Bay of Martyrs

Meet the site

The Bay of Martyrs is the eastern end of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park, a 32 km strip of reserve that runs west from Peterborough toward Warrnambool along some of the least visited and most spectacular limestone coast in Victoria. The name records the killing of Kirrae Whurrong people by settlers in the 1840s, as does Massacre Bay within it. The bay is 2.5 km across and faces south-west, with red limestone bluffs about 10 m high, a 500 m beach at the eastern end backed by dunes, and numerous reefs and sea stacks scattered across the shallows. Beneath the surface the stacks continue as limestone pinnacles and walls rising from a floor of sand and low reef in 3–10 m, cut with gutters, small caves and overhangs. Kelp covers the tops and the shaded faces carry sponges, ascidians and bryozoans; crayfish and abalone are in the ledges, and the fish are the familiar western Victorian mix of wrasse, sweep, magpie perch, zebrafish and leatherjackets with rays on the sand. It is a shore dive with the character of a boat dive – you are swimming among stacks – and on a flat day it is beautiful.

It is also the most accessible of the Bay of Islands sites, with a car park on the highway and steps to the beach, and because the outer reefs filter the swell the inner water is generally calmer than the open coast. The Scuba Doctor lists it for both shore and boat diving; boats from the Bay of Islands ramp 2 km west reach the outer stacks in a few minutes. It is best treated as a high-tide, low-swell dive for Open Water divers with some surf experience, and as a snorkel for everyone else. Massacre Bay and Crofts Bay lie immediately west within the same system and offer similar diving with less access; the whole stretch is a place to explore over several days rather than a single site.

What you might see

Southern rock lobster, black-lip abalone, blue-throat wrasse, sea sweep, magpie perch, zebrafish, leatherjackets, smooth rays, kelp, sponges and ascidians on stack walls

Location

A 2.5 km south-west facing bay of red limestone bluffs, sea stacks and reefs immediately west of Peterborough, with a beach at its eastern end reached by steps from the Great Ocean Road.

Facilities nearby

Highway car park, no toilets at the car park (toilets at Peterborough 2 km and at Boat Bay), general store and pub in Peterborough; no air fills nearer than Warrnambool.