Port Campbell Bay

Meet the site

Port Campbell Bay is the one genuinely sheltered shore dive on the whole Shipwreck Coast, and for that reason it is the place most visiting divers actually get wet between Apollo Bay and Warrnambool. The town sits at the head of a narrow drowned valley whose entrance is pinched between limestone cliffs, and the effect is to filter the Southern Ocean swell down to half a metre at the beach on an ordinary day. The dive follows the eastern reef wall of the bay from the beach in front of the surf club out toward the entrance. On the right the wall rises in ledges and undercuts covered in kelp and encrusting invertebrates; on the left the old river bed forms a sand and seagrass channel. Depths increase gradually from 2 m to about 12 m near the mouth. Along the wall the Scuba Doctor notes crayfish and nudibranchs among the marine vegetation, and the fish are the typical western Victorian community – blue-throat wrasse, herring cale, sea sweep, bastard trumpeter, leatherjackets – with rays and flathead on the sand and plenty of invertebrates sheltering in the rock and seagrass. Overgrown mooring blocks made from engine blocks and gearboxes lie along the way and, beneath the cliff opposite the jetty, the iron frames of the Napier, the steamer lost in 1878 while salvaging the Loch Ard.

It is an easy, forgiving dive of an hour or more with a sand entry and exit and a wall to follow home, suitable for Open Water divers, students and snorkellers, and it can be done in conditions that close every other site on the coast. It also works as a night dive. The bay is used by the local cray fleet from the jetty on the eastern side, so a flag and float are advisable and the lobster sea cages near the jetty are off limits. Combined with the jetty and the Napier it forms a compact cluster of shallow dives within a few hundred metres of the cafes, and it is the natural place to spend a day waiting for the swell to drop for the Loch Ard.

What you might see

Southern rock lobster, nudibranchs, blue-throat wrasse, herring cale, sea sweep, bastard trumpeter, leatherjackets, smooth rays, flathead, kelp, seagrass, sponges and ascidians on the wall

Location

Sheltered shore dive from the beach in front of the Port Campbell surf lifesaving club, following the eastern reef wall of the bay seaward, in 2–12 m.

Facilities nearby

Cairns Street and Lord Street parking, toilets and showers at the surf club/foreshore, cafes, pub and general store within 200 m, caravan park behind the beach, visitor information centre; no air fills nearer than Warrnambool.