Steve's Bommie
Depth is the range from the top of the site to its usual maximum; "recommended cert" is the mainstream-agency level operators usually ask for, not a legal rule. Currents and visibility change daily — treat everything here as planning ranges.
Steve's Bommie is a fish tornado wound around a stone spindle. The tower rises from thirty meters to just under the surface, and the standard profile is a slow helix: snapper and fusiliers wheel in bands, barracuda hold the outer orbit, and the rock itself hides a famous census of small ambush hunters, from stonefish and leaf scorpionfish to lionfish stacked in the overhangs. A plaque partway up remembers the diver the site is named for. On a still morning the top of the bommie boils with baitfish, and finishing the dive inside that cloud is the kind of thing loggers underline.
The moment you come for: Spiraling fish schools, stonefish and leaf scorpionfish hunting, memorial plaque, dense pinnacle life
Topography: Isolated coral pinnacle rising from about 30 m to within a few meters of the surface
Current: Usually gentle, but flow across the open reef edge can make the deep start feel like work.
Entry: A single pinnacle on Ribbon Reef No. 3; boats moor close and divers spiral the tower from the base upward.
Know before you splash
Hazards: Depth at the base; superbly camouflaged venomous fish, so control buoyancy and hands.
Nitrox: Worth it here — profiles sit in the range where enriched air meaningfully extends no-stop time (with the training to use it).
Who you'll meet
Great Barracuda
Leaf Scorpionfish
Lionfish
Nudibranchs
Reef Stonefish
For photographers
Wide angle: ★★★★☆ · Macro: ★★★★★ — editors' 1–5 rating of what this site gives each style of shooting