After this experience in virtual reality you'll never want to watch television again.

From Friday, the Australian Museum becomes the second place in the world to screen David Attenborough's virtual reality experience.

David Attenborough goes underwater in the Triton submersible near Osprey Reef. Photo: Supplied

After a sell-out season at the Natural History Museum in London, it makes sense that the film comes to Australia: the show immerses you in the wondrous waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

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If it's your first VR experience, it's like nothing you've seen before. Regular television by comparison is just so 20th century.

Wearing Samsung's Gear VR goggles you are transported to the waters off Osprey Reef, 155 kilometres north-east of the museum's Lizard Island Research Station near Cooktown, Queensland. Attenborough used the station for filming his television series on the reef, which premieres on Sunday.

At the launch of the David Attenborough Virtual Reality experience at the Australian Museum. Photo: Daniel Munoz

Once underwater, the sounds and vision surround you in a fully three-dimensional, 360-degree experience of life on the reef. Attenborough and University of Queensland's Professor Justin Marshall are by your side for 20 minutes as you are taken around the reef in a state-of-the-art Triton submersible from the research ship Alucia.

It is teeming with life.

Museum director and chief executive, Kim McKay, told an early viewing that it is like "literally sitting on David Attenborough's knee" as you explore what the world-renowned broadcaster and naturalist calls one of the wonders of the world.

Deputy Premier Troy Grant at the launch of the David Attenborough Virtual Reality experience on Wednesday. Photo: Daniel Munoz

Ms McKay said she hoped the virtual exploration of the reef will "change behaviour and create awareness" of the environmental threats to the reef. 

Acting NSW Premier, Troy Grant, launched the season at the museum on Wednesday. A self-confessed fan of VR, he expressed some apprehension. "I'm from Dubbo, so I don't like sharks much," he said. 

He later told the Herald that the future of the reef was important to NSW. Through NSW's funding of the Lizard Island Research Station he said "we are playing our part at the national level".

The VR experience provides 360-degree immersion. Photo: Daniel Munoz

"Sydney is the gateway to Australia for many who visit the Great Barrier Reef. Our research at Lizard Island is showing global leadership," he said.

He refused to be drawn on questions about the potential impact of the Adani coal leases on the Great Barrier Reef. "That's best left up to the experts," he said.

Mr Grant said he hoped the David Attenborough experience would "bring people into an immersed appreciation" of the reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is living through its worst bleaching event, putting the coral under enormous pressure.

One critic of the Adani project, former chief scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Charlie Veron​, said: "I think there is no single action that could be as harmful to the Great Barrier Reef as the Carmichael coal mine."

At the end of the film, Attenborough calls on people to act to save the Great Barrier Reef. "As you leave the reef remember that this is a part of the world under terrible threat from rising sea temperatures brought on by climate change. By raising awareness of its beauty and its plight you can help to protect the Great Barrier Reef for generations to come."

A second virtual reality film in CGI is also narrated by Attenborough. First Life takes you back to the dawn of single-cell life to the beginnings of multi-cellular life on the ocean floor 550 million years ago.

See more at Attenborough's Reef interactive website.