Crofts Bay

Reef Dive | Shore access

Crofts Bay | Source: Film Victoria

Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 25 m (82 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Crofts Bay is a diving and snorkelling site, located between Peterborough to the east and Warrnambool to the west, off of the Great Ocean Road (B100) on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. Crofts Bay is the westernmost of the smaller bays within the larger Bay of Martyrs. It forms a part of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park, a 32 kilometre stretch of coastal reserve.

Crofts Bay lies 4 km west of Peterborough. The Great Ocean Road runs behind the low bluffs and dunes that back the 1.2 km long bay. There is a car park at the western end of the bay. The western car park has steps down the bluff to the beach. The beach faces south and is protected by extensive reefs extending up to 1 km offshore. These reduce the waves to an average of 0.5 metres at the beach, resulting in a steep, barless beach, with a low, surging shore break and usually no bar or rips. There are a few rocks along the beach and reefs that are exposed at low tide.

Diving and Snorkelling at Crofts Bay

There is plenty of interesting structure to explore and marine life to see on a shore dive at Crofts Bay. It gets even more interesting about 80 to 100 metres offshore. Across the front of Crofts Bay, there is also excellent boat diving in 20 to 25 metres of deeper water.

Crofts Bay Parking
© Google Street View

Location: Great Ocean Road, Peterborough, Victoria 3270

Parking: There is a car parking off the Great Ocean Road (B100) with steps down the bluff to the beach. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Ideal Conditions: Crofts Bay is generally sheltered from ocean swell by an offshore reef and a collection of smaller sea stacks. It's best dived at high tide when the reefs are covered. See WillyWeather (Crofts Bay) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boat Launching: The nearest boat launching facility is at the Peterborough Bay of Islands Boat Ramp just north of here, or you can venture out from the Peterborough Curdies River Dorey Street Boat Ramp.

Eastern Maar country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Eastern Maar people of south-western Victoria between the Shaw and Eumerella Rivers and from Yambuk in the south to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. This truly ancient Country extends as far north as Ararat and encompasses the coastal townships of Port Fairy in the west, Warrnambool, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Lorne, and Airies Inlet in the east, including the Great Ocean Road area. It also stretches 100 metres out to sea from low tide and therefore includes the iconic Twelve Apostles. "Eastern Maar" is a name adopted by the people who identify as Maar, Eastern Gunditjmara, Tjap Wurrung, Peek Whurrong, Kirrae Whurrung, Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch (Tooram Tribe) amongst others. We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Maar as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

 

Crofts Bay Location Map

Latitude: 38° 35.266′ S   (38.587769° S / 38° 35′ 15.97″ S)
Longitude: 142° 50.453′ E   (142.840888° E / 142° 50′ 27.2″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-06-02 10:09:35 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:41:33 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Boat Bay, 1,341 m, bearing 304°, NW
Peterborough, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 1 to 25 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.