Australia - South West Australia

Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA)

AQWA is located in Perth, Western Australia. Perth is the capital city and currently has a population of 1.3 million people.

The aquarium is situated on the beautiful sunset coast overlooking the Indian Ocean and is only a 20-minute drive from Perth's city centre.

Western Australia is a state of enormous scale and diversity – an incredible expanse of more than 12 000 km of coastline ranging from the vast, tropical far north to the rugged southern shores. At AQWA you will discover the amazing variety of life that inhabits each of the diverse regions of the coast – a whole state’s worth of life to discover in one easy to access facility.

AQWA have created realistic living habitats to provide us with a very special and unique experience. The display areas are hushed and darkened to enable you to focus more closely and intimately on the life in the exhibits. There is a huge aquarium with a conveyer belt underneath sheathed in curving glass that slowly winds its way through under the aquarium so you can get right up close to hundreds of different marine life.

Just imagine the feeling of looking into a darkened cylinder of water, the only light is that reflected from the watery and delicate bodies of the moon jellyfish pulsating past your eyes, weightless and serene.

At AQWA you will experience this and many more feasts for your senses…
To make the most of the visit, please note the following:

We pace ourselves, your tour is self-guided. Trained guides will welcome us on arrival. They will then be available throughout the aquarium to answer questions. We suggest that students are organised into small focus groups to make their way around the aquarium.
All of the animal life at AQWA is alive: the fishes, corals, sponges, everything! The animals are exhibited according to their habitat, not their species. For assistance with species identification please ask one of the guides or contact the Community Education team.

Discover the wonder of the Indian Ocean - an undersea world like nowhere else on Earth. Aquariums include marine topics such as:

Great Southern
See delicate sea dragons unique to Western Australia below the cold waters of the Southern Ocean.

Temperate Sea
Travel through Australia's largest walk-through aquarium and encounter sharks and graceful stingrays gliding over limestone reefs.

Living Ocean
Discover the mysterious jellyfish and wonders of the ocean floor.

Far North
Explore this prehistoric world, home to crocodiles, mangroves and stonefish.

Discovery Zone
Find out how Western Australian marine animals interact with each other and their environment.

Discovery Pool
A hands on connection with starfish, stingrays and even a shark!.

Seal Island
Home to Australian and New Zealand fur seals.

Fish at the Aquarium of Western Australia.