Brush Island

Meet the site

Brush Island is a small, uninhabited island about 800 m off Murramarang Beach, just south of Bawley Point. It marks the northern end of the Batemans Marine Park and is best known to divers as the place where the SS Northern Firth was wrecked in 1932. The island is fringed by rocky reef. To the south-east and east a shallow reef runs out from the island; the ship hit a submerged part of it that was not on the chart. Around the outer side the reef drops to sand in the mid-20s, with boulder slopes, gutters and kelp typical of the South Coast.

There is little published site-by-site information. Divers who visit describe the usual temperate mix: kelp beds in the shallows, sponge and sea squirt growth on deeper rock, and schools of yellowtail, silver sweep and sweep over the reef. Eastern blue devilfish, blue groper, morwong and wobbegongs are common. NSW fisheries lists Brush Island as grey nurse shark critical habitat, so grey nurse sharks can gather in the gutters and special rules apply to divers and fishers. Whales pass close by in winter and spring.

Dive Adventures Ulladulla lists the island as an experienced-diver trip with depths beyond 25 m, and usually combines it with the Northern Firth wreck. The long run from either Ulladulla or Batemans Bay means few divers come here, so the reef is seldom disturbed. It suits divers with some boat-diving experience who want somewhere less visited.

What you might see

Grey nurse sharks (seasonal), eastern blue devilfish, blue groper, wobbegongs, red morwong, yellowtail, silver sweep, kelp, sponges, sea squirts

Location

Small island about 800 m off Murramarang Beach south of Bawley Point, at the northern end of the Batemans Marine Park; shallow reef to the south-east and east and deeper reef around its outer side.