South Road Reefs and Bommie

Reef Dive | Shore access

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 6 m (20 ft)

South Road Reefs and Bommie
© James McKinnon

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The South Road Reefs and Bommie dive site is just south of where South Road intersects with Beach Road, in Brighton on the eastern side of Port Phillip. The dive site incorporates the remains of the old Brighton Beach Baths.

Ideal Conditions:
The site is fine on a Northerly wind, or the slightest of Southerlies. But avoid Westerlies and strong Southerlies. Better conditions usually prevail in Summer and Autumn.

See WillyWeather (Brighton) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Car Parking:
Drive down South Road, Brighton until you reach the beach, cross the railway lines and turn left and park in the car park immediately on your right. Then head down the steps and out through the gate in the concrete.

Access:
Head directly to the water and enter, as indicated in the picture.

Dive Route:
Head 240 degrees to the edge of the old Brighton Beach Baths (aka Kennett Baths), the red line to the blue circled area. You can spend a good 40 minutes diving around the old baths. The sides of the baths run perpendicular, and the outer side runs parallel, to the beach.

From there, take a heading of 120 degrees to the reef (yellow line to the pink circle area). You can easily spend another 40 minutes diving around the natural reef.

What To Expect:
This is an excellent dive site for both night and day and very close to the Melbourne city centre. The inner reef is quite shallow, so watch out for stingrays.

Following a line straight out from the steps you will find a series of ridges and undercuts leading out to the bommie at 4 metres. Living on the bommie and surrounding reef are sea urchins, stingrays, snapper, seahorses and the occasional octopus.

Thanks to James McKinnon for the dive site map and updated description details.

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.

 

South Road Reefs and Bommie Location Map

Latitude: 37° 55.722′ S   (37.928703° S / 37° 55′ 43.33″ S)
Longitude: 144° 59.349′ E   (144.989143° E / 144° 59′ 20.91″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-03-22 14:56:37 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Green Point, Brighton, 382 m, bearing 310°, NW
Brighton, Bayside, Port Phillip.
Depth: 2 to 6 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.