Halifax Park

Tides and the boating channel

Strong tidal currents run through this part of Port Stephens several times a day. They bring in the food that makes the reef so rich, but they also limit diving to the slack water at the top of the high tide, roughly an hour each day. High slack also gives the best visibility.

The site sits beside a busy boating channel. Stay down until you are back in very shallow water near the shore before you surface. Navigation is simple: deeper water is away from the shore, shallower water is back towards it.

The reef

Kelp and rocks cover the shallows to around 12 metres. Below that, rocky outcrops carried sponge gardens down to the sand at roughly 23 to 26 metres. Halifax was long rated one of the best shore dives in the country for those gardens, but from about 2005 sand began building up over the shallower parts of the site and covered much of the growth. Expect a different dive from older descriptions.

Get close to the bottom and treat it as a muck dive. Nudibranchs, sea spiders, anglerfish, pineapplefish, morays and baby wobbegongs tucked into the sponges are all reported, and blue gropers, bream and snapper often follow divers around.

Night dives

After dark, sea pens rise out of the sand, large sea hares graze the bottom, basket stars open their arms to feed and eels come out to hunt. Small crustaceans swarm to torch beams, drawing in fish that pick them off. The same slack-tide rule applies.

Marine park rules

Halifax Park was declared an aquatic reserve in 1983 and since 2007 has been part of the Fly Point–Corrie Island sanctuary zone in the Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park. Diving and snorkelling are allowed, but nothing may be taken or harmed. Check current zoning with NSW DPI before you go.