Tweed River.

There are two main spots out of six here in the river.

These are at there clearest after westerly or south direction winds for at least two days, but not in big swells.
The tweed river is very susceptible to freshwater flushes. If the rains in the area exceed 100 mils in a twenty four hour period it will kill off a lot of life mainly inverts and aquarium species, above one hundred and fifty mils in the same time it normally wipes out all life with the exception of brackish species only.

The popular spot

Parking area.


The dive area looking in the bar direction.


The same area near the steps you enter with.


The first one pictured above is the most dived site, this area is either a walk in and dive with the concrete steps provided near the opening to the harbour or a drift dive from the small cove-beach a hundred yards or so along the public foot path towards the open ocean, the deepest along this area is around 35 feet deep.

This spot is in Coral street Coolangatta at the ocean end of the Jack evens boat harbour and is great for snorkelling and shallow scuba diving. Probably the nicest area here would have to be, directly out towards the bar from the southern side of the harbour entrance around sixty feet out from the end of the rock wall, in thirty plus depth of water, this a coffee rock area, from here a drift along with the incoming current is a nice dive at the base of the rock wall until the tide changes and head back with the current, just be conscious of the current and dirty water coming out of the harbour opening ,it can be a bit daunting.

The tide here at the popular spot is roughly 20 minutes earlier than the Brisbane bar tide.

The coffee rock cliffs area.
The white comers show the spot.



There are two ways to dive this spot. The tide here is basically the same as the Brisbane tide time.
You can enter from the popular spot and do a drift dive along the wall past the two openings to the jack evens boat harbour, as the coffee rock walls begin just after the second opening.

Or, you could drive to the end of bay street Coolangatta, walk to the edge of the river and turn left and walk until you reach the beach access area and get in there and swim into the river and turn right and the coffee rock walls begin almost immediately, or just get in anywhere here as it is all good.

The cliff areas are not near the bottom, they are slightly shallower.

There are many formations of interest here, both at the beginning of the coffee rocks and at the end of the main section and has the most life to appreciate in the tweed river.

There is more coffee rock area further along, but the life does diminish a little here.

There is a small wreck towards the other side of the tweed opposite the centre of the coffee rock wall, as previously typed; there are many formations in the tweed to dive on.

If you have a boat, the rock wall that contains kerosene inlet on the eastern side of the tweed that begins again opposite the hospital is good and by boat or a hard unsafe swim to the Ukerebagh Island wall visible off Ebenezer park is a favourite, when the tweed has had no freshwater flushes for a year or two, excellent snorkelling at the eastern end and along the front of the island as is on scuba as it gets down to forty feet deep here. Park the boat just around the corner at the eastern end.

The coffee rock area tide is roughly the same as the Brisbane bar.

Open ocean dives

These of course are by boat through the tweed river and to the right at varying distances, firstly there is a wreck in the end of the bar, though not normally visible, than you can see Cook Island to the right in the distance for snorkelling and scuba, than a short drive out to sea from Cook is Fidos reef which has some good spearing as well nine mile, than a little further out is Nine mile reef, these can be a little current affected, all very good deepish (free dive) snorkelling and top scuba sites, nine mile is the deepest.

Any life extracted from NSW waters requires a fishing permit and any aquarium collecting on tank requires both a license and the permit. Cook Island is a protected zone.