Heron Island

Heron Island is one of the few places on the Great Barrier Reef where you can actually stay on the reef. The small island is located about 70 km off the coast of Gladstone and lies right on the Tropic of Capricorn. There is a resort on the island with moderate to very nice accommodation. For details please look on the official Heron Island webpage. There you will also find a map of the dive sites. The dive operator on the island offers three trips per day, two in the morning and one in the afternoon (July 2007). All dive sites are reached within a couple of minutes with a small open dive boat. The dive sites are quite shallow, maximum dephth is in general below 20 m. The crew is friendly and the place not too crowded (at least when I was there), in average 3 - 5 divers per trip. In winter (July) the water temperature is about 21°C and the air can be chilly, especially in the mornings. A 5 mm wet suit including hood is recommended. Sometimes I wished I brought my 7 mm. The satellite pictures (copyright Google) show the island and the surrounding reef. The underwater pictures in the gallery were taken at the dive sites north of the island.

Google Earth: bird's view of the reef and the island
The reef at sunset
Dive boats
Impressions from the island