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# The underwater highway at Julian Rocks
- URL: https://www.earthtoseanews.com/julian-rocks/
- Published: 2026-07-28T22:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-21T13:07:06.000Z
- Description: Our founder books two days in a row for her favourite swim in the sea off Byron Bay, and comes home with sore cheeks from smiling.
- Author: Nicole McMahon
- Tags: Global Good News, Explore, All stories

Many years ago I found one of my favourite swim spots on Earth, a pair of rocks rising out of the sea off Byron Bay, on Australia's east coast. I booked two days in a row with Sundive, the super friendly local crew who make you feel very well looked after and will only take you out when conditions are safe, because the ocean makes its own plans and I did not want to miss my chance. It is a short boat ride out from Wategos Beach. In the briefing they mentioned sharks. I had been an ocean swimmer for years and had never seen one, and my swimming was already changing from going fast into something quieter, a passion for watching the beauty that surrounds us. I was about to be converted for good.

The first thing I saw at Julian Rocks was the most magnificent leopard shark. I froze, somewhere between fear, awe and amazement, and then the fear simply dissolved, because she glided by as if I were part of the scenery. Then the highway opened. Eagle rays and guitar rays, a smooth ray sweeping over the sand, a ribbon eel on the rock face, wobbegongs dozing in the ledges, sweetlips schooling in the current, tropical fish past counting, and turtles that looked like they were flying and having the best time of anyone in the water. In the cooler months the grey nurse sharks arrive, gentle and slow, and this is one of only about a dozen places in New South Wales where they can safely gather. Manta rays pass through. Nudibranchs the size of a thumbnail wear colours you would not believe.

![A green turtle gliding through bright blue water above coral](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/08/julian-rocks-turtle.jpg)

Turtles that look like they are flying, and having the best time of anyone in the water. Photo: Supplied.

None of this is an accident. The rocks are Nguthungulli, the resting place of the creator in the stories of the Bundjalung people of Byron Bay, and in 2023 the name was formally restored. The protection of the water is a community story too, and it has a name: Bill Silvester. Bill spent his life diving and filming these reefs, put Byron Bay on the diving map, and wrote his stories of old Byron and its characters into his books. We only spoke a few times, and I loved every minute. He told me his favourite story himself, the tale of his friend the sweetlip, a fish who knew him, and then I went out and explored the world he spoke of with my own eyes. In 1973 Bill proposed that these waters be protected, and he and a community that stood together pushed with sheer determination until the reserve was won in 1982\. Today no line or net comes within five hundred metres of the rocks. Bill passed away recently, and every turtle flying over that reef is part of what he leaves behind. People fought for this place so the wildlife could simply live, and the wildlife noticed.

I think of Bill often, because I am carrying a dream of my own: the hope of Parsley Bay in Vaucluse on Sydney Harbour, the netted little bay I love best, one day becoming a no take haven too. Our community has a petition going for it, and what keeps me going is exactly what carried him, an incredible community standing together for a patch of water worth loving. Bill showed all of us how it is done. That is how memory gems get made, and how they get passed on.

I go back to Julian Rocks as often as I can. And snorkelling has become something I share: in so many of the places I love, I take people out, chat through what they are seeing, and watch them gleam with amazement at their first ray or flying turtle. It brings me as much joy as the reef itself, and I understand now why Bill loved telling his stories. Every single time I climb out of the water with the largest smile and sore cheeks from smiling, already planning the next visit. You always feel welcome out there, in the human community and the wildlife one too.

An Earth to Sea News original by our founder. Reserve history from New South Wales records and from Bill Silvester's *Down Under Byron*. Julian Rocks, Nguthungulli, was proposed for protection in 1973 and declared in 1982, and the name was formally restored in 2023\. Julian Rocks has its own entry in our [Earth to Sea Directory](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/explore/).