North Solitary Island - Anemone Bay

North Solitary Island, Anemone Bay

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-05-09

Anemone Bay is the best-known dive at North Solitary Island, the northernmost of the Solitary Islands, about 13 kilometres east-south-east of Wooli and 40 kilometres north-east of Coffs Harbour on the NSW north coast. The bay is on the island's northern side, and it is named for what covers its shallows. Michael McFadyen, who has logged around 40 dives here, puts the anemones in the tens of thousands.

The NSW Government describes Anemone Bay as having the world's densest aggregation, or carpet, of anemones and their anemonefish. McFadyen notes that other reports rank it lower, and reckons the southern side of the island's north-western point holds even more. Either way, few dives in [NSW](https://scubadownunder.com/blog/best-places-to-dive-in-nsw) put you among this many anemones at once.

The island lies inside the Solitary Islands Marine Park, where warm water carried south by the East Australian Current meets cooler temperate water and tropical and temperate species overlap. The NSW Government notes that North Solitary hosts more tropical species than the other islands because the current's influence is stronger there.

## The Dive

McFadyen describes a bay about 200 metres wide and 75 metres long, with the dive area running another 75 metres or so beyond it. The shallow reef closest to the island runs from 5 metres to about 12 metres at the head of the bay and just over 15 metres on its eastern side, then drops to a sandy bottom dotted with small coral bommies. Outside the main bay the depth falls to 20 to 25 metres, and to more than 30 metres off the north-eastern corner.

There are at least three moorings in the bay. McFadyen's favourite plan starts at the outer mooring, known as the Shark Gutters mooring, which is tied to a huge boulder on the edge of the reef in the north-east of the bay, almost 23 metres deep at its base. From there he drifts back to the mooring at the head of the bay, following a reef wall west as it rises from about 20 metres to 18 and then 14 metres. The anemones thicken as the water shallows, and cleaning stations along the way have fish queuing for cleaner fish to pick them over. Near the inner mooring a plateau holds thousands more anemones, and a gutter runs south into the island to form a small cave. He warns against rounding the island's north-western point because of strong currents, and averages about 70 minutes a dive.

Two dives here by the Underwater Research Group of NSW in March 2021 reached 18.7 and 15.6 metres, with 15 to 20 metres of visibility. On a rough day the club found the bay sheltered by its underwater walls, and wrote of hard and soft corals everywhere, plenty of anemonefish, wobbegongs and big rock lobsters. A Scuba World group diving with Wooli Dive Centre in late October 2016 did the bay as a light drift.

## Anemones and Anemonefish

Most of the carpet is bubble-tip anemone. The Solitary Islands Underwater Research Group says it is by far the more common of the marine park's two giant anemone species, with its highest concentrations in Anemone Bay and the sites around North Solitary. The other host species is the leathery anemone.

A survey around North Solitary Island by Dr Anna Scott of Southern Cross University, working with the NSW Marine Parks Authority and reported in 2009, counted three anemonefish species: the Barrier Reef anemonefish, the wide-band anemonefish and the red and black anemonefish. Compared with surveys in 1994 and 1995, the Barrier Reef anemonefish, the most common, had increased by 133 per cent, and the density of bubble-tip anemones had risen by more than 500 per cent at some sites. Dr Scott credited the island's no-take sanctuary zone and the bubble-tip anemone's ability to split itself in two. Observations logged on iNaturalist around the island follow the same order: Barrier Reef anemonefish are recorded most often, then wide-band, then red and black (blackback) anemonefish.

McFadyen finds three or four anemonefish in each anemone, and warns that some are protective enough to keep nipping at your fingers.

## Other Marine Life

Around the outer mooring McFadyen sees turtles, eagle rays, manta rays and sometimes Queensland groper. North-east of it, the Shark Gutters at 25 to 27 metres normally hold grey nurse sharks in winter, and he has seen them there at all times of year. The NSW Government lists The Steps and Anemone Bay as a declared grey nurse shark aggregation site. On dives here in 2005 McFadyen also met hammerhead sharks, black whalers, a white-spotted shovelnose ray and a bull ray.

Deeper water to the south-east holds Queensland groper and estuary cod. Along the wall he notes schools of bream, diagonal-banded sweetlips and kingfish, as well as clown triggerfish, surgeonfish and many wobbegongs, and in the shallows small cuttlefish and firefish. Wooli Dive Centre adds turtles, rays and many species of nudibranch. The marine park is a stronghold for the black rockcod, a vulnerable species, and divers regularly log them around the island on iNaturalist.

