Liveaboard Diving in Osprey Reef

What To Expect On An Osprey Reef Liveaboard

Setting sail on a Cairns-based liveaboard tour bound for Osprey Reef, you will enter a remote, unspoiled underwater wilderness full of vibrant colors, curious sea creatures, and stunning scenery. The reef is over 60 kilometers from any other, ensuring a remoteness that will leave you feeling on the world's edge. It lies a whopping 350 kilometers from the city of Cairns in Queensland in the Coral Sea section of the Great Barrier Reef, and due to this isolated position, it is only accessible via liveaboard.

Osprey Reef is famous for its superb visibility (often over 40 meters) and big fish residents, particularly the number of sharks at North Horn. This site is perhaps the most well-known at Osprey, but several other exciting areas exist. When diving Osprey Reef on a liveaboard, you'll likely explore what Fairy Grotto, Admiralty Anchor, and False Entrance offers.

What You Can See

Excited by big fish? Are you in awe of bright, natural, and vivid colors? You're in the right place! A liveaboard dive tour to Osprey Reef will spoil you with the variety and numbers of large creatures in the water, all gliding through a scene filled with a blissful array of hard and soft corals. The reefs are healthy, of all shapes, sizes, and colors you can care to imagine. Divers regularly encounter large amounts of graceful pelagics and elegant Green and Loggerhead Turtles. There's an extraordinary plethora of life here all year round, but if you dive here between June and November, you may also come across the odd Humpback Whale!

Gaze at the many sharks passing by while swimming through large schools of Barracuda or Giant Trevally at Admiralty Anchor. Move onto False Entrance, where again you'll join huge schools of fish, this time including big-eye Trevally - and if you're diving in the Australian winter, you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the peculiar-looking Hammerhead shark. Your liveaboard trip to Osprey Reef will undoubtedly include North Horn, the site of probably Australia's most famous shark feed, where Grey Reefs, Silkys, Silvertips, and Hammerheads all converge to make a spectacle that will last long in the memory of any diver.

Getting to Osprey Reef

Because of its remoteness, Osprey Reef is difficult to get to, making the diving even more spectacular as you'll be sharing the water with very few, other than the stunning marine life on the show. The only realistic way to dive here is via a Cairns-based liveaboard. Many of these Australian liveaboard trips are between 4 and 7 days, giving you enough time to sail, dive, and relax.

Cairns is a popular tourist town in the northeast corner of Queensland and is the most common port for departing liveaboard diving cruises to the Coral Sea. It has an airport close to town, a large international hub, and many well-known international carriers serve it. You'll likely be able to fly directly into Cairns from overseas (unless you want to combine other areas of Australia into your trip). If this is not possible in the unlikely event, there are daily domestic flights to Cairns from the even larger cities of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. Most liveaboard operators will offer a complimentary pick-up service from your accommodation.


Osprey Reef Diving Reviews

  • 9.3 Superb
  • 49 Verified Reviews
  • 8.8 Fabulous
  • sheryl R
  • United States United States

Great . So much to look at and film

Diving Osprey Reef in November on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 8.8 Fabulous
  • sheryl R
  • United States United States

Out of this world and amazing

Diving Osprey Reef in November on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Russell H
  • United States United States

Very good. Reef was a little bleached

Diving Osprey Reef in January on the Spoilsport

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Steven W
  • United States United States

Beyond excellent. Truly a special spot.

Diving Osprey Reef in February on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Kaitlin R
  • United States United States

So much going on. Tons of different fish.

Diving Osprey Reef in October on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 8.8 Fabulous
  • Bob C
  • United States United States

Beautiful reef teaming with life.

Diving Osprey Reef in April on the Spoilsport

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Jillian L
  • United States United States

Really interesting and unique

Diving Osprey Reef in December on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Diana M
  • United States United States

Can you say sharks??? Never believed I would dive with them, but it was breathtaking and a whole new level of experiencing the underwater world.

