Lady Elliot Island

A 45 hectare coral cay at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, 80 km off Bundaberg, ringed by fringing reef that drops onto bommies, ledges and sand channels in 5 to 25 m. Lady Elliot is the largest known reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) aggregation in eastern Australia, accounting for roughly 70 percent of east coast sightings. The signature dive is Lighthouse Bommie on the eastern reef — coral heads in 14 to 16 m where mantas queue at cleaner wrasse stations from May through September. Green and loggerhead turtles rest in the soft coral beds, leopard sharks pulse over the sand in summer, and humpback whales pass through the offshore channel on the southern migration. The Blowhole on the east side is an L shaped cave entering at 14 m and dropping out the wall around 22 m.