Koonya Ocean Beach

Shore Dive | Shore access

Koonya Ocean Beach
Source: Visit Victoria

Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 5 m (16 ft)

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond

Koonya Ocean Beach (aka Koonya Beach) is an open sandy beach dominated by rocks and reefs at Sorrento (on the border with Blairgowrie) on the Back Beaches of the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. There are extensive, deeper reefs off the beach. The beach faces south-west and receives waves over the outer reefs averaging 1.5 metre.

The waves reform in the deeper channel and surge heavily up the beach face. The surge here can make this quite the washing machine to dive in. Exiting the site can involve a tough slow walk to shore.

Plenty of marine life can usually be seen here including goatfish, parrotfish, leather jackets, herring cale, port jackson sharks, blue throats, cat sharks, old wives, and cow fish.

The beach is unpatrolled and can be hazardous due to large waves, strong currents and submerged rocky reefs.

Koonya Ocean Beach Parking
© Google Street View

Location: Sorrento, Victoria 3943
MELWAY Ref: Page 166 K2

Parking: The 750 metre long Koonya Ocean Beach has good access via two car parks at the end of Hughes Road, Sorrento, with a loop walking track from the road to the beach. Busy in summer.There is a lookout and a toilet block at the end of Hughes Road.

Warning: As an ocean beach Koonya Ocean Beach is affected by rips, currents, swell and strong winds and can be very dangerous. Always go with a buddy and be extremely careful. Experienced divers and snorkellers only.

Entry/Exit: Enter and exit from the beach. The beach is accessible from wooden stairs at the western end of the car park.

Ideal Conditions: To dive here there must be very little to no swell and if any winds, a light northerly. Be aware that conditions here can change very quickly also. Very little swell (less than 1.5 metre, with periods of 10s or more) which generally means 3-4 days of N to NE winds prior to diving here.

See WillyWeather (Koonya Ocean Beach) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

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.

Koonya Ocean Beach is just a 5-minute drive from The Scuba Doctor Dive Shop. Please drop in and catch up with us before and/or after your dive.

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.

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.

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.

Koonya Ocean Beach Location Map

Latitude: 38° 21.810′ S (38.363504° S / 38° 21′ 48.61″ S)
Longitude: 144° 45.095′ E (144.751577° E / 144° 45′ 5.68″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-03-24 20:20:11 GMT, Last updated: 2022-04-29 12:51:45 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Spray Point Caverns, 550 m, bearing 159°, SSE
Blairgowrie, Back Beaches, Mornington Peninsula.
Depth:1 to 5 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.