New direct flights to home of the world’s biggest shark take off

In the waters beyond Ningaloo Reef, a shark is circling. More than seven metres in length, it's larger than any great white, but has infinitely more pleasant table manners. As I kick my fins and glide beside it, the whale shark appears oblivious, its gills rippling and its tail flicking languidly as it hoovers up plankton. I might just be another of the many fish tailing along for the ride.

Each autumn, the world’s largest fish appears in these waters offshore from Exmouth, drawn by the krill and plankton that are in turn here to indulge in the feast that is the annual coral spawning, which takes place after a full moon in March or April. Qantas has just made it easier for travellers on the east coast to get here, with new direct flights from Melbourne to Exmouth starting on April 30.

For visitors, the whale sharks are the greatest natural show in town – 36,000 people took tours to swim with the fish in 2022 – and while it’s an extraordinary experience, with just three metres of water between you and up to nine metres of fish, it’s also often only part of the marine encounter. At Ningaloo, you might come for the whale sharks, but find yourself immersed in a world of other whales and sharks.

The World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef is the planet's largest fringing reef, running at times just a few hundred metres from shore. As we're transported by Zodiac to the whale shark boat, the reef is visible as a white line of breaking waves etched into the Indian Ocean, creating a virtual lagoon along the shores of barren North West Cape.

There are three breaks in the reef, through which the boat can punch out into the ocean, but first it pauses at a mooring inside the reef for a preparatory snorkel. Even as 20-knot winds stir the sea beyond the reef, it's a millpond inside, and we plunge into the water among a constellation of coral bommies. The air temperature is 22 degrees, and the water is 25 degrees – it's like sinking into a soothing bath.

As I drift with the currents, bommies pass beneath me, looking like drawings of brains. Fish as colourful as paint charts squirt about, and a blacktip reef shark circles a few metres below me. Duck dive to the sandy seabed and it's not unusual to find these placid sharks snoozing beneath the bommies.

Outside the reef, there's no guarantee of whale shark sightings, but the odds well and truly favour it – last year, more than 97 per cent of visitors witnessed the creature that guides refer to as "our spotted fish". Spotter planes circle in the sky, directing boat skippers, and it's mere minutes this day before word comes of a whale shark near to our boat.

These colossal fish grow up to 12 metres in length – the largest recorded was almost 19 metres – though those seen around Ningaloo Reef are more commonly around three to eight metres. As you take to the water and begin swimming, the fish beside you might be up to four times your body length.