AUSTRALIAN DESTINATIONS
Diving in Victoria
Explore 395 listed dive sites and find the local knowledge to help plan your visit.
THE LOCAL PLANNING BRIEF
Separate bay, Heads and open-coast diving
Victoria’s directory includes Port Phillip Bay, the Heads, peninsula piers and the open coast. Those labels describe different settings, not interchangeable levels of difficulty. Start by identifying the precise location and proposed trip. A record near Melbourne should not be read as an easy shore dive simply because it is close to a city.
Choose the setting, then the trip Counts describe published records, not bookable trips or confirmed open sites.
There are 395 published site records across Victoria. The recorded categories include wreck (98), reef (95), shore/rock platform (74), wall (38). These categories reflect the database; they are not a ranking, a conditions report or an assessment of your suitability.
Start with one of the regional pages below. State-wide totals are useful for browsing, but the actual choice should be made at the level of an operator, a site and a proposed itinerary.
Research operators in Victoria →Ask before booking
- Is this trip inside the bay, at the Heads or on the open coast?
- Who determines the current and weather window?
- Which exposure protection and equipment arrangements should we discuss?
Save the answers with the contact name and date. Separate confirmed arrangements from items still waiting for a reply.
Record your trip questions →Bay and peninsula
Compare Melbourne, Mornington and Bellarine records by access and facilities. Check the current status of piers and nearby works with the relevant manager.
Port Phillip Heads
Take tide and current questions to an experienced local operator. A tide-table time or a historical site note does not establish a suitable diving window.
Open coast and wrecks
Discuss the actual route, vessel, training and exposure protection with the provider. A wreck listing is background information, not permission to enter a structure.
Questions, answered
How do I choose a dive in Victoria?
Begin with the individual site and its source notes, then discuss the proposed trip with a local provider. The 395 published records are research options, not a list of trips available today. Match the plan to your training, recent experience and the operator’s current requirements.
When should I visit Victoria for diving?
Choose dates with a provider who runs the activity you want, then discuss seasonal patterns, recent conditions and alternative itineraries. A generic best-month claim cannot establish the conditions at your exact site or guarantee a wildlife encounter.
Can I use these maps to enter or navigate a dive site?
No. Recorded and approximate map positions support orientation only. Confirm the exact access, permissions, meeting point and route with the responsible local provider or manager.
Regional planning context: Visit Victoria — scuba diving ↗. Directory counts come from published YouDive records. Individual site claims remain subject to their source and review notes.
Find your region
Dive sites to explore
WallPort Phillip Heads
The Mall
The central and fishiest stretch of Lonsdale Wall – a near-vertical face from 15 m to 45 m with blue devils, cuttlefish, crayfish…
Pinnacle/BommiePhillip Island & Western Port
The Pinnacles (Cape Woolamai)
Granite spires rising from 38 m to 9 m, coated in sponge and soft coral and thick with schooling fish, with seals from the Cape…
WallPort Phillip Heads
Toms Cave
A short natural tunnel entering the Lonsdale Wall at 30 m and exiting at 22 m – an easy, torch-lit swim-through for Advanced…
Shore/Rock PlatformMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
Triangle Reef, Ricketts Point
Deepest reef in the sanctuary (to 8 m) off a proper beach with showers; the sanctuary's main scuba training site and a fine night…
WallPort Phillip Heads
Trimix Corner / Entrance Deep
The descent point for Entrance Deep, Victoria's deepest known dive at 103 m in the drowned Yarra channel inside the Heads –…
Pinnacle/BommiePort Phillip Heads
Twin Bommies
Two steep limestone towers rising from 18 m to 12 m on the outer Lonsdale reef, coated in soft corals and sponges with Port…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Victoria Tower
An 1869 iron clipper lost in fog on her maiden voyage – intact bow with bowsprit, standing frames, hatches and fallen masts in…
Shore/Rock PlatformShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Warrnambool Breakwater Inside
Warrnambool's sheltered training and night dive: seahorses, leatherjackets and cuttlefish along the kelp-covered breakwater wall,…
ReefWilsons Promontory
Whisky Bay
A 300–500 m granite rock wall running out from a west-facing beach, with seadragons, Port Jackson sharks and rays in 1–12 m and…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
William Salthouse
Australia's first Canada–Australia trader, lost in 1841 with her cargo of barrels still in the hold – an intact early-colonial…
Shore/Rock PlatformMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
Williamstown Beach Breakwater
The richest of the Williamstown shore dives: a fished-from breakwater with dense seahorse, blue-ring, nudibranch and cardinalfish…
Artificial ReefPort Phillip Heads
ex-HMAS Canberra
A 138 m guided-missile frigate scuttled in 2009 and sitting almost upright in 28–32 m with the bridge at 8 m – bridge, galley,…
Shore/Rock PlatformGeelong & Bellarine
Andersen Reserve, Indented Head
Calm, sheltered seagrass shallows at the Batman landing site with seahorses and nudibranchs; a picnic-reserve dive with…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Antares
Plating, anchors and stacks of French roofing tiles from the last ship lost on the Shipwreck Coast, in surf gutters under sheer…
DriftPort Phillip Heads
Artefacts Flood
Flood-tide drift over the Ticonderoga Bay anchorage where a century of quarantine-station ships threw their bottles and china…
Artificial ReefMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
Aspendale Rec Reef
Concrete-module fishing reef in 11 m off Aspendale, thickly colonised and fishy; an easy small-boat dive and a study in…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Auriga
An 1869 iron barque and Harbour Trust hulk, sunk with three gelignite charges in 1930, lying in 57 m 178 m from her fellow barque…
ReefPort Phillip Heads
Awesome Reef
A 'spectacular' deep reef formation off Shortland Bluff at 12–40 m beside the shipping channel, paired with Knawesome Bommie –…
ReefMornington Peninsula
Back Beach Cray Reef
Long ledges and overhangs packed with crayfish a kilometre off the Sorrento back beach.
ReefMornington Peninsula
Balnarring Reef
Sheltered, shallow reef patches ideal for a first Western Port dive or snorkel; quiet beach with facilities.
ReefWilsons Promontory
Bare Back Cove
Granite boulders with gorgonians, zoanthids and bearded cod in the crevices off a white quartz-sand cove; sheltered,…
ReefShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Bay of Islands
Circle the bases of limestone sea stacks in 10–20 m with crays in every undercut – Twelve Apostles scenery underwater, with a…
Shore/Rock PlatformShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Bay of Martyrs
Swim among limestone sea stacks and reef gutters from a beach at the eastern end of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park – the most…
ReefGeelong & Bellarine
Beach 10B, Queenscliff
Ledges, overhangs and swim-throughs at 8-9 m (Friendly Bommie) reachable from a Queenscliff beach, with Heads-quality growth and…