Popes Eye Anchor Farm

Reef Dive | Boat access

Depth: 9 m (30 ft) to 11 m (36 ft)

Pope's Eye Anchor Farm
© Phil Watson

The Pope's Eye Anchor Farm has been created with some 13 anchors located North of the Pope Eye Annulus in Port Phillip, Victoria.

Most of these anchors were uncovered as a result of the Channel Deepening Project undertaken by the Port of Melbourne. The anchors were discovered in shipping channels, or near piers, where they posed a potential hazard to navigation, so were relocated to create the Pope's Eye Anchor Farm.

Pope's Eye Anchor Farm Plaque 1
© Peter Beaumont

There are two plaques at the dive site which provide information about the anchors. It's hoped the Pope's Eye Anchor Farm will become a popular dive site and provide a unique way to explore Victoria's heritage.

The identities of some of the anchors in the Pope's Eye Anchor Farm are:

South Channel Anchor (Rogers Patent) — Relocated from NW of South Channel Beacon 4, 15m outside channel
South Channel Anchor 3
South Channel Anchor 4 — Relocated from South Channel between Entrance Beacon and Beacon 1
Port Melbourne Channel Admiralty Anchor — Relocated from South East of Beacon 75 Port Melbourne Channel
Port Melbourne Channel Trotman Anchor — Relocated from South West of the Western Bypass Channel in the transit Zone 322m from Beacon 6

Pope's Eye Anchor Farm
Bathymetric Survey
© Port of Melbourne

On the 12 Feb 2013 the Port of Melbourne survey vessel Norgate used its Reson 7125 echo sounder to do a bathymetric survey of the Popes Eye Re-located Heritage Anchors. A detailed A0 size, 1:100 scale plan has been made available which you can now download/view — Port of Melbourne Popes Eye Re-located Heritage Anchors Bathymetric Survey (PDF, 1 page, 5 Mb).

Thus we have the following GPS marks for seven specific anchors in the farm.

Latitude: 38° 16.524′ S (38.27540833° S / 38° 16′ 31.47″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.890′ E (144.69816333° E / 144° 41′ 53.39″ E)
Depth: 9.7 metres
Latitude: 38° 16.525′ S (38.27542333° S / 38° 16′ 31.52″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.897′ E (144.69828667° E / 144° 41′ 53.83″ E)
Depth: 8.2 metres
Latitude: 38° 16.577′ S (38.27629° S / 38° 16′ 34.64″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.896′ E (144.69826833° E / 144° 41′ 53.77″ E)
Depth: 9.2 metres
Latitude: 38° 16.576′ S (38.27626167° S / 38° 16′ 34.54″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.899′ E (144.69832° E / 144° 41′ 53.95″ E)
Depth: 9.4 metres
Latitude: 38° 16.529′ S (38.27548° S / 38° 16′ 31.73″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.902′ E (144.69836333° E / 144° 41′ 54.11″ E)
Depth: 9.5 metres
Latitude: 38° 16.529′ S (38.27548333° S / 38° 16′ 31.74″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.934′ E (144.69889833° E / 144° 41′ 56.03″ E)
Depth: 9.5 metres
Latitude: 38° 16.535′ S (38.27559° S / 38° 16′ 32.12″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.936′ E (144.69893167° E / 144° 41′ 56.15″ E)
Depth: 8.5 metres

Map of Anchors 1 to 7. P is Pope's Eye, AF is the anchor farm centre.

Pope's Eye Anchor Farm Anchor
© Peter Beaumont

We'd appreciate your help in matching these marks to the names and details of each anchor. Maybe you have information and GPS marks for other anchors you could provide.

Peter Beaumont reports there are four anchors located near the 2nd GPS mark in the list above (A2 in the illustration).

Pope's Eye Anchor Farm Plaque 2
© Peter Beaumont

The tide runs very fast at this dive site due to the shallow water. Diving on slack water is a must.

See WillyWeather (West Channel Annulus) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Please Note: The location of the dive site has been calculated as the centre point of the GPS marks for the seven anchors listed above. You'll need to move around the dive site to find the various anchors.

Heritage Warning: Any shipwreck or shipwreck relic that is 75 years or older is protected by legislation. Other items of maritime heritage 75 years or older are also protected by legislation. Activities such as digging for bottles, coins or other artefacts that involve the disturbance of archaeological sites may be in breach of the legislation, and penalties may apply. The legislation requires the mandatory reporting to Heritage Victoria as soon as practicable of any archaeological site that is identified. See Maritime heritage. Anyone with information about looting or stolen artefacts should call Heritage Victoria on (03) 7022 6390, or send an email to heritage.victoria@delwp.vic.gov.au.

Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes the coastline of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-east, the Bellarine Peninsula, and down to Cape Otway in the south-west. We wish to acknowledge the Wathaurong 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.

Popes Eye Anchor Farm Location Map

Latitude: 38° 16.551′ S (38.275849° S / 38° 16′ 33.06″ S)
Longitude: 144° 41.913′ E (144.698548° E / 144° 41′ 54.77″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2019-02-13 13:36:01 GMT, Last updated: 2022-03-22 17:32:11 GMT
Source: Calculated from anchor marks provided by Graham Ellis
Nearest Neighbour: Popes Eye, 88 m, bearing 171°, S
Port Phillip.
Depth: 9 to 11 m.
Dive only on: SWF, SWE.
Mean water temp - summer: 18.2°C.
Mean water temp - winter: 12.5°C.

[ Top ]

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.