## Conditions

McFadyen finds visibility normally 20 to 30 metres, with water from 19°C in late winter to 25°C in late summer. Eloise of My Favourite Escapes, who dived the bay from Wooli, was told to aim for the warmer months and to avoid northerly winds, and that heavy rain in the preceding days brings a risk of green water and poor visibility. Some of her group were cold in mid-November. In winter, migrating humpback whales can be seen from the boat.

Current is the main hazard. Jetty Dive Centre warns that the East Australian Current can run strongly around the island, usually north to south, and can be too strong to swim against. On a light current day Anemone Bay can be dived from start to finish, but wander too wide and it becomes a drift, and the current can carry divers around the island's eastern side. Jetty Dive does not recommend diving here from a boat without a surface watch. Wooli Dive Centre says the size of the island means there is nearly always a sheltered site to dive.

## Rules in the Marine Park

The marine park zoning map, updated in August 2024, shows the North Solitary Island Sanctuary Zone covering the island's western side, with its northern boundary at the head of Anemone Bay, and a habitat protection zone with grey nurse shark restrictions around the rest of the island. Diving is allowed in every zone, but fishing, anchoring and recreational collecting are banned in the sanctuary zone. Line fishing with bait is banned within 200 metres of the grey nurse aggregation site marked off the island's northern tip, and wire traces for bottom fishing within 500 metres of the island.

The national code of conduct for diving with grey nurse sharks applies in all NSW waters. Divers must not touch, feed, chase or harass the sharks, block cave entrances or gutters, dive in groups of more than ten, or use scooters or other mechanical devices, and operators must give a grey nurse briefing at each site. Our [grey nurse shark guide](https://scubadownunder.com/blog/the-grey-nurse-shark-the-gentle-giant-of-australias-reefs) has more on the species.

## Site Access and Logistics

Anemone Bay is a boat dive. Wooli Dive Centre at Wooli is the closest operator. It runs the Kraken, a 12 metre aluminium catamaran with side doors for entry, a boarding ladder and a toilet, and puts the island 7 nautical miles and about 20 minutes away. McFadyen times the run from Wooli at about 25 minutes for 14 kilometres, writes that Wooli Dive Centre is now the only way to dive here without your own boat, and notes that it generally goes out only with six or more divers. The centre trains and guides divers from beginner to advanced level; no operator publishes a minimum certification for Anemone Bay itself. Wooli Dive Centre also runs trips to [Pimpernel Rock](https://scubadownunder.com/blog/pimpernel-rock).

From Coffs Harbour, Jetty Dive Centre runs North Solitary trips on an as-needs basis, with about 75 minutes on the boat each way, so the sea has to suit a long run; it fits three dives into two tanks on those days. Public moorings are marked in the bay on the zoning map.

## Sources

- [Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving: Anemone Bay, North Solitary Island](https://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/viewpage.php?page_id=186) - [Wooli Dive Centre: Scuba Dive](https://woolidive.com.au/dive/) - [JettyDive: North Solitary Island](https://jettydive.com.au/north-solitary-island/) - [Solitary Islands Underwater Research Group: Entacmaea quadricolor](https://www.surg.org.au/species/entacmaea-quadricolor-leuckart-in-ruppell-and-leuckart-1828/) - [Southern Cross University: Anemones find the ideal home](https://www.scu.edu.au/news/2009/anemones-find-the-ideal-home.php) - [Underwater Research Group of NSW: Dive trip to North Solitary Islands, March 2021](https://www.urgdiveclub.org.au/post/dive-trip-to-north-solitary-islands-12-03-2021-17-03-2021) - [Scuba World: North Solitary Islands, Wooli, NSW](https://scubaworld.com.au/north-solitary-islands-wooli-nsw) - [My Favourite Escapes: Is scuba diving the Solitary Islands worth it?](https://myfavouriteescapes.com/scuba-diving-solitary-islands/) - [Wikipedia: North Solitary Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Solitary_Island) - [Wikipedia: Solitary Islands Marine Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_Islands_Marine_Park) - NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: Solitary Islands Marine Park (dpird.nsw.gov.au) - NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: SCUBA diving and snorkelling, Solitary Islands Marine Park (dpird.nsw.gov.au) - NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: Solitary Islands Marine Park zoning map, updated August 2024, PDF (dpird.nsw.gov.au) - NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: Fishing and diving rules at Greynurse Shark aggregation sites (dpird.nsw.gov.au) - NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development: North Solitary Island Greynurse Shark aggregation site map, PDF (dpird.nsw.gov.au) - iNaturalist: research observations within 1.5 km of North Solitary Island, anemones and anemonefish (inaturalist.org, queried 11 October 2026)

Header photo: A wide-band anemonefish guarding its eggs beside its host anemone at North Solitary Island, by Ian V. Shaw / Reef Life Survey, [CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amphiprion_latezonatus,_embriones.jpg).