Western Australia Spearfishing Sites
Western Australia has over 50 exciting spearfishing locations for locals to explore. To make these easier to navigate, the dive sites have been broken up into 3 different sections.
North-Western Australia
Places like Broome and Exmouth provide fantastic spearfishing opportunities. You can spearfish Exmouth straight from the beach. However, be sure to check regulations for green zones, and zones where Tuskfish and Coral Trout are not allowed to be speared. Not being able to spear these species won’t matter though, as there is a plethora of other species available to spear such as parrotfish, mangrove jacks, slatey bream, chinamen fish, trevally, mackerel, tuna, and other reef species. At some places, you will need to swim quite a way to get to the reef. However, other places do not require as much swimming before you find beautiful reef just 30m or so from the shoreline. The depth varies from 1m-15m, but typically the depth is around 5m-8m. Spearfishing in this area is for experienced spearos only, as currents are strong and sharks are EVERYWHERE. A shark shield is recommended, particularly in Summer when the large tiger sharks gather during turtle breeding season.
If you have a boat, spearfishing around Exmouth is like a dream come true. The fish are plentiful in Western Australia! If you don’t mind the sharks and can burly, you will get most species come right up in the first 5-10m of the water column including spangled emperor, rankin cod, Jobfish, Mackerel, Wahoo, and Sailfish. It is a magical place to dive with untouched reefs and plenty of life and action all around. Some of the islands are beautiful for shallow diving, where you can find massive crayfish.
The waters around northern Western Australia are typically very warm and a 1.5mm or 3.5mm wetsuit will do you for the whole year.
Spearfishing Gerladton, Western Australia
Like most of WA, spearfishing off Geraldton is a beautiful experience with amazing reef and plenty of fish life. Some common species include parrotfish, snapper/pinkies, coral trout, crayfish, dhu fish, fox fish and baldchin grouper. Great White Sharks frequent these parts of WA, so a shark shield and dive buddy is recommended at all times. Apart from reef, spearfishing ground around Geraldton is often quite kelpy.
Southern Western Australia
Spearfishing areas such as Perth and Albany can produce nice fish, however, Great Whites are common so be careful! Rottnest Island off Perth is a common spearfishing site that produces great catches.
