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	Diving Rowley Shoals
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The Rowley Shoals National Marine Park lies just over 180 nautical miles west of Broome sitting on one of the widest continental shelves in the world. These Shoals are the remains of three volcanoes that rose out of the ocean, forming a chain of three spectacular and pristine pear-shaped coral atolls, each atoll covering approximately 80-90 square kilometres within the rim of the reef. The Rowley Shoals rise with nearly vertical sides from very deep water. Mermaid Reef, the most northerly shoal, rises from about 440 metres, Clerke Reef from 390 metres and Imperieuse Reef from about 230 metres.  The group was named after Captain Rowley, who sighted Imperieuse Reef in 1800.

Over the centuries, these atolls have been used by Indonesian fishermen to collect trochin shells and trepang (sea cucumber), turtle shell and shark fin. Pearling luggers working out of Cossack from the mid-1800s to about 1930 regularly stopped at the Rowley Shoals and Scott Reef to the north, to collect sea cucumbers and fish, before returning their Indonesian pearl divers to Kupang in Timor.

From about 1977 charter boats operating from Broome began promoting deep sea fishing and scuba diving expeditions to the area. Today the Rowley Shoals rank among the most remote and pristine marine environments in the world. From about 1977 charter boats operating from Broome began promoting deep sea fishing and scuba diving expeditions to the area. Today the Rowley Shoals rank among the most remote and pristine marine environments in the world.

The easiest way to get to the Rowley Shoals is to fly to Broome, a tranquil beach town some 2300km north of Perth where you meet up with your boat charter out to the Shoals.

Rowley Shoals

The coral atolls of the Rowley Shoals are famed for their almost untouched coral gardens, giant clams and other shellfish. Giant potato cod and maori wrasse wait to be hand fed and follow scuba divers around, while colourful reef fish show little fear, and trevally, mackerel and tuna hover in schools. 233 species of coral and 688 species of fish inhabit the Rowley Shoals – including many species not found on nearshore coral reefs. There are at least 28 species of staghorn coral alone.

Rowley Shoals has some of the biggest tidal changes of any coral atoll worldwide with 4 metre plus tides flowing into and out of the reefs creating some incredibly colourful coral formations and canyons. At low tide the water becomes ponded within the reef walls and the water flows over the atoll walls like waterfalls. At high tide, the reefs disappear beneath the sea, with only the sandy islands of Clerke and Imperieuse visible.  The outside walls of the Rowley Shoals are alive with soft corals in every imaginable colour. The Shoals also support humpback whales, manta rays, hammerhead sharks and other large reef species.

The Rowley Shoals gives you the opportunity to experience a diverse array of scuba diving environments including lagoons, canyons, high speed drift dives and sheer outer reef wall dives. Often touted as the world’s last great ‘underwater wilderness’, Rowley Shoals offers some of the most remote scuba diving within Australia.

Visibility ranges from 20 to 60 metres and water temperatures are tropical. The best time of year to dive the Rowley Shoals is from October to December and the only way to dive these atolls is by liveaboard dive boat.
 

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