Boarfish Reef

Meet the site

Boarfish Reef is the largest and most varied reef in Lonsdale Bight, the sheltered bay inside the Heads between Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff. The Scuba Doctor listing describes it as 'multiple dive sites in one location', extending east–west from the Lonsdale Wall system, with prolific fish life, swim-throughs, caves and rocky outcrops, and it is named for the long-snouted boarfish that are abundant here. Depth is 10–25 m and the rating is Open Water and beyond.

Two features anchor the dive. In 10 m stands a 4 m admiralty anchor, upright and heavily encrusted, a relic of the sailing-ship era when vessels anchored in the bight waiting for pilots or a fair tide; it is the usual start point. Along the northern tip of the reef runs a sponge garden about 400 m long, the densest of the Lonsdale Bight gardens, where the bottom is a continuous carpet of orange, yellow and purple sponges, ascidians and bryozoans. Between the two the reef is broken into outcrops with caves and short swim-throughs, and the fish list is long: southern blue devils, magpie perch, leatherjackets and the boarfish themselves, with southern rock lobster in the caves, nudibranchs and mosaic sea stars on the sponges, yellow sea spiders, and Port Jackson sharks and varied carpetsharks resting under ledges.

Boarfish Reef is the workhorse of the Queenscliff charter fleet: it is inside the Heads, sheltered from most swell, shallow enough for Open Water divers, and big enough to give a different dive on every visit. It is dived on both slacks; the neighbouring Boarfish Reef Drift and Kelp Beds Reef Drift use the same ground as flood-tide drifts when the slack has passed. For macro photographers it is one of the best sites in Victoria, and for anyone new to the Heads it is the natural first dive.

What you might see

Longsnout boarfish, southern blue devil, southern rock lobster, magpie perch, leatherjackets, nudibranchs, mosaic sea star, yellow sea spider, Port Jackson shark, varied carpetshark, sponge gardens, ascidians, bryozoans

Location

In Victory Bight (the Lonsdale Bight) inside the Heads, roughly halfway between Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale; the reef extends east from the Lonsdale Wall system. 66 m from 12lb Reef.