Helen Rock

Reef Dive | Boat access

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 20 m (66 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Helen Rock (aka Helens Rock) is located about 1 km offshore from Tower Hill, in Armstrongs Bay, between Warrnambool to the east and Killarney and Port Fairy to the west, on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. It's about 270 km west of Melbourne.

The water here is about 20 metres deep and the top of the pinnacle is submerged about 2 metres below the surface, so care needs to be taken as you approach. While it is a hazard to navigation for mariners, it attracts fish and other marine life of all kinds!

Diving at Helen Rock

This magnificent rock, offshore from Rutledges Cutting (aka The Cutting) and the Belfast Coastal Reserve, is swathed in beautifully colorful soft coral and sponges, and is truly massive. Helen Rock is a photographers dream location with plenty of marine life, gorgonians and brightly coloured sponges.

This dive site is always surrounded by pelagic fish like Kingfish, Yellowtail and Trevally. Even if you don't dive Helen Rock, there are plenty of other interesting spots to dive in this general area that will show up on the sounder.

Location: Offshore from Tower Hill, Killarney, Victoria 3283

Ideal Conditions: Good conditions are needed to dive here. Perfectly calm waters with minimal swell. The site is subject to some currents, so please take care. See WillyWeather (Warrnambool Offshore) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boat Launching: Helen Rock is usually reached by boat from the Port Fairy - Griffiths St Boat Ramp. Alternative boat ramps are the Port Fairy - Killarney Bay Ramp, the Port Fairy - Killarney Bay East Ramp, or the Warrnambool (Lady Bay) boat ramp.

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.

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.

 

Helen Rock Location Map

Latitude: 38° 22.010′ S   (38.366833° S / 38° 22′ 0.6″ S)
Longitude: 142° 22.204′ E   (142.370067° E / 142° 22′ 12.24″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2021-06-06 15:51:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:15:03 GMT
Source: GPS
Nearest Neighbour: Gormans Lane Reef, 2,214 m, bearing 327°, NNW
Killarney, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 20 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.