The Basin

Shore Dive | Shore access

The Basin

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 5 m (16 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The Basin (aka Pelicans) diving and snorkelling site is a south-east facing, protected section of beach in the lee of Sisters Point, off the Princes Highway near Killarney between Port Fairy and Warrnambool on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. The low basalt points and offshore barrier reefs reduce the waves, and form two beaches bordered by the low points and backed by grassy dunes. This site features sheltered beaches and rock pools.

To access The Basin beach, take the unsealed Basin Track from Mahoneys Road, near Killarney Beach. Long vehicles are not recommended as the track and car park are narrow. Boat launching is permitted at The Basin. It is across beach sand, so a 4WD vehicle is recommended. Please return all vehicles with trailers to the car park after launching and retrieving boats, to keep the beach clear and safe for visitors and wildlife.

The 600 metre long The Basin East beach receives waves averaging about 1 metre, which break across a wide bar. A few rips exist along the beach and there is a permanent rip against the basalt rocks below the car park.

The smaller, 100 metre long The Basin West beach has lower waves and usually a continuous, shallow bar with no rips.

The safe entry points provide dive and snorkel sites over lush seaweed beds. Snorkellers can take advantage of the occasionally crystal clear blue waters alive with magnificent underwater kelp habitat and its residents. It is worth a look in poor weather.

The Basin can be dived as a shore dive off the beach, or as a boat dive launching at the Killarney Bay East Boat Ramp. Diving The Basin requires calm conditions and a very low swell. See WillyWeather (Killarney Beach) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

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.

 

The Basin Location Map

Latitude: 38° 21.322′ S   (38.35536° S / 38° 21′ 19.3″ S)
Longitude: 142° 20.140′ E   (142.335664° E / 142° 20′ 8.39″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-06-23 17:34:09 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:16:11 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Rogers Rocks, 661 m, bearing 66°, ENE
Killarney, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 2 to 5 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.