The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park: zones, permits and what divers may do.

A note on sources

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's website timed out on every attempt during our research in October 2026. The legal framework and the Zoning Plan below come from the official texts on Australia's Federal Register of Legislation. Everything we know of the Authority's own web guidance comes from search summaries; that material is grouped in its own section and marked as unconfirmed.

The legal framework

The marine park is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which now also calls itself the Reef Authority, under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975. The Authority's documents on charges and regulations cite Part VA of that Act and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations 2019.

The zones are set by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003. The plan is dated 26 November 2003 and was accepted by the Minister on 2 December 2003. It does not state its own start date; it takes effect on a date notified in the Gazette. A search summary of a dataset record gives July 2004 as the date the new zoning took effect, after a review called the Representative Areas Program, but we could not confirm that against the Gazette notice.

The eight zones

The 2003 Zoning Plan names eight zones: General Use, Habitat Protection, Conservation Park, Buffer, Scientific Research, Marine National Park, Preservation, and Commonwealth Islands. Each zone has its own list of what may be done freely, what needs permission and what is not allowed. Two are worth looking at closely because they show the range.

Marine National Park Zone

The plan states that this zone aims to protect the area's natural integrity, generally free from extractive activities, while allowing activities such as presenting the park's values. Without permission, it allows low-impact activities that do not take plants, animals or marine products, along with photography, filming and sound recording, and navigating a small vessel with fishing or collecting gear stowed.

The plan does not mention diving by name. On our reading, recreational diving that takes nothing falls into the low-impact category, but the section we read does not define "low impact", so treat that as our interpretation rather than the plan's words. Running a tourist programme in this zone, or navigating a ship or managed vessel, needs the Authority's permission.

Preservation Zone

The plan states that this zone aims to keep areas generally undisturbed by human activity. Without permission, it allows only overflight at 500 feet or more and passage by small vessel to reach Queensland areas with fishing gear stowed. Diving is not on that list, so entering a Preservation Zone for any other purpose needs the Authority's written permission.

The environmental management charge

The park has an environmental management charge, which the Authority's charge documents tie to Part VA of the Act. A 2022 explanatory statement on the Federal Register records that the charge was waived for a period from 2020 during the COVID-19 downturn, and that a waiver of permission-related fees for tourism was extended in 2022. We could not confirm whether any waiver is in force now. No amounts are given here.

According to a search summary of the Authority's charge page, which we could not open, visitors who take part in a tourist activity under a permit pay the charge to the permit holder, who passes it on to the Authority.

From the Authority's pages: not confirmed

The following points come from search summaries of the Authority's own pages and fact sheets. We could not open those pages to confirm the wording, so check them directly.

• Zoning maps. The Authority describes the park as multiple-use, with zoning used both to protect the environment and to separate conflicting uses, and advises checking Special Management Areas on each zoning map because they can change what a zone allows. It also says the adjoining Queensland state marine park generally has complementary zoning.
• Permits. Most recreational visitors are described as not needing a permit; permits are described as needed for structures such as moorings and for most commercial activities, including tourist operations.
• Coral and anchoring. The Authority's Responsible Reef Practices fact sheet, dated October 2025, is summarised as saying it is an offence to damage coral in the Commonwealth and Queensland marine parks, advising anchoring in sand or mud away from coral, and describing no-anchoring areas marked by white pyramid-shaped buoys with blue labels.
• Divers and snorkellers. The same guidance is summarised as asking people not to touch or stand on coral, not to take herbivorous fish such as parrotfish, to take all rubbish away, and to use public moorings where available.
• Whales and dolphins. The Authority is summarised as saying that, under the Regulations 2019, people must not enter the water within 100 m of a whale or 50 m of a dolphin, and must not touch, feed, chase or herd them.
• Penalties. Breaking zoning rules carries penalties. Different Authority pages are reported to quote different on-the-spot penalty amounts for fishing in green zones; the amounts are not given here.

Wrecks in the marine park

Historic wrecks inside the park fall under heritage law as well. A 1990 explanatory statement records that an earlier arrangement letting divers visit the SS Yongala without a permit was removed after incidents that damaged the wreck. Whether recreational divers now need a permit for the Yongala is disputed between sources; see wreck diving and the law.

Related reading

For reef conduct guidance from NOAA, Project AWARE and Green Fins, see protecting reefs and marine life. For how zoning compares with the tools other parks use, see how dive sites are protected.