll probably dive Yongala as a day dive just in case of weather issues. That way I’ll be close if a dive is canceled.
Even though it sounds like the GBR isn’t that exciting for reef diving, I’d still like to get a few dives in for comparison. The medium-speed drift dives I did off of Nusa Penida were fantastic – fun speed and very nice coral reefs off of S.D. At this point, I’m leaning toward a 2-day liveaboard with Adrenalin Diving out of Townsville. Thanks for the advice on avoiding Cairns. It’s a long detour from Townsville and fairly expensive.
Sorry, for that. Emails are probably easier… I’m pretty sure diving the GBR from Townsville will be a completely different experience. Looking forward to hearing more about it. When are you planning the trip? You’re still in Darwin, right?