Eagle Rock, Warrnambool

Reef Dive | Boat access

Depth: 3 m (9.84 ft) to 20 m (66 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The Eagle Rock boat dive site is about 900 metres north-west of Thunder Point and east of Shelly Beach, offshore from the Warrnambool Golf Club on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. It's a popular abalone and crayfish hunting site.

Diving at Eagle Rock, Warrnambool

Eagle Rock faces south-west into the Southern Ocean and has some of the most rugged terrain in the area. There is a long finger-like reef that extends about 30 metres out from the shore into the sea towards a solitary rock known as Eagle Rock.

There are crevasses carved 5 metres deep into the bottom with walls and caves cut into them. The area is rich in marine life due to the racing currents and rough seas providing plenty of food. The rocky bottom extends up to 2 kilometres out to sea gradually getting deeper.

Location: Warrnambool, Victoria 3280

Ideal Conditions: The Eagle Rock, Warrnambool dive site is prone to surge and swell. It's best dived in very good conditions with a low swell with light offshore northerly to easterly winds. See WillyWeather (Thunder Point) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boat Launching: Eagle Rock and the reefs in the area are best reached by boat from the Port Fairy, Griffiths Street Boat Ramp. While the Warrnambool (Lady Bay) boat ramp is closer, it's also more problematic.

Abalone Dive Site
© Mark Norman, Museum Victoria

Divers have the opportunity to catch Abalone at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, legal abalone tool, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, and abalone measure. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch abalone.

See article-catching-abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-abalone-dives for a list of other Abalone dive sites near Melbourne.

Crayfish Dive Site | © Ian Scholey

Divers have the opportunity to catch Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Once you get back to the dive boat, or shore, make sure you clip the tail and tag your Crayfish as per Fisheries requirements. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See article-catching-crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-cray-dives for a list of other crayfish dive sites near Melbourne. For tips on cooking your Crays, please see article-cooking-crayfish.

Finding Eagle Rock, Warrnambool

We are aware of other GPS marks for Eagle Rock, Warrnambool in circulation.

GPS (verified)
Latitude: 38° 23.704′ S (38.395065° S / 38° 23′ 42.23″ S)
Longitude: 142° 27.273′ E (142.454558° E / 142° 27′ 16.41″ E)
Source: Sally Watson
Latitude: 38° 23.477′ S (38.391283° S / 38° 23′ 28.62″ S)
Longitude: 142° 26.944′ E (142.449066° E / 142° 26′ 56.64″ E)
637 m, bearing 311°, NW. This seems to be off Shelly Beach.

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.

Eagle Rock, Warrnambool Location Map

Latitude: 38° 23.704′ S (38.395065° S / 38° 23′ 42.23″ S)
Longitude: 142° 27.273′ E (142.454558° E / 142° 27′ 16.41″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2021-06-12 16:15:20 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 22:51:49 GMT
Source: GPS (verified)
Nearest Neighbour: Warrnambool Sewage Outfall, 222 m, bearing 119°, ESE
Warrnambool, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 12 m.

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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.