Meet the site
Bare Island is Sydney's most-dived site and one of the best temperate shore dives in Australia. The island is a squat sandstone fort built between 1881 and 1889 to James Barnet's design as Botany Bay's sole defence against a feared Russian attack – so badly built that a royal commission followed and Barnet resigned – and it is joined to La Perouse by a timber footbridge. Around it lies a mosaic of sand channels, kelp gutters, sponge-covered boulder reefs and short walls that McFadyen has mapped into a dozen distinct dives: Right (western side), Left (eastern side), 15 Metre Reef, Deep Wall, Not So Deep Wall, Isolated Reefs, Bombora, the Circumnavigation and the Larpa drift, each covered in its own entry. Bare Island Right is the classic. From the old boat ramp you cross five minutes of sand to a reef edge marked by the Shark Fin rock, follow it west through a kelp gutter and over more sand past the Sea Tulip Rocks to a wall with deep overhangs and The Cave at 14–15 m, its roof hung with gorgonians. What makes the site famous is macro: red Indianfish resident since about 2004, Sydney pygmy pipehorses in brown, red and white, big-belly seahorses on the sponges, miniature painted anglerfish, several pipefish species, nudibranchs by the dozen, and – historically in numbers, scarcer since 2009 – weedy seadragons in the kelp. Wobbegongs, Port Jackson sharks in August, blue groper, cardinalfish, flathead, stingarees and numbfish round it out, and the sponge, sea-squirt and lace-coral cover is exceptional for water this accessible. Visibility was 4–5 m through the 1990s and improved markedly after 1999 to an average near 10 m, with 15–30 m on good days. Because it is diveable in almost any weather, it is the default when everything else is blown out, which explains the crowds; go early, dive on a high tide, and never surface mid-water because of the boats under the bridge.
What you might see
Red Indianfish, Sydney pygmy pipehorse, big-belly seahorse, weedy seadragon (fewer since 2009), painted anglerfish, pipefish, nudibranchs (dozens of species), wobbegong, Port Jackson shark (August), blue groper, cardinalfish, flathead, stingaree, numbfish, flounder, sponges, sea squirts, lace coral, gorgonians
Location
Historic 1880s fort island joined to La Perouse by a timber footbridge at the northern side of the Botany Bay entrance, Kamay Botany Bay National Park. The main 'Bare Island Right' dive runs west from the island's old boat ramp over sand and a sponge-covered reef edge to a wall and cave at 12–15 m.
Facilities nearby
Free parking on Anzac Parade and the La Perouse loop (fills by 8 am on weekends), toilets at La Perouse, cafés and fish and chips at the loop, gear-up on the grass above the bridge; air fills at Abyss (Ramsgate) and Sydney Dive Academy (Matraville).
Before you make plans
Conditions, access and operator schedules can change. This is a location guide, not a dive plan. Ask a local operator about current conditions and suitability for your training and experience.
Sources & further reading
michaelmcfadyenscuba.infomichaelmcfadyenscuba.infomichaelmcfadyenscuba.infoabyss.com.auRecord updated 26 Sept 2026. Source claims are being reviewed.