Diving Julian Rocks Marine Reserve, Byron Bay

Julian Rocks is one of the best dives in Australia!

Before visiting Byron Bay, my perception of the place was that my trip would be mainly party oriented with some beach time during the day. I arrived in the morning on a shuttle from Surfers Paradise and walked straight into a shop to ask about diving a place I had read was one of the top 10 dive sites in Australia, Julian Rocks. They quickly ushered me over to the Byron Bay Dive Centre and said a boat was leaving in a few minutes.

Everyone met up and got organized at the Byron Bay Dive Centre, then they drove us down to the beach, loaded us up on little dingy boats and we were off on the 2.5km boat ride to Julian Rocks Marine Reserve. Once there they split the snorkelers from the divers, and broke the divers down into groups, then we geared up and rolled off the boat. After finding our way down the rope, we saw probably 40+ Wobbegong sharks of all sorts, babies, massive ones, families, swimming, sleeping, etc. Also saw a huge Bull? Ray partially hidden in the sand, as well as one swimming above us which was very cool. We saw 2 sea turtles swimming around, a lobster, an octopus, a lion fish, as well as tons of other fish everywhere. On top of everything we saw, visibility was pretty good. It was probably the best dive I’ve ever had, better than any dives I had in Thailand or the Red Sea, as well as the Whitsundays or Great Barrier Reef further north in Australia. If only my Waterproof Camera could go deeper than 10m, I could have got some amazing photos and videos.

For more info on the Byron Bay Dive Centre I posted the flyer below… I think I probably caught Julian Rocks on a good day, but regardless; if in Byron Bay I highly recommend you go see them, the top 10 ranking was absolutely true in my experience. Check out the video below someone posted of Julian Rocks on youtube.

Julian Rocks Map