Cape Schanck West

Shore Dive | Shore access

Cape Schanck Entry | © Phil Watson

Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 7 m (23 ft)

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond

Cape Schanck is one of the more epic shore dives in Victoria. You will be walking nearly one kilometre from the car park to the dive site, plus you'll be carrying your dive gear 100 metres down and then back up at the end.

A Dive At Cape Schanck | Credit: David Bryant, Seapics

Cape Schanck | © Phil Watson

From the entry point at the end of the point you'll swim around the Cape in the channel between Pulpit Rock. As you work your way up the western side you'll find big gullies, gorges and bommies and a rocky bottom.

The rougher shores on the western side have many crevices and some spectacular small sea caves. 'The Arch' area includes a smooth-sided underwater cave hollowed out by the swell. This cave area boasts rock walls covered in marine life. Another feature is the ' Shark Cave', usually full of Port Jackson sharks.

There are also lots of medium depth reefs (15 to 25 metre) offshore from Cape Schanck. This area consists of rubble and bedrock covered by sand. On more secure rocky areas there are large kelp gardens. In even deeper depths there are even larger reefs, pinnacles and canyons that support lots of colourful sponges, sea tulips and lace corals.

This dive can only be done in very calm conditions and is unsafe in any swell. See WillyWeather (Cape Schanck) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Cape Schanck is just a 20-minute drive from The Scuba Doctor Dive Shop. Please drop in and catch up with us before and/or after your dive.

Back Beach Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any dive on the Back Beaches of the Mornington Peninsula. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-the-back-beaches 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.

 

Cape Schanck West Location Map

Latitude: 38° 29.762′ S   (38.496031° S / 38° 29′ 45.71″ S)
Longitude: 144° 53.165′ E   (144.886081° E / 144° 53′ 9.89″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-03-25 17:22:39 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Fingal Beach, 2,688 m, bearing 352°, N
Cape Schanck, Back Beaches, Mornington Peninsula.
Depth: 1 to 7 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.