Knawesome Bommie

Meet the site

Knawesome Bommie – also called Al's Bommie, after the diver who put it on the chart – is a big pinnacle standing in the shipping channel off Shortland Bluff. The Scuba Doctor listing, with GPS from Allie Beckhurst, describes 'a large bommie [that] rises from 40 metres to 22 metres with lots of other smaller ones scattered around it', and says that despite its position in the channel it is 'teeming with marine life and a fantastic area for taking photographs'. Its distinguishing feature is 'a large ship's anchor heavily encrusted into a section' of the bommie – a relic of the channel's shipping history that has been there long enough to be part of the rock.

The main bommie is 18 m high, with soft corals, sponges and gorgonian fans over its faces, overhanging ledges and small caves around its base and flanks, and the smaller bommies around it forming a field of structure on the 40 m sand. The fish are those of the deeper channel reefs: southern blue devils in the caves, magpie morwong and boarfish along the ledges, and schools of pike hanging off the top in the current; crayfish are 'known to be caught in the area', and because the site lies outside the marine national park boundary that remains legal for licensed divers, unlike the Lonsdale sites.

The depth profile – 22 m on top, 40 m at the sand – puts it in the deep-Advanced band, and the channel position imposes the usual conditions: slack water, shipping report, no anchoring, live boat and DSMBs. It is dived by experienced groups and clubs rather than as a scheduled charter drop, usually with Awesome Reef 100 m away, and it is one of the better photographic sites on the Queenscliff side for those who can handle the depth.

What you might see

Soft corals, sponges, gorgonian fans, southern blue devil, magpie morwong, longsnout boarfish, pike schools, southern rock lobster, old wife, encrusted ship's anchor

Location

Large bommie in the shipping channel off Shortland Bluff, Queenscliff, 101 m south-south-west of Awesome Reef and 570 m north-east of Olympic Wall; outside the marine national park.