Great White Shark Experience – Port Lincoln, South Australia

Simon and Ash Dibble are from Brisbane, Australia. They are frequently seeking out new adrenalin based activities. Having travelled to Mexico and New Zealand, they have also taken on the War Plane experience, bungee jumping, sky diving and white water rafting here in Australia. All images belong to them.

Where and How to Get There

Located 40km offshore from Port Lincoln in the Spencer Gulf are the Neptune Islands. Port Lincoln is a town located west of the Spencer’s Gulf in the state of South Australia. You can arrive here via car from Adelaide, the journey will take roughly 7-8 hours. Alternatively you can catch charter flight from Adelaide over to the gulf in as little as 45minutes.

What to Expect

The Neptune Islands are home to Australia’s largest colony of long nose fur seals. This is the perfect breeding conditions and prey for Great White Sharks. For approximately $500 per person this is the perfect place to go against your natural instinct and jump in the water amongst one of the apex predators of the sea.

Our Experience

You’ll want to go to bed early the night before you go cage diving with Great White Sharks, as you will need to be up bright and early for this adventure.

Your day begins at the crack of dawn where you need to arrive at the docks to meet your boat crew for the day. After a safety briefing you will spend approximately 3 hours cruising the open waters accompanied by pods of dolphins and even the odd whale (in season). You can take in the spectacular coastal scenery of lower Spencer Gulf and the islands of Thorny Passage. Sea sickness medication is strongly recommended.

Once you arrive it’s time to don a 7mm thick wetsuit and jump in the water. The sharks are in their natural environment, they are free to come and go as they please which means this is a game of patience. The sharks will appear from a distance rather slowly and generally will be seen just trawling through the passage waiting for an opportunity.

We weren’t fortunate enough to see them strike but that can happen from time to time so keep an eye out. One of the greatest parts of this adventure is that there is no diver qualification or previous experience required. So all are welcome.

After being anchored for 4-6 hours waiting in anticipation it’s time to head home. The seas can get quite violent in the evening. On our personal journey home we experienced 10-12 metre waves crashing onto the side of the boat.

You’ll arrive back at the port in Port Lincoln anytime from 6pm onwards, and I would recommend anywhere along the marina for a delicious seafood dinner. Out of all possible adrenaline activities on offer in Australia, I would rate this one as one of the highest – the adrenaline rush of sharing the ocean with these great predators is something I would recommend to anyone game enough! 5/5 stars.