Top Snorkeling and Scuba Diving in Royal National Park

SS Undola was a small coastal steamer, sunk december 20th, 1919. It lies upright on the bottom, with its bow facing to NE. The wreck lies 2.5 km off Garie Beach in the southern end of the Royal National Park.

Only a few hundred metres off Royal National Park on the southern outskirts of the city of Sydney

The SS Tuggerah was a coastal steamer that carried coal to Sydney. It sunk saturday 16 May 1919, with the loss of 6 lives. SS Tuggerah lyes on its port side, the bow of the wreck is destroyed. The ship mast is lying off to the left hand side of the wreck, quite distinctive. The bow is full of nannygai and other small fish. The wreck normally has outstanding fish life on it, as well as intersting setions of the wreck remaining, including tools rusted solidly into the hull in what remains of the engine room, the boiler and engine and propeller. One needs good GPS marks, plus visual marks to find the wreck. With these it is pretty easy. Conditions on the wreck very greatly. Current can be in excess of 3 kts: strong enough to be dangerous. Visibility can vary from zero to 30m+ on some days. The site is exposed to the Tasman Sea, and is a 3km swim to safety. As the depth is past normal recreational limits, this is not a site for inexperienced divers, or those who cannot cope with mandatory decompression stops. A half hour dive can result in at least 35 minutes of deco. The wreck lies two kilometres off the coast of Royal National Park on Sydney's south.

Great easy dive. Good for learning and night dives though this is only during daylight saving period. Dive south from Sydney to the Royal National Park. Follow the signs in the national park to the Wottamolla Road Turn off. Follow to end of road and park in car-park. Gear up here and walk down the hill to the east as though accessing the lagoon. As you approach the lagoon seek a trail to the right of the lagoon that heads east and up the hill. follow this 500meters keeping as low as possible on the trail (a fork in the trail will have you going up and miss the beach completely). the trail meets the beach and you can access the site here. You can dive either side of the bay though the south side is best in unsettled weather. You can dive outside the headland if you wish. Unfortunately, NSW National Parks and Wildlife service have stopped people entering the area at night. So a wonderful night dive here can only happen with some creative logistics. You will need to take two cars tot he site, one with an overnight camping permit form the NPAWS. You will drive both cars to the gates when they are closed, parking one car outside the gates. then travel with all your dive gear to the site car park. go do the dive as described above. Upon returning to your car drive back to your first car and change, then go home in the first car, leaving the second car inside the gates till the morning. Pick up the other car the next day. Wottamolla is also known as None.

Good dive for training boat divers and advanced divers. Two kilometres off the end of the end of The "Kingsway" this site is easily picked up on a depth sounder by lining up on The "Kingsway" road that leads into Cronulla and heading east north east approximately two kilometres offshore. It's a fairly large underwater bommie that rises up off 22-24m depth (depending on tide) to the top of the bommie at 16-18m. It can be dived on three sides. The inner western side has a small cave (non-penetration type). See also: Tom Byron's "Dives On The NSW East Coast". Commercial dive boats tend to anchor on the North/western tip of reef to give quick and easy access for divers to the cave, however, the reef on the eastern side is very good and often cleaner vis wise. In days long gone by now, dive agencies used to use 'Osbourne' as the 16m 'boat dive' for new students doing their boat dive component. So it's a fairly easy and good dive for most divers with little experience.

Only seriously consider this dive when the conditions are perfect. Otherwise the dive will be long and arduous one when you have to contending with: significant surge, low visibility, poor navigational capability, etcetera. Dangers include: overhead boating; distance from shore if surfacing, running out of air, or completing an emergency ascent; loss of direction due to similar or unfamiliar terrain; lost track of time and tank pressure resulting in a low air situation a long way from shore. Shark contact-low. Note: maximum depth is only achievable on a high tide. Go to Oak Park dive site. Enter at usual spot and 'swim for all your worth'. No you need to follow the reef outline to the 4 and 5 reefs and then connect the dots on the sea floor till you get to the outer reefs 7 and 8. This is a long slow dive. You will need a 100cft tank or twins (you want to be doing at least 90minutes + on this dive to cover all the area sufficiently) and or a scooter to do this dive effectively. DI can provide dive maps on request via email below. There is also a good 'Google Maps' photo that shows a poor outline of the reefs which I think is list here or on the 4th & 5th reefs dive site page. The maximum depth listed below will only be achieved at the extremity of the dive length and on a correspondingly high tide of 2+m.

Once you have swam past the 1st. reef at Oak Park, follow underwater reef system out to the east. oYu will need to keep following the edge of the reefs system in a 'northerly then east then northerly then east pattern' occasionally crossing some sand to reach other reefs. The further you go the better the vis and biota. Most divers don't follow these walls and hence don't impact on the area. Typically, best done as a boat dive but can be reached by experienced shore divers. Access can be gained by Jibbon Street Cronulla, at Oak Park. 4th-5th Reefs is also known as Oak park.