Whale watching in Australia and Oceania: the humpback highway and Kaikōura

Australia is watched from both sides at once. Humpbacks run north up the east coast from May to breed in warm Queensland water, then come back south with calves from August; a second population does the same thing up and down the west coast. Southern right whales arrive separately, and park themselves in the surf off Victoria and South Australia to calve. New Zealand plays by different rules again: at Kaikōura the sperm whales never leave.

• New South WalesMay–Nov
• New ZealandYear-round
• QueenslandJun–Nov
• Victoria & South AustraliaJun–Oct
• Western AustraliaMay–Dec

Each pin is a page with ports, boats, official rules and live prices.

The humpback highway

The east-coast migration is the largest whale movement most travelers will ever be able to book around. It touches every state on this page in sequence: Queensland's Gold Coast and Moreton Bay first, then Hervey Bay, where — unusually — part of the southbound population turns into the bay instead of carrying on. The Queensland Government puts humpbacks moving north along the coast between May and July, turning south again in July and August, and says about a quarter of the population enters Hervey Bay on that southward leg, creating a whale-watching window between August and October.

Coming the other way, New South Wales takes the animals past Byron Bay, Port Stephens, Sydney Heads, Jervis Bay and finally Eden. Western Australia runs its own version: Augusta and Flinders Bay from May, Albany through winter, Exmouth and Ningaloo from August, and Perth and Fremantle from September into December.

1. Queensland
2. New South Wales
3. Victoria & SA — southern right
4. Western Australia
5. New Zealand

PeakGoodPossibleOff

The migrations run on the southern-hemisphere winter: humpbacks head north to breed from May, then come back south with calves from August. Two places ignore it — Kaikōura, where the sperm whales are resident, and the southern-Australian summer of Bremer Bay orcas and Portland blue whales.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Queensland	Off	Off	Off	Off	Possible	Good	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Possible	Off
New South Wales	Off	Off	Off	Off	Good	Peak	Peak	Good	Peak	Peak	Good	Good
Victoria & SA — southern right	Off	Off	Off	Off	Possible	Good	Peak	Peak	Peak	Good	Possible	Off
Western Australia	Off	Off	Off	Off	Good	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Good	Possible
New Zealand	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak	Peak

Region by region

Queensland — the stopover

Hervey Bay is the reason people fly to Queensland for whales rather than to Sydney: the animals linger in sheltered water between K'gari and the mainland from August to October, and a four-hour trip can spend most of it with one group rather than chasing a line of blows. The bay is also a designated Whale Heritage Area under the World Cetacean Alliance, as are the Whitsundays. Gold Coast, Brisbane, Noosa and the Whitsundays all run shorter, cheaper cruises. See Queensland.

New South Wales — the city whales

Sydney is the most convenient whale watching in the southern hemisphere: a two- to three-hour cruise from the harbor, several sailings a day, from roughly $48. Several listings advertise a 95% whale guarantee or "whales guaranteed" — read that as a free re-ride, not a refund. Jervis Bay and Port Stephens add dolphins year-round, Byron Bay adds a marine biologist and a lighthouse to watch from. See New South Wales.

Victoria and South Australia — southern rights from the sand

Warrnambool's Logans Beach is a nursery, not a migration route: female southern right whales stay for weeks with their calves inside the breakers from June to September, watched from a platform on the dunes. Phillip Island, Port Phillip, Victor Harbor and Kangaroo Island add boats, seals and dolphins, and Portland runs the region's one summer season — blue whales over the Bonney Upwelling from about December to April. See Victoria and South Australia and right whales.

Western Australia — the longest season

Flinders Bay at Augusta takes the first northbound humpbacks from May; Albany works through the winter; Ningaloo at Exmouth allows humpback swims in the spring; Perth and Fremantle finish the year with the southbound run from September to December. Blue whales cross the Perth Canyon in autumn, and Bremer Bay works the opposite half of the year, with its orca aggregation from January to April. See Western Australia.

New Zealand — Kaikōura and the rest

The Kaikōura Canyon comes within a kilometer or so of the coast, which is why male sperm whales feed there all year and why the town has built an entire economy on them. Auckland's Hauraki Gulf has resident Bryde's whales and common dolphins on a half-day cruise, Akaroa has Hector's dolphins, and the Bay of Islands has bottlenose. DOC's rules are strict and simple: 50 m from any whale, 200 m from a mother and calf, no more than three boats within 300 m, and no swimming with whales at all. See New Zealand and sperm whales.

Tonga — swimming with humpbacks, under licence

Tonga is the region's outlier, and the only place here where you may legally get in the water with a whale. The Whale Watching and Swimming Regulations set out exactly how: only licensed swim providers may put people in, no more than four clients plus one trained local guide per certified vessel in the water with any one pod, only one vessel with swimmers on a pod at a time, no swimmer closer than 5 m to a whale, no vessel closer than 10 m except to pick a swimmer up, no scuba, no jet skis within 2,000 m, and a maximum interaction of one and a half hours with any pod before it must be left alone for another hour and a half. Licences are granted by the Minister and run three years. The regulations themselves set no calendar dates; Tonga Tourism puts the arrival of the whales from July to October, and the licensed providers publish their own start and end within that. There are no Tongan products in our price feed, so use a licensed operator from Tonga Tourism's own list and read the licence conditions before you book.

Official information

Queensland's approach rules (Great Sandy Marine Park and the rest of the state)

Caution zone

300 m from a whale, 150 m from a dolphin; boats may not exceed 6 knots inside it

No-approach zone

100 m around a whale, extending 300 m in front and behind; 50 m around a dolphin, extending 150 m

Calves

In Commonwealth waters, boats must not come within 300 m of a whale calf or 150 m of a dolphin calf

Swimmers

Not within 100 m of a whale or 50 m of a dolphin

Jet skis

Not within 300 m of a whale or a dolphin

Drones

Not within 100 m of a whale or a dolphin

Source: Queensland Government — Rules for watching marine mammals. From the official source; double-check before you go.

Two things follow from those numbers. A boat sitting motionless while whales approach is not breaking the rule — the rule governs the boat's approach, not the whale's. And a drone launched from the deck is a vessel as far as the law is concerned.

Four trips across the region

Prices are checked regularly, and we compare GetYourGuide only.

Who should go where

What "guaranteed" means in Australia and New Zealand

Sydney and Adelaide listings are the most guarantee-heavy in the world, and the wording repays reading. A "95% whale guarantee" is a statistic, not a promise; the remedy is almost always a free repeat sailing within the same season. Kaikōura's operator publishes its own refund policy, which is the exception rather than the rule. Nothing on this page can make a whale surface next to your boat.

Practicalities

Winter here means 12 to 20 °C on deck (54 to 68 °F) and a real swell outside the heads — take a jacket and, if you are prone, take the tablets an hour before boarding rather than on the pontoon. School holidays in July and September sell out the Queensland and New South Wales boats first. Kaikōura cancels for sea state more often than any other port on this page, so leave a spare day. The exact dock is on your voucher.

Where to go next

Work by animal with humpbacks, right whales and sperm whales, by month with the season calendar, or by rank with the best places for whale watching. If you are deciding between a catamaran, a RIB and the beach, read boat types. Regional operator reviews include Whale Watch Kaikoura, Tasman Venture and Whale Watching Sydney.