July to October · East and west coasts
Whale Watching Season
Humpback whales migrate along both coasts from June to November, with the best viewing in July to September.
Humpback whales migrate along both east and west coasts of Australia each winter, with the best viewing between July and early October. Hervey Bay and Eden are the standout east coast sites.
Every year between roughly May and November, tens of thousands of humpback whales migrate along Australia's east and west coasts between their summer feeding grounds in Antarctica and their winter calving and mating waters in the tropics. The peak viewing window is July to September, and the whales can be watched from shore in dozens of locations or from licensed whale-watching boats.
On the east coast, the humpbacks swim north from June to August and back south from August to November. Hervey Bay in Queensland is the world's first Whale Heritage Site and is the best location on the east coast because the whales linger for days in Platypus Bay on their journey south. Other standout east-coast sites include Byron Bay, Port Macquarie, Eden, and even Sydney Harbour in peak season.
On the west coast, humpbacks migrate along the Ningaloo Reef and past Rottnest Island. The season is slightly earlier in the year on the west coast and the best viewing is July to October. The dwarf minke whale season at Ningaloo Reef runs for just a few weeks in June and July and is one of the only guided snorkelling-with-whales experiences in the world.
Southern right whales, a different species, calve along the southern coast (Head of Bight, Logans Beach in Victoria, Albany in Western Australia) from June to October each year. These are the closest whales you can see from shore anywhere in Australia.
