Ocean Drive & Pea Soup, Port Fairy

Meet the site

Ocean Drive runs along the southern, ocean-facing side of Port Fairy from the Moyne River mouth west past Pea Soup Beach toward the golf course and the water tower, and the basalt reef along it is the town's shore dive. The Scuba Doctor lists the site at the Ocean Drive 3 beach marker, west of Pea Soup, at 2–20 m, and describes abundant fish and invertebrate life on reefs that extend east and west, suitable for diving and snorkelling and particularly rewarding at night. The reef is the same dark volcanic rock that forms Griffiths Island and the Port Fairy shoreline, weathered into ridges, gutters and ledges that run seaward under kelp and mixed algae. The ledges hold southern rock lobster and abalone, the gutters are worked by wrasse, magpie perch, sweep, zebrafish and leatherjackets, and rays and flathead lie on the sand between the ridges. After dark the character changes: Maori octopus come out to hunt across the reef, southern dumpling squid appear on the sand, cuttlefish, crabs and shrimps are everywhere, and the dive becomes one of the better night dives in western Victoria for a diver with a torch and a macro lens.

Pea Soup, a few hundred metres east, is a small beach protected by a reef that turns it into a shallow lagoon and makes it the safest swimming and snorkelling spot in Port Fairy; it is a sensible place to introduce children to the reef life while the divers use the Ocean Drive entry. Boats can work the deeper reef to 20 m from the Griffiths Street ramp. The site is straightforward for Open Water divers – a sand entry, a reef to follow and depth that can be chosen – but it faces due south and needs a very low swell and offshore winds, and the Scuba Doctor's advice to display a dive flag against the frequent boat traffic along this shore should be followed. It is the natural complement to the Griffiths Island boat reefs for a diver spending a few days in Port Fairy.

What you might see

Maori octopus and southern dumpling squid (night), cuttlefish, southern rock lobster, black-lip abalone, blue-throat wrasse, magpie perch, sea sweep, zebrafish, leatherjackets, rays, flathead, crabs and shrimps, kelp, sponges on basalt

Location

South-facing basalt reef along Ocean Drive on the western side of Port Fairy, west of Pea Soup Beach, with reefs running east and west from the beach in 2–20 m.

Facilities nearby

Roadside parking on Ocean Drive, toilets at Pea Soup Beach and the South Beach reserve, Port Fairy cafes and shops 1 km; no air fills in Port Fairy – nearest Warrnambool.