Dive into the Heron Island Dive Festival 2012

Situated on the Great Barrier Reef less than 100kms off the coast of Queensland on Australia’s eastern seaboard, Heron Island is a natural coral cay. It is considered to be one of Australia’s top dive destinations. Jacques Cousteau even listed the Heron Bommie as one of his top 10 favourite dive sites in the world. Combining a range of diving opportunities with workshops and lectures, the Festival,

being held for the second year in 2012, is sure to appeal to avid divers from all over the world who recognise Heron Island’s status as a “must dive” location.
 

Divers will enjoy two dives a day, along with the option of night dives – ensuring they really get to know the myriad dive sites with their fantastic coral gardens and bommies, and extensive marine life on this southern part of the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally there will be a series of inspirational lectures and workshops to provide guests with more information about their environment. A number of internationally

renowned speakers have already committed to the program including:
 

• John Lippman, CEO Divers Alert Network, Asia Pacific

• Dave Harasti, renowned marine scientist and underwater photographer

• Bob Halstead, celebrated underwater photographer

• Gary Bell, award-winning nature and wildlife photographer
 

The workshops will include basic and advanced photography skills with Gary Bell, teaching essential underwater camera skills. Dave Harasti will talk about weird and exotic sea creatures and where to find them and Bob Halstead will present a number of topics, including ‘Diving is Adventure: The difference between risk and danger, and how to survive high risk dives’.
 

For diving novices, Discover Scuba dive classes will take place every morning at the Heron Island swimming pool and in the harbour, essentially for people who are not PADI certified divers but would like to try. There will also be a series of afternoon wine tastings, cooking master classes plus a range of taster treatments at the Heron Island Aqua Soul Spa, designed to get you in the mood for a full treatment.
 

The Heron Island Dive Festival 2012 will close on Sunday 29 July with a gala dinner and presentations from the week’s events.
 

A natural island, Heron Island is renowned for its birdlife, clear waters and acres of brilliant coral with colourful marine life with more than 20 different dive sites to explore. The waters are teeming with reef fish, turtles, mantas, reef sharks and endless varieties of invertebrates. Diving at Heron Island is relatively shallow, with an average depth of around 15 to 35 metres, and snorkellers can enjoy the shallow reefs that come up to within two or three metres of the surface in places. The waters of the reef off Heron Island are home to around 60% of the 1,500 species of fish and around 72% of the coral species found in the Great Barrier Reef.
 

The Heron Island Dive Festival is priced from $1256 per person, which includes four nights accommodation, two dives daily (per diver booked), three meals each day, return launch transfers from Gladstone and tanks and weights.