Fairlight

Fairlight, Sydney Harbour: a shore dive map with the reef and its overhangs, a small wreck, and where the Port Jackson sharks gather.

A good site held back by the visibility, which is usually around four metres. What it has: bright green formations, a reef full of overhangs, a small wreck, Port Jackson sharks from July to October, a sizeable wobbegong (2020), and for a while a resident lionfish (2019). GPS positions are WGS84 throughout.

Conditions today: this site is Fairlight on the VIZ Forecast.

The exit at low tide

Entering from the beach at low tide means swimming shallow over reef and kelp. The exit is the harder half: coming back from the south it is not obvious which way the shore is, and you can find yourself trying several before locating the narrow channel to the beach.

Where to go

The interesting part is south of the beach towards the wreck as marked, then about 200 m east. When the boulders start to get dull, towards Delwood Beach, turn back.

I have dived Manly Cove to Fairlight and back once. I would not recommend it — a great deal of swimming with nothing but sand in between.

The wreck is a speedboat 145 m from the beach, worth a look since it sits near the sandline you are probably heading for anyway. There is a smaller boat nearby. With air to spare, the west side is worth seeing as far as the buoy.

On one trip south into the sand, a few hundred metres out, I came across a juvenile wobbegong of 40 cm in a green patch — marked on the map. The first juvenile wobbegong I had seen in years, unlike the Port Jackson sharks, which are far more common.