Bare Back Cove

Reef Dive | Boat access

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 30 m (98 ft)

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond.

Bare Back Cove, on the eastern side of Wilsons Promontory, is a safe site suitable for scuba diving from a boat and snorkelling from the shore. Bare Back Cove lies in the Wilsons Promontory Marine Reserve facing north into Bass Strait and receives only low waves at the shore.

Bare Back Cove is the second cove south of Refuge Cove with the one in between being Larkin Cove. Bare Back Cove Beach is composed of coarse, white quartz sand that results in a steep, barless beach, with seagrass growing in the relatively deep water just off the shoreline. Bare Back Cove Beach is just 50 metres in length.

Diving and Snorkelling at Bare Back Cove

There are a number of interesting granite boulders to be found at the southern end of Bare Back Cove. In the depths they are covered in invertebrates including sponges, ascidian sea squirts, gorgonian sea fans and zoanthid yellow sea daisies. Fish life in the crevices includes Bullseyes, Blue Devilfish and Beared Cod.

Due to the long trek overland to get here, this site is really only accessible for snorkelling and apnea diving from shore. For scuba divers, it's a boat dive.

Ideal Conditions: Bare Back Cove is best dived with calm seas, no swell and no wind. Light offshore south-westerly to south-easterly winds may be acceptable. Avoid strong onshore northerly to easterly winds. See WillyWeather (Bare Back Cove) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Bass Strait Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any shore or boat dive in Bass Strait on Victoria's coastline. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-in-bass-strait before diving or snorkelling this site.

Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes parts of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-west, down to Wilson's Promontory in the south-east, including the Mornington Peninsula, French Island and Phillip Island, plus Western Port. We wish to acknowledge the Boon Wurrung as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.

 

Bare Back Cove Location Map

Latitude: 39° 3.260′ S   (39.054341° S / 39° 3′ 15.63″ S)
Longitude: 146° 28.543′ E   (146.475715° E / 146° 28′ 32.57″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2022-04-22 19:02:06 GMT, Last updated: 2022-04-22 20:50:12 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Larkin Cove, 971 m, bearing 348°, NNW
Wilsons Promontory Marine Reserve.
Depth: 2 to 30 m.

DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.