Meet the site
Mordialloc Pier is the standard south-eastern suburbs pier dive, a long timber jetty running out from the beach beside the mouth of Mordialloc Creek. It is a working recreational pier with anglers on it most days and a yacht club and boat channel beside it, and the dive reflects that: it is not pristine, and part of its charm is the junk. The bottom under the deck is sand and shell grit from 2 m at the landing to about 6 m at the head, dotted with a famous graveyard of shopping trolleys and a scattering of golf balls, all of which have been colonised by sponges, sea squirts and algae and now shelter blennies, gobies and small octopus. The pylons carry mussels, tubeworms and sea squirts with Tasmanian blennies, southern cardinalfish, small leatherjackets and toadfish, and a careful look at the weed and debris turns up short-head seahorses, dumpling squid, southern calamari, puffers, sea stars, sand crabs and southern blue-ringed octopus, which are common here and should not be handled. Jellyfish drift through in late summer. Toward the beach the ground is richer, with a small reef and more crabs and rays on the sand. It is a good night dive because the pier is lit and the landing gives an easy entry, and it is used by the Frankston and Cheltenham shops for training. The site's weakness is water quality: the creek beside it carries stormwater and visibility is poor for days after rain, and it is exposed to any wind with south or west in it. On a calm northerly evening at high tide it is a relaxed, easy hour with plenty of small life. The Aspendale artificial reef and Tyre Reef lie offshore to the south-west for boat divers.
What you might see
Short-head seahorses, southern blue-ringed octopus, dumpling squid, southern calamari, Tasmanian blennies, southern cardinalfish, puffers and toadfish, leatherjackets, sea stars, sand crabs, jellyfish in late summer, rays near the beach
Location
Long timber pier off Beach Road at the mouth of Mordialloc Creek, south-east Melbourne bayside, with a small reef inshore and the Aspendale artificial reef 2.7 km to the south-west.
Facilities nearby
Paid car park on the foreshore (8 am-8 pm); toilets (daytime); rinse tap near yacht moorings; night lighting; cafes on Main Street; nearest air fills Scuba Culture (Cheltenham) or Aquability (Frankston)
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.