Great Barrier Reef points

These are famous, mapped sites. Visibility and wind change; operators publish the day sheet. Depths are typical published bands, not a live plan.

A cay house reef is the correct first GBR water.

Points

Southern GBR, AU · 1-8 m · often 10-25 m · May-Nov popular

A coral cay with a research-station culture, a lighthouse, and a genuine house-reef snorkel at the Reef southern end.

Capricornia, AU · 1-6 m · often 10-20 m · year-round, stinger season

A research and resort cay; etiquette is also science logistics. Walking the cay is a bird-and-turtle problem.

Far North Queensland · 8-25 m · often 15-25 m · dry season liveaboards

Outer-shelf walls and the famous potato-cod site. Usually a liveaboard, not a first pontoon day.

off Cape Bowling Green, AU · 16-30 m · often 10-20 m · Jun-Oct popular

Sank 1911; a protected historic wreck with dense fish. Typically an exterior. See wreck-diving.

Port Douglas shelf, AU · 2-15 m · variable · year-round, weather

The mass outer-reef day product: platforms, helmet dives, and a concentrated impact that parks try to manage.

Whitsundays, AU · 2-12 m · variable · dry season

A Whitsunday outer-reef pontoon area; Heart Reef itself is a overflight icon, not a walk-in snorkel.

off Cairns, AU · 1-5 m · variable · dry season

A bird sanctuary cay with a roped snorkel; the cay is closed to wandering. Terns are the residents.

Coral Sea, AU · 10-40 m · often 20-40 m · liveaboard windows

A Coral Sea atoll often sold beside GBR trips: walls, sharks, and a longer crossing. Not the same park as the inner reef.

The GBR is a province of cays, pontoons and a few sharp wrecks. One name is not one site.