The Best Aquariums and Marine Parks in Australia

If you’ve got nerves of steel, then jump into the ‘Cage of Death’. Australia’s only crocodile dive gives you the chance to stare a five-metre saltwater croc in the eye from behind a thin layer of perspex dipped into the crocodile-infested enclosure. Crocosaurus Cove — located in the heart of Darwin, Australia’s tropical capital — also offers less-stressful experiences like holding a baby crocodile, visiting the turtle billabong, or checking out the fish species in the 200,000 litre freshwater aquarium.

A $20 million renovation of this Darling Harbour aquarium in 2012 divided Australia’s largest collection of aquatic life into 14 new themed zones, taking visitors on a journey through the country’s diverse underwater ecosystems. Sea Life Sydney is home to 700 species of 13,000 individual water creatures, including two of the five dugongs on display anywhere in the world.

Not to be outdone, Melbourne’s aquarium enjoyed a $8 million facelift in 2013, which now includes 12 zones of discovery such as the Bay of Rays, home to the world’s only public display of elephant sharks. Sea Life Melbourne offers shark dives, penguin meetings and glass-bottom boat tours of the 2.2 million litre oceanarium smack-bang in the city centre.

WA’s 20,000 kilometres of coastline is condensed into five zones — Far North, Coral Coast, Shipwreck Coast, Perth and Great Southern — at AQWA, perched on the waterfront at Sorrento Beach in Perth. It was Australia’s largest aquarium when it opened in 1988 and still features the country’s biggest single tank — a lazy three million litres — that includes a 98-metre underwater tunnel that allows you to admire grey nurse sharks, smooth stingrays and loggerhead turtles from below.

This brand-new $54 million facility has just thrown open its doors in September 2017, bringing the treasures of the reef and the rainforest into the heart of Cairns city. The sparkly new aquarium houses 15,000 aquatic organisms across 71 live exhibits that capture the colour and diversity of Tropical North Queensland, a region that’s straddled by two World Heritage listed natural environments: the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.