Victoria
Diving in Surf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Torquay, Anglesea, Lorne and Apollo Bay face the Southern Ocean, and diving is limited to flat days at the piers and reefs (Lorne Pier, Apollo Bay harbour, Point Addis). The deep offshore wrecks of the SS Casino and others suit technical divers with a boat.
Dive sites in this region
Shore/Rock PlatformSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Eagle Rock, Aireys Inlet
A volcanic sea stack and basalt table below the Split Point lighthouse, ringed by kelp, crays, catsharks and seals inside a…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Addis
Sponge-lined limestone gutters running out toward a marine-national-park headland, with seadragons, blue devils and crays; the…
Shore/Rock PlatformSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Danger, Torquay
Torquay's marine sanctuary headland with a record 96 sea-slug species, eagle rays and Amphibolis meadows in under 7 m, and…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
SS Orungal
A 119 m interstate liner wrecked on Formby Reef in 1940 and picked over by Whelan the Wrecker – two Scotch boilers awash at low…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Victoria Tower
An 1869 iron clipper lost in fog on her maiden voyage – intact bow with bowsprit, standing frames, hatches and fallen masts in…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Bells Beach
Diving the reef that makes Australia's most famous wave: limestone shelves and overhangs with seadragons and blue devils inside…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Bird Rock, Jan Juc
Ledged limestone reef and gullied platforms around a surf-famous headland at Jan Juc; a rarely possible but beautiful Surf Coast…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Blanket Bay, Cape Otway
The most sheltered of the Cape Otway coves: a campground beach, an old jetty and a kelp reef holding crays and schooling fish on…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Casino
Apollo Bay's own ship: a 1932 coastal steamer with boiler, engine and bow still standing on sand in 9 m, a surface swim from the…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Cathedral Rock, Lorne
A sheltered-looking cove below the Great Ocean Road east of Lorne with deep water off its northern platform and Otway-sandstone…
Shore/Rock PlatformSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Crayfish Bay, Cape Otway
Crays, bommies and visiting fur seals from Seal Point, directly under the Cape Otway lighthouse – the wildest of the cape's shore…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Eagle Nest Reef, Aireys Inlet
A kilometres-long limestone reef beneath the red bluffs of Aireys Inlet, with a beginner-friendly inner reef and a main reef in…
Jetty/PierSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Lorne Pier
The only pier dive on the Otway coast: seahorses, cowfish, crabs and rays on the pylons and sand in a few metres of water, with a…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Marengo Reefs Marine Sanctuary
A fur seal haul-out on a kelp-covered sanctuary reef within a short swim of the beach – the Great Ocean Road's signature snorkel…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Parker Inlet, Cape Otway
A secluded river-mouth cove on the Great Ocean Walk with kelp gutters and offshore bommies, reached by 300 steps – empty, wild…
Shore/Rock PlatformSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Bunbury, Apollo Bay
Two easy shore entries either side of the Apollo Bay harbour headland – small kelp reefs and a sheltered breakwater beach –…
Shore/Rock PlatformSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Danger Marine Sanctuary (Torquay)
Torquay's local sanctuary reef with kelp gutters, crayfish and seadragons within a short swim of a car park; doubles as the site…
Shore/Rock PlatformSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Franklin, Cape Otway
The deepest and most varied of the Cape Otway shore dives: angled gutters, big slabs and offshore reefs to 14 m off a wild point,…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Roadknight North
Calcarenite gullies and ledges on the sheltered side of Anglesea's headland, with an easy car park and the best odds of a…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Point Roadknight South
A maze of undercut limestone blocks and sand channels on the ocean side of Point Roadknight, full of crays and cuttlefish; flat…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Sandy Gully Beach, Aireys Inlet
Quiet beach between red sandstone headlands giving access to the southern end of Eagle Nest Reef; a longer, less-visited…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Speculant
Iron ribs and plating of a 1911 barquentine in the surge gutters directly below the Great Ocean Road at Cape Patton – a heritage…
ReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
The Steps, Jan Juc
Cavernous limestone reef in 8-10 m off a famous surf break; the deepest of the Jan Juc shore dives, possible only on flat days.
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
City of Rayville
The first American merchant ship lost in WWII, intact and upright in 82 m off Cape Otway – Victoria's premier deep technical…
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