Port Lincoln is the only place in Australia you can cage-dive with great white sharks. We went out to the Neptune Islands to find out what the experience is actually like.
The only place in Australia
There is exactly one place in the country where you can lower yourself into the water beside a great white shark, and it is here, off the rugged outpost of Port Lincoln. The Neptune Islands, a couple of hours offshore at the mouth of Spencer Gulf, are home to a permanent gathering of New Zealand fur seals — and where there are seals, there are great whites.
The crossing
The run out to the Neptunes is not for the faint-stomached. The Southern Ocean swell builds the moment you leave the lee of the coast, and by the time the low granite islands appear on the horizon, you understand why these waters command such respect.
In the cage
The modern operators here have moved away from blood-based berley. One uses sound and bait to draw the sharks in, and the result is unnervingly calm: a four-metre shape materialising out of the blue, gliding past the bars with an ancient, unbothered ease. You do not need to be a certified diver — the surface cage feeds you air from the boat. What you need is the nerve to look a great white in the eye.
Why it matters
Done well, shark cage diving builds respect, not fear. The operators here fund research and carry marine biologists, and every encounter chips away at the myth that these are mindless killers. You come back to the marina quieter than you left it.
