Fairlight
Fairlight, Sydney Harbour: a shore dive map with the reef and its overhangs, a small wreck, and where the Port Jackson sharks gather.
Expand here for the dive site description
A good site limited by the visibility that is usually around 4 meters, but there are some colourful bright-green formations, an interesting reef full of overhangs, a small wreck, groups of Port Jackson sharks (in July-October), a pretty big wobbegong (2020), and for some time I have been finding a resident big lionfish (2019).
With low tide the entry (from the beach) requires to swim in shallow water over the reef and the kelp, the exit in low tide is more challenging as coming from South it is not obvious which way to go for the shore and you will find yourself attempting a few ways before finding the narrow channel to the beach.
The most interesting part is South of the beach towards the wreck as per map, and then some 200 m towards East. When the boulder start becoming boring, towards Delwood Beach, it's time to turn back. Once I have dived Manly Cove to Fairlight and back, but I would not recommend as it's a lot of swimming and just sand in between.
The wreck itself (a speedboat, 145 m from the beach) is worth having a look as it's near the sandline where you are probably going anyway. Nearby there is also a smaller boat. If you have remaining air, worth having a look at the West side, up to the point where the buoy is.
During one of my tours in the area, going South into the sand for some hundreds meters, I came across a juvenile Wobbegong, 40 cm in length, in a green patch as indicated in the map. It's actually the first juvenile Wobbegong I have seen in years, differently from the Port Jackson sharks who are far more common.
Please note: all the GPS locations are in WGS84 datum.
Juvenile Wobbegong (40 cm) found 300 m from the beach
A Guitarfish, another species that can be found going towards the sandy area South of the reef
Engine of the wreck
The bright-green formations that characterize this site
White-spotted Puffer
Seeing a Crested Morwong always feels a little bit like being at the tropics
Boxfish
Bright orange sponges complete the interesting landscape
