North Solitary Island - Anemone Bay

North Solitary Island, Anemone Bay

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-05-09

Sixteen kilometres off the Wooli coastline, on the northern face of a small island that breaks the open Pacific, a single sheltered bay holds what marine biologists have documented as the highest density of host anemones on the east coast. Anemone Bay is the headline dive of North Solitary Island, and through the right window of tide and weather it produces an underwater carpet of waving tentacles in white, purple and pink, hundreds of anemones in a single sand patch, each with its resident clownfish or damsel. The site sits inside the Solitary Islands Marine Park and has been one of the most documented natural dive sites in northern NSW since the 1980s.

The Solitary Islands lie at one of the meeting points of tropical and temperate currents on the east coast. The East Australian Current carries warm tropical water down past the islands, dropping reef-building corals and tropical reef fish at a latitude where the broader environment is still subtropical. North Solitary Island, the most northerly of the four main islands, catches more of that tropical influence than the rest, and Anemone Bay on its sheltered northwest face concentrates the result. The Solitary Islands Marine Park was declared in 1991 and has been progressively rezoned since, with the bay sitting inside protections that restrict take and disturbance. The Yaegl people are the traditional custodians of the Wooli area and the broader Solitary Islands country.

Anemone Bay is a small, semi-circular indent on the northwest face of North Solitary Island, bordered by sloping granite reef that drops to a sand and rubble floor at 18 to 22 metres. The bay's geometry shelters it from prevailing southerly swells, and most dive plans drop divers on the moorings inside the bay and follow the reef around the perimeter before crossing the central sand patch. The first species to register is almost always an anemone fish, popping out of one of the resident anemones to inspect the divers within the first minute. Beyond the bay the reef extends into deeper water, with bommies running along the western face of the island that hold larger pelagics in the right tide. The standard dive runs 45 to 55 minutes, often as the first of a two-tank day with a second dive on the eastern face at Bubble Cave or Elbow Cave.

The host anemones are the reason every dive plan starts at Anemone Bay. The dominant species is the magnificent sea anemone, with bulb-tentacle, leathery and other host species mixed through the carpet, and the resident clownfish are the eastern Australian endemic Amphiprion akindynos, known locally as the western clownfish or barrier reef anemonefish. A single sand patch can hold a hundred anemones with every one occupied by a clownfish family, and the displays during peak summer months are among the most photographed marine scenes on the NSW coast. Beyond the headline carpet, the bay holds dense schools of lyretail and blue-streak anthias along the upper reef, banded and tasselled wobbegongs sleeping in the deeper crevices, and eagle rays and bull rays cruising the sand. Manta rays appear in summer, occasionally in groups of three or four feeding head-on into the current at the bay entrance. Black cod, critically endangered on the east coast, are resident on the deeper bommies. Grey nurse sharks aggregate at North Solitary in winter and are most reliably seen on the eastern face.

Visibility at Anemone Bay typically runs 10 to 25 metres, and the variability is dictated by current direction and seasonal water clarity. The bay sits in the lee of the prevailing flow, so visibility is usually better here than at other sub-sites on the island, with the cleanest days occurring in autumn when the East Australian Current is strongest. Heavy rain on the Clarence and Wooli catchments can drop visibility for several days. Water temperature ranges from around 19°C in August to 26°C in February. A 5mm wetsuit is comfortable through most of the year; a 3mm shortie suits January and February. Currents at North Solitary can be strong on running tides, particularly at the bay entrance and along the western face. Surface swell is the variable that closes the site: anything over 2 metres makes the offshore transit and mooring impractical. Summer brings warmest water and best clownfish display behaviour. Winter delivers grey nurse aggregations on the eastern face, cooler and clearer water, and the most consistent visibility windows of the year.

Repeat divers know the bay rewards careful work along the smaller scales. Macro photographers find ghost pipefish in summer, banded coral shrimp in the deeper crevices, and a long list of nudibranch species along the reef edges. The deeper bommies on the western face hold pelagic schools that work the tide change, and the boundary between the bay's sheltered water and the open ocean produces brief windows where everything from kingfish to occasional whale sharks can pass through on the right day. Photographers working the anemone carpet find that overcast light flattens the colour and that the brightest displays come on bright afternoons with directional sun. Night dives at North Solitary are rare due to the offshore transit but reveal feeding wobbegongs, bobtail squid and emerging anemones glowing under torchlight.

Anemone Bay is the dive that demonstrates how a sheltered geometry, the right current and three decades of marine park protection can produce a marine display that researchers travel internationally to document. The bay is small. The carpet is unmistakable. For divers who chase tropical-temperate hybrid environments, North Solitary Island is the single site on the east coast that best demonstrates what the East Australian Current actually does to the reefs it touches, and Anemone Bay is the most legible chapter of that story.

## Site Access and Logistics

North Solitary Island is a boat dive only, with charters running from Wooli on the Wooli Wooli River mouth and from Coffs Harbour for trips of varying length. The transit from Wooli is the shorter option at around 35 to 45 minutes; trips from Coffs Harbour run an hour or more depending on conditions. Most operators run the site as a two-tank day with a second dive on the eastern face of the island.

Entry is a backward roll from the dive boat at the mooring inside the bay. Exit is a controlled ascent up the mooring line and re-board over the boat tubes, with safety stops conducted on the line in any current. Surface marker buoys are mandatory for any drift dive on the western face.

Minimum certification is PADI Open Water for the bay itself, with Advanced Open Water recommended for the deeper bommies and the eastern face sites. Twenty logged dives is a sensible working minimum given the offshore exposure and current variability.

Bookings and trips run through [Solitary Islands Aquatic Adventures](https://www.solitaryislandsaquaticadventures.com.au) at Wooli and [Jetty Dive Centre](https://www.jettydive.com.au) at Coffs Harbour.

## Sources

- Solitary Islands Aquatic Adventures, North Solitary site notes: [https://www.solitaryislandsaquaticadventures.com.au](https://www.solitaryislandsaquaticadventures.com.au) - Jetty Dive Centre Coffs Harbour, dive site descriptions: [https://www.jettydive.com.au](https://www.jettydive.com.au) - NSW Department of Primary Industries, Solitary Islands Marine Park zoning: [https://www.marine.nsw.gov.au](https://www.marine.nsw.gov.au) - Marine Estate Management Authority NSW, Solitary Islands habitat reports - Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving, North Solitary Island reference: [http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info](http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info) - Australian Museum, anemonefish and host anemone species pages