Today Heron Island and Lady Elliot Island are still popular destinations, but one of the only boats offering liveaboard tr
ips
to this area is Big Cat Reality. Usually based in Brisbane, where she operates
weekend trips to the Moreton Bay Marine Park, Big Cat Reality relocates to
Bundaberg at Christmas and Easter to offer several special trips to the Bunker
Group.Big Cat Reality is one of the largest and most comfortable liveaboard boats in Queensland. The vessel is 25m long with a huge 10m wide beam, and caters for 24 divers and 8 crew. The boat has bunk style beds that are large and comfortable, located in two large air-conditioned
cabins,
two lounge areas, licensed bar, a big upper party deck and a huge well organised
dive deck.The Bunker Group of islands consists of eight reefs and coral cays, all of which offer fabulous reef diving. This area is the best place on the Great Barrier Reef to see manta rays, turtles, leopard sharks, tasselled wobbegongs and many other large marine creatures.
Our first dives were around Lady Musgrave Island. We were hoping to dive the drop-off on the southern side of the island, but strong south east winds limited us to the calmer northern and western side. At Manta Ray Bommie we explored a pretty coral reef in 12 to 22m. The visibility was 30m, which was typical throughout the trip. We encountered an amazing variety of reef fish, including a large number of coral trout and batfish. While no manta rays were seen, we did see around a dozen green turtles.
Another wonderful dive site at Lady Musgrave was the Entrance Bommie, a large blade of coral in 22m. This bommie is riddled with ledges and caves, which were over flowing with baitfish. Feasting on these tiny baitfish were trevally, coral trout and sweetlip. The highlight of the dive was finding a 2.5m long tawny nurse shark resting under a ledge.
The dive sites around Lady Musgra
ve
Island are also a good place to see reef sharks, sea snakes and manta rays, with
some of our divers lucky enough to have a spectacular encounter with a feeding
manta ray on a night dive in Lady Musgrave Lagoon.Further north, Fairfax Islands also offer a variety of wonderful diving, with some of the best diving being on the countless bommies on the northern side of the twin islands. Our first dive here was one of the best we did. We jumped in to find a large tawny nurse shark at one bommie, and also saw turtles, an enormous Maori wrasse and abundant reef fish. Swimming from bommie to bommie we encountered a massive black-blotched stingray and found two tasselled wobbegongs nestled in a cave surrounded by cardinalfish. But the best part of the dive was when a manta ray cruised in and then hung around for ten minutes. On other dives at Fairfax Islands we saw another manta ray, giant moray eels, gropers, a lovely leaf scorpionfish and even had a close encounter with four mobula rays, smaller cousins of the manta ray.
The crew of Big Cat Reality are very professional and safety conscious. Before each dive a briefing was given and all divers are tagged in and out of the water. One of the features of the trip was not only the diving, but all the wonderful food prepared by the chef. Meals were very filling, but also between dives we were being constantly offered fruit, freshly baked muffins, cakes and pizza.
At Hoskyn Islands we did a number of exploratory dives on the bommies on the northern side of the island. One we
named
Hoskyn’s Hamper was feast of marine life. This site was dominated by two large
coral bommies sitting in 17m. Both were covered with gorgonians, spiky soft
coral and reef fish. The larger bommie was also undercut with many ledges, which
were filled with cardinalfish. Parting this curtain of fish revealed giant moray
eels, nudibranchs, shrimps, lionfish, squirrelfish and a number of tasselled and
ornate wobbegongs.On other dives around Hoskyn Islands we encountered turtles, reef sharks, stingrays, schools of trevally and some beautiful red emperors, a popular table fish, which are now rarely seen. Each night of the trip a night dive was on offer and the one at Hoskyn Islands was wonderful. Diving the coral gardens we found a multitude of sleeping fish, and more active shrimps, crabs and cuttlefish.
We did only one dive at Llewellyn Reef on a very pretty coral garden. The usual reef fish were in residence, including butterflyfish, angelfish, anemonefish, wrasse, parrotfish and sweetlips. But we also encountered barramundi cod, coral trout and some lovely beaked filefish.
Fitzroy Reef was the furthest north we travelled and a spot where we enjoyed a number of dives. The north side of the reef has bommies and pretty coral gardens in depths to 20m. At Fitzroy No.2 we found numerous blue spotted stingrays, reef octopus, a white tip reef shark and a tiny spotted eagle ray. But the highlight was a large bommie where we found several nudibranchs, an ornate wobbegong and watched a 2m long giant moray eel getting serviced by cleaner wrasse.
Five days of exploring the fabulous Bunker Group was barely enough, but we know we will have to return to dive more of this wonderful part of the Great Barrier Reef.