Meet the site
Waterloo Bay's north wall is one of the eastern Prom's best dives and one that Scuba Doctor says you can do several times and never get tired of. The bay – named by Captain Stokes of HMS Beagle, who arrived on the anniversary of the battle in 1842 – is the last big bay before South East Point, and its northern arm is a granite headland whose face continues underwater as a 2 km wall running from the point towards North Waterloo Bay beach. The wall is built of granite boulders up to 10 m high, stacked to form swim-throughs, caves and overhangs, and it drops from about 10 m at its top to 60 m at its deepest off the point, with most of the interest between 15 and 30 m. The shallows carry kelp and the fish of the inshore reef – wrasse, leatherjackets, cuttlefish, draughtboard sharks resting in the gaps and blue devils in the holes – while the deeper zones near the walls hold clouds of barber perch and boarfish, and the rock is coated with yellow zoanthids, sponges, sea whips and nudibranchs of many kinds. Seals from the eastern haul-outs are occasional visitors. The additional interest zones around and north of the point mentioned in the listing extend the site into a whole day's diving: a wall dive on the point at slack, a boulder-garden dive further in, and a shallow kelp dive near the beach. Bare Back Cove, 1.2 km north-north-east, and Waterloo Point, the bay's south-eastern headland, are the neighbouring sites. Access is the usual eastern Prom proposition – a long run from Port Welshpool in settled weather, no facilities, and self-sufficiency – and the bay is dived rarely as a result, but it offers an unusual combination of length, variety and depth range that lets a mixed group of Advanced and deep divers work the same wall at their own levels.
What you might see
Wrasse, leatherjackets, cuttlefish, draughtboard sharks, blue devils, barber perch, boarfish, yellow zoanthids, sponges, sea whips, nudibranchs, Australian fur seals occasionally
Location
Granite wall running about 2 km from the northern point of Waterloo Bay towards North Waterloo Bay beach, on the eastern side of Wilsons Promontory, facing south-west.
Facilities nearby
Departure from Tidal River beach ramp, Port Welshpool or Sandy Point; No air fills at Tidal River or Port Welshpool; the nearest compressor is roughly 100 km away (Melbourne's south-east or Inverloch/Leongatha area by arrangement) – bring all cylinders or a portable compressor
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.auscubadoctor.com.auscubadoctor.com.auRecord updated 27 Sept 2026. Source claims are being reviewed.