Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DIVE COURSES
Many dive companies in Queensland offer dive courses,
from initial open-water certification all the way to dive master, rescue diver, and
instructor level. To take a course, you will need to have a medical exam done by
a Queensland doctor. (Your dive school will arrange it.) You will also need two
passport photos for your certificate, and you must be able to swim! Some courses
take as little as 3 days, but 5 days is generally regarded as the best. Open-water
certification usually requires 2 days of
theory in a pool, followed by 2 or 3
days out on the Reef, where you make
between four and nine dives.
Deep Sea Divers Den
(
&
07/4046
7333;
fax 07/4031 1210; www.divers-
den.com) has been in operation since
1974 and claims to have certified
about 55,000 divers. The 5-day open-
water course involves 2 days of theory
in the pool in Cairns, and 3 days and 2 nights on a live-aboard boat. The course
costs A$550 (US$358) per person, including all meals on the boat, nine dives
(including a guided night dive), all your gear and a wet suit, and transfers from
your city hotel. The same course over 4 nights, with 1 night on the boat and four
dives, costs A$440 (US$286). New courses begin every day of the week.
Virtually every Great Barrier Reef dive operator offers dive courses. Most
island resorts offer them, too. You will find dive schools in Cairns, Port Douglas,
Mission Beach, Townsville, and the Whitsunday Islands.
Most dive companies teach from beginner level (“open-water certification”)
through to Advanced, Rescue, Dive Master, and Dive Instructor level. Courses
usually begin every day or every week. Prices vary considerably, but are generally
around A$550 to A$600 (US$358-US$390) for a 5-day open-water certifica-
tion course, or A$450 (US$293) for the same course over 4 nights.
Companies offering dive courses appear under the relevant regional sections
throughout this chapter.
Diving Tips
Don't forget your “C” certifica-
tion card. Bringing along your
dive log is also a good idea.
Remember not to fly for 24
hours after diving.
Tips
2 Cairns
346km (215 miles) N of Townsville; 1,807km (1,120 miles) N of Brisbane
This is the only place in the world where two World Heritage-listed sites—the
Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest—lie side by side. In parts of
the far north, the rainforest touches the reef, reaching right down to sandy
beaches from which you can snorkel the reef. Cairns is the gateway to these nat-
ural attractions, plus to man-made tourist attractions such as the Skyrail Rain-
forest Cableway. It's also a stepping-stone to islands of the Great Barrier Reef and
the grasslands of the Gulf Savannah.
When international tourism to the Great Barrier Reef boomed a decade or
two ago, the small sugar-farming town of Cairns boomed along with it. The
town now boasts outstanding hotels, island resorts off shore, big Reef-cruise
catamarans in the harbor, and too many souvenir shops. The only beach right in
town is a man-made 4,000-sq.-m (43,000-sq.-ft.) saltwater lagoon and artificial
beach on the Esplanade, which opened in early 2003 as part of a multimillion-
dollar redevelopment of the city and port.
The 110-million-year-old rainforest, the Daintree, where plants that are fos-
sils elsewhere in the world exist in living color, is just a couple of hours north of
