Meet the site
George Kermode was a twin-screw steam bucket dredge built by Fleming and Ferguson at Paisley, Scotland, in 1914 as the Sir William Matthews, 70 m (230 ft) long and 803 tons. The Melbourne Harbour Trust bought her on 10 October 1941, renamed her after a Trust commissioner and put her to work on 22 June 1942 deepening the Yarra and the bay channels, which she did for more than thirty years. When she was retired the Victorian Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands chose her for its artificial reef programme, and on 1 April 1976 she was scuttled off the south coast of Phillip Island – Victoria's first deliberate artificial-reef wreck, three decades before the Canberra. She landed upside down and broke in the middle, but the two halves are substantial and the wreck is described as fairly well intact with lots of penetration opportunities. The large bow section and chain lockers are the most ship-like part; amidships the break has spilled the workings of a bucket dredge across the sand – two massive boilers, enormous cog gear wheels, sections of the bucket ladder and a scatter of the dredge buckets themselves – and the hull rises to within about 12 m of the surface from a 20 m bottom. Qualified divers can enter the boilers and compartments, with the caution that an inverted, broken hull is disorienting inside. Fifty years of Bass Strait colonisation have covered the steel in sponges, zoanthids and ascidians, and the wreck and the reef around it hold big schools of bullseyes and sweep, leatherjackets, magpie perch, cuttlefish, crayfish under the plates, and Australian fur seals from the nearby Seal Rocks colony that often join the dive. At 12–20 m the George Kermode is one of the few genuinely rewarding wrecks in Victoria within Open Water/Advanced limits, and many rate it the best wreck dive in the state for non-technical divers. The price is the exposed 22 km boat run and the need to wait for northerlies; it suits patient divers with access to a capable boat or a charter, and Wreck specialty students who want real penetration without depth.
What you might see
Bullseyes, sweep, leatherjackets, magpie perch, cuttlefish, southern rock lobster, Australian fur seals, sponges, zoanthids, ascidians, blue devilfish, boarfish
Location
About 3 km off the south coast of Phillip Island in Bass Strait, offshore from the Grand Prix circuit and Cape Woolamai; roughly 22 km by sea from the nearest ramps at Newhaven or Flinders.
Facilities nearby
Newhaven boat ramp (parking, toilets, fuel, cafes in Newhaven/San Remo); Flinders ramp and pier (parking, toilets).
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
scubadoctor.com.auscubadoctor.com.auRecord updated 26 Sept 2026. Source claims are being reviewed.