Broughton Island

The Looking Glass

The Looking Glass is a crack through the rock shaped like an upside-down V. It is shallow inside, around 8 metres, and deepens to about 18 metres. Large boulders outside hold swim-throughs, and at the far end the walls open into a natural aquarium lit by shafts of sunlight. It is at its best on a sunny day with clear water.

Expect surge in the gap. Keep your buoyancy tight, stay in single file to one side so the sharks have room to pass, and decide before you go in whether you will ride the surge or wait it out.

Other sites around the island

Other named sites include Cod Rock, Bubble Cave, Big and Little Shark Gutters, and The Steps with Spider Cave. North Rock has extensive sponge gardens below 18 metres where the protected elegant wrasse lives. Older guides also describe caves at Esmeralda and Fishermans and shallow rocky gutters full of wobbegongs. Some walls around the island are much deeper and suit advanced divers.

What lives here

Broughton has resident grey nurse sharks, and they are often seen in the Looking Glass. Blue devilfish live in its caves, and weedy seadragons are there for those who look closely. Blue gropers, red morwong, bullseyes, bream, cuttlefish and numbfish are common. Large eagle rays and black rays are seen, and Port Jackson sharks gather in the swim-throughs at certain times of year.

Grey nurse shark rules

Little Broughton Island, next to the main island, is declared grey nurse shark critical habitat and a sanctuary zone, and fishing is prohibited there. The national code of conduct for diving with grey nurse sharks applies in all NSW waters: don’t touch, feed, chase or block the sharks, keep groups to ten divers or fewer, no scooters, horns or shark pods, and no night dives at critical habitat sites. Check the current rules with NSW DPI before you dive.