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2ND DEC 2008
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 Hundreds of Thousands of students travel to australia every year to try to find themselves or discover what they want to do after College or University.
Down, down into the clear blue depths. All around, the water is teeming with schools of rainbow-coloured fish feeding on coral - pink, red and white. No-one in sight, just you and the sea.
Australia's coastal waters are an underwater paradise for scuba divers and snorkellers - sites of clear, warm water, dazzling coral reefs, historic shipwrecks, abundant marine life and island resorts. With more than 36,000km of coastline, it offers a huge number of superb locations for diving. The tropical waters off Queensland's Great Barrier Reef and Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef to the temperate waters in the southern States.
Beginners need not despair. Dive lessons are available at almost every gateway city and at major resort areas. Some of Australia's most spectacular diving can be found in the temperate waters of the Great Barrier Reef, off centres such as Cairns and Port Douglas or the Whitsunday Islands. Shipwreck diving is available around the coast on vessels sunk during the 17th century through to recent times.
For those looking for something different, Australia is also home to arguably the finest freshwater cave diving in the world. Or maybe you fancy diving with the infamous Great White Sharks off the southern coast? With over 22,000 miles of coastline, Australia offers a lifetime of diving sites.
 Both the east and west coast change from sub-tropical to temperate, with a totally different spectrum of marine life where the two zones overlap. Australia has superb diving in the tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef and northern Western Australia, as well as brilliant temperate water diving in the southern states and Tasmania. Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island offer both tropical and temperate marine life, as do the Solitary Islands off northern New South Wales, Byron Bay close to the Queensland border, and the Abrolhos Islands on the west coast off Geraldton.
Queensland is home to Australia⿿s Great Barrier Reef. The reef is the world⿿s largest expanse of living coral reef, and extends along Queensland⿿s coastline for more than 1,250 miles from Cape York at the very tip of mainland Australia, to Gladstone in the south. It comprises 2,900 individual reefs and 71 coral islands. The Great Barrier Reef was formed around 10,000 years ago and flourished in the warm waters of Queensland⿿s tropical coast.
Provided by The Student Zone (United Kingdom)
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