Diving Osprey Reef in October on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Steven E
  • United States United States

Osprey reef offered amazing wall dives with something new on each dive. We only spent 1 day due to wind conditions but it’s hard to complain when the rest of the diving was just as great.

Diving Osprey Reef in October on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Simon N
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom

Had to miss due to weather conditions

Diving Osprey Reef in February on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Samantha H
  • Australia Australia

Osprey Reef was amazing.we saw a whale shark, what an experience to be in the water with this majestic animal. There were lots of sharks and this was also an incredible experience. We dived with schools of fish including blue bump head parrotfish, barracuda, to name a few.

Diving Osprey Reef in November on the Spoilsport

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Ben L
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom

Osprey was my favourite location from the trip for diving, it is home to lots of reef and grey tip sharks, diving is an exhilarating experience. Great, warm 30°c water means you only need to wear t-shirt and shorts, no need for a wet suit if you don't want to wear them. At all dive sites, we were the only dive group and the vast majority of the time you and your buddy do not bump into anyone else during the dives.

Diving Osprey Reef in January on the Spoilsport

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Terence K
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom

Probably the nicest bit of the Coral Sea. Lots of sharks, eagle rays, marine life.

Diving Osprey Reef in January on the Spoilsport

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Raian D
  • Italy Italy

Incredible dive location, nothing like it.

Diving Osprey Reef in January on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 8.0 Very good
  • Sune Levy T
  • Denmark Denmark

Outstanding reef and wildlife

Diving Osprey Reef in May on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Auguste H
  • France France

Definitely an awesome spot for scuba diving. The water is so clear there! It changes every thing for the view on the landscape and the fauna.

Diving Osprey Reef in August on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 8.8 Fabulous
  • Marie-France G
  • Australia Australia

Very different, impressive wall, any creatures could appear from the Big Blue

Diving Osprey Reef in September on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Barry P
  • Canada Canada

Even with storm damage evident this dive was memorable, lots of life and evidence of new growth

Diving Osprey Reef in April on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Michelle K
  • Netherlands Netherlands

Such a beautiful place. A lot of different animals, drift dive's, shallow dives beautiful hard and soft coral

Diving Osprey Reef in June on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Guillaume B
  • France France

Scenic, just need to look at the environment for the global picture of the marine life

Diving Osprey Reef in August on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Eva W
  • Germany Germany

Some great sites (Admiralty, False Entrance) some not so great - mostly due to poor viz on that day.

Diving Osprey Reef in December on the Spoilsport

  • 8.8 Fabulous
  • Gina M
  • Australia Australia

Some of the clearest water I have dived in

Diving Osprey Reef in March on the Spoilsport

  • 9.6 Exceptional
  • Robert S
  • Canada Canada

The highlight of the trip - so pristine, loved the sharks and all the underwater life

Diving Osprey Reef in April on the Spoilsport

  • 7.2 Good
  • Chris B
  • Australia Australia

Needs a decent drift dive.

Diving Osprey Reef in June on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Joanna B
  • Australia Australia

Amazing - shark feeding was unbelievable

Diving Osprey Reef in March on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • heike F
  • Germany Germany

many schools of fish at every depth, saw my first squid

Diving Osprey Reef in May on the Spirit of Freedom

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Yuan X
  • Hong Kong Hong Kong

Shark feeding is interesting

Diving Osprey Reef in July on the Spoilsport

  • 9.2 Superb
  • Felipe G
  • Mexico Mexico

ok. Except when doing the shark feeding the sharks opened the food box and there was no show

Diving Osprey Reef in August on the Spoilsport

  • 8.4 Very good
  • Brigette A
  • Australia Australia

Diverse reef, lots of sharks around, false entrance was my favourite site by far.

Diving Osprey Reef in January on the Spoilsport

  • 10.0 Exceptional
  • Jacqueline C
  • United Kingdom United Kingdom

Best Coral and viz I've ever seen. Lots of sharks too!

Diving Osprey Reef in February on the Spirit of Freedom