Angourie Back Beach

Angourie Back Beach Dive Guide

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2025-06-20

### Beneath the Breakers: Diving Angourie Back Beach Just south of Yamba on the New South Wales North Coast, Angourie Back Beach offers a moody, rugged dive site beloved by local spearos and experienced shore divers alike. This isn’t your average tourist reef. It's a dynamic, volcanic rock seascape with surge-swept gutters, seasonal kelp forests, and powerful East Australian Current-fed marine life. This part of Yuraygir National Park is better known for surf than scuba, but those who venture below the surface discover a rarely explored stretch of wild coast with ledges teeming with temperate reef species. It’s shore diving with a punch, not a playground. But for confident divers with solid surf entry skills and a love of adventure, Angourie Back Beach delivers. ### Access and Conditions **Entry Point:** The dive is a shore entry via the southern corner of the beach near the headland. Park near Angourie Blue Pool and walk down the trail to the beach. Entry is best done at mid to high tide, avoiding heavy surf days. **Entry Style:** Rocky shore entry with strong wave exposure. You’ll need to time your entry and exit carefully between sets. Booties and gloves are highly recommended. **Depth Range:** 4 to 14 metres. The site is shallow but the visibility and complexity increase the deeper you go toward the outer reef edges. **Best Season:** Summer to early autumn (December to March) offers the warmest water and clearest visibility, averaging 10 to 15 metres on a good day. Winter brings westerlies and calmer surface conditions, though with colder water and more kelp cover. **Conditions:** Swell-sensitive. Even small surf can generate strong surge and impact visibility. Best dived on days with <1m swell and light offshore winds. ### Dive Site Highlights **Volcanic Gullies and Swim-throughs** The basalt bedrock of the headland forms rugged trenches and canyons just offshore. These are carved by surge and tide over millennia, creating narrow swim-throughs filled with schooling fish and hidden lobsters. The northern edges feature deeper overhangs and caverns that act as hiding spots for wobbegongs and moray eels. **Macro Wonderland** This is nudibranch country. Look closely and you’ll spot tiny, brilliantly coloured sea slugs decorating the walls and ledges. Soft corals, sea tulips and anemones thrive in the nutrient-rich surge zones. Photographers chasing unique temperate macro will be well rewarded. **Fish Life** Expect bream, tarwhine, luderick and drummer in the shallows. Sweep, bullseyes and silver trevally patrol the gutters, while blue groper, estuary cod and schools of stripey snapper dominate the deeper ledges. Wobbegongs are a regular sighting and Port Jackson sharks appear in cooler months. **Seasonal Visitors** Turtles and eagle rays sometimes cruise past, and late summer can bring pelagics in close. During the winter, the bay becomes a spot for watching humpbacks from the surface after your dive. ### Safety and Hazards This is not a beginner site. It demands strong situational awareness and physical confidence in surf conditions. The entry and exit can be hazardous during rising swell. Watch for: * Sudden surge and longshore current * Sharp basalt outcrops and slippery entry rocks * Boat traffic if you venture far offshore * Poor visibility after rain or strong swell Always dive with a buddy, use an SMB, and check tide and swell forecasts before setting out. Locals recommend diving early in the day before wind picks up. ### Gear and Services **Nearby Dive Centres:** *Yamba Dive Experience* and *Wooli Dive Centre* are the closest operators for fills and gear hire, though both focus more on boat dives at Pimpernel Rock and the Solitary Islands. **Recommended Kit:** * Full 5mm wetsuit year-round * Gloves and boots essential * SMB and whistle * Torch for swim-throughs * Knife for kelp or fishing line snags ### Final Thoughts Angourie Back Beach isn’t the most convenient or forgiving dive site on the coast. But for the diver willing to walk the extra kilometre, time the tides, and slip in through the back door of a surf beach, it offers a rich payoff. It’s raw, uncommercial, and untamed diving, a rare thing on the east coast. Bring your sense of adventure, a good buddy, and keep your eyes peeled beneath the surge. **Sources:** [NSW National Parks, Yuraygir Coastal Walk](https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/things-to-do/walking-tracks/yuraygir-coastal-walk) [Surf Life Saving NSW Beachsafe, Angourie](https://beachsafe.org.au/beach/nsw/clarenza/angourie/angourie-back-beach) [Yamba Dive Experience](https://www.yambadiving.com.au)

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*Planning a NSW dive trip? See our [region-by-region guide to the best places to dive in NSW](https://www.scubadownunder.com/blog/best-places-to-dive-in-nsw) for the full overview of dive sites across the state.*