Wild Dog Cove

Reef Dive | Shore access

Wild Dog Cove

Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 10 m (33 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Wild Dog Cove is a diving and snorkelling site which lies offshore from the golf course in Peterborough on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. It's part of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park which continues on from the Port Campbell National Park at Peterborough and extends through to Warrnambool.

Wild Dog Cove is one of the better onshore diving spots on the Victorian West Coast being a 500 metre wide bay on the western side of Peterborough. It is a circular, south-facing bay, backed by 10 metre high red limestone cliffs, with a shallow bay floor dominated by offshore limestone reefs that are reasonably acessible and sheltered. The bay has 1 km of shoreline, with four small pocket beaches and one longer beach adjacent to the Great Ocean Road. All the beaches are located at the base of the cliffs and receive low to often calm waves, particularly at low tide.

A foreshore reserve backs all the beaches. The four small beaches lie in a row on the eastern side of the bay. Each is backed by the red bluffs and is well protected by the shallow bay reefs. Access to each is by steps or a climb down the bluffs. The 500 metre long main beach parallels the road and has vegetated bluffs, a car park and steps in the centre of the beach. Great for family picnics and snorkelling among the weed gardens in calm weather.

The weed-covered reefs have crevices that shelter colourful invertebrate life, as well as being home to plenty of reef fish like Horseshoe Leatherjacket, Senator Wrasse, Dusky Morwong, Gulf Wobbegong Shark, Port Jackson Shark, and Southern Blue Devil.

Wild Dog Cove can be dived as a shore dive off the beach, or as a boat dive heading out from the Curdies River, Dorey Street Boat Ramp in Peterborough. Diving Wild Dog Cove requires calm conditions and a very low swell. See WillyWeather (Wild Dog 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.

 

Wild Dog Cove Location Map

Latitude: 38° 36.212′ S   (38.603525° S / 38° 36′ 12.69″ S)
Longitude: 142° 52.117′ E   (142.868616° E / 142° 52′ 7.02″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-06-01 19:02:28 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:44:42 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Nursery Bay, 495 m, bearing 247°, WSW
Peterborough, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 1 to 10 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.