Broughton Island

Broughton Island, Port Stephens

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-07-29

Half an hour by boat from Nelson Bay, Broughton Island sits off the mouth of Port Stephens like a green fist of rock in the Tasman Sea, and beneath it lies one of the most reliable grey nurse shark dives in New South Wales. At North Rock the sharks gather by the dozen, and at the Looking Glass a narrow trench cuts clean through an islet, walls rising on either side as divers file through in the half-light. It is dramatic, shark-rich diving within easy reach of one of the state's busiest dive towns.

Broughton Island is part of the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park, and its waters are a protected sanctuary for the critically endangered grey nurse shark, one of a handful of key aggregation sites on the New South Wales coast. The island is uninhabited but for a cluster of holiday huts, and the diving is run out of Nelson Bay, the hub of Port Stephens diving. The marine park protection is why the sharks return here in numbers, and why divers are asked to follow careful protocols around them. Like nearby [Cabbage Tree Island](https://www.scubadownunder.com/dive-sites/cabbage-tree-island) and Fish Rock further north, Broughton is part of the chain of grey nurse sites that make this coast so important for the species.

The island offers several distinct dives. The signature is the Looking Glass, a narrow trench that runs through Looking Glass Isle on the south-eastern side, its floor dropping from about 16 metres on the western entrance to 21 on the eastern, with sheer walls rising on either hand. The protocol there is for divers to stay in single file along one wall, usually the left, so their bubbles rise on one side and the grey nurse sharks hold station on the other, undisturbed. North Rock is the other key site, a reef where the resident grey nurse colony gathers, and the broader island holds gutters and a sloping kelp shelf running east to west, with depths from about four metres on the reef top down to seventeen. The terrain is classic temperate reef, dramatic and full of structure.

The grey nurse sharks are the headline, and North Rock has a strong track record, with anywhere from a few individuals to more than twenty-five gathering at the site. Fierce-looking but harmless to divers who treat them with respect, they range from timid to openly curious, and a good day puts divers in the water with a wall of slowly cruising sharks. Around them the reef is alive with schooling fish, striped trumpeter and mado drifting over the kelp shelf, bullseyes and roughy packing the shallows, and cuttlefish hiding in the gutters. Wobbegongs rest under the ledges, rays work the sand, and in the warmer months the East Australian Current brings tropical strays south to mix with the temperate residents.

Broughton is exposed offshore diving, and the conditions reflect it. Visibility is variable, often running from eight to twenty metres and occasionally better when the current is clean, and it can drop after heavy weather. Water temperature ranges from around 16°C in winter to 23°C in summer, so a 5mm to 7mm wetsuit suits most divers. Current can run around the island, particularly at the Looking Glass and North Rock, and the sites are exposed to swell, so trips depend on the conditions and a surface marker buoy is essential. The grey nurse sharks are present through much of the year, with numbers and conditions both worth checking with the local operators before a trip.

Beyond the sharks, Broughton rewards divers who appreciate dramatic terrain and dense temperate fish life. The swim through the Looking Glass is a memorable dive in its own right, walls towering on either side, and the kelp shelves and gutters hold the smaller life that repays a slow look. The island is also a popular spot for freedivers and snorkellers on calm days. As part of a Port Stephens dive trip, Broughton pairs naturally with the area's other sites, including the grey nurse haunts of Cabbage Tree Island, making the region one of the best shark-diving destinations on the east coast.

Broughton Island offers what many divers travel a long way for, time in the water with grey nurse sharks, close to a major dive town and wrapped in the drama of the Looking Glass swim. It is a reminder that some of the best shark diving in the country sits just off the New South Wales coast, protected, accessible and genuinely wild.

## Site Access and Logistics

Broughton Island is a boat dive, reached on a run of around thirty to forty minutes from Nelson Bay, the centre of diving in Port Stephens, about two and a half hours north of Sydney. Several operators run charters to the island's dive sites, and a guided boat dive is the standard and sensible way to dive the current-prone, exposed sites here.

Given depths to around twenty metres, real current and the exposed island setting, Advanced Open Water certification with experience in current and deeper water is the practical standard, and the Looking Glass in particular calls for confident divers who can hold position and follow the single-file protocol. A surface marker buoy is essential. As a marine park sanctuary, the grey nurse sharks are protected, and divers are expected to keep their distance, avoid blocking the sharks' path through the trench, and let them move freely.

Charters and guiding to Broughton Island run from Nelson Bay operators including [Lets Go Adventures](https://letsgoadventures.com.au/dive-sites/north-rock).

## Sources

- Lets Go Adventures, Broughton Island North Rock: [https://letsgoadventures.com.au/dive-sites/north-rock](https://letsgoadventures.com.au/dive-sites/north-rock) - My Travel Jam, dive Port Stephens shark encounter: [https://www.mytraveljam.com/dive-port-stephens/](https://www.mytraveljam.com/dive-port-stephens/) - Grey Nurse Charters, Broughton Island: [https://www.greynurse.com.au/broughton-island](https://www.greynurse.com.au/broughton-island) - Diveplanit, diving Looking Glass Broughton Island: [https://www.diveplanit.com/dive-site/looking-glass-broughton-island/](https://www.diveplanit.com/dive-site/looking-glass-broughton-island/) - Warren Prior, diving with sharks at Broughton Island: [https://www.warrenprior.com/diving-with-sharks-at-broughton-island/](https://www.warrenprior.com/diving-with-sharks-at-broughton-island/)