Melbourne Abalone Dives

18 Metre Reef

Depth: 12 metres (39 feet) to 18 metres (59 feet)

Just outside Port Phillip Heads on the Point Lonsdale side is an area of scattered reef with depths ranging from 12 to 18 metres. This area is renowned for Crayfish and Abalone and possible sightings of Weedy Sea Dragons.

Rock formations and bommies rising up from a max depth of 18 metres on the seabed, ledges with a top covering of kelp, cracks and crevasses make this ideal haven for fish and critters to find protection when needed. In the protection of the ledges and overhangs you are likely to see delicate fans and soft corals plus fish including Blue Devils.

This area is not current affected, but as with all coastal aspects can be affected by surge.

Divers have the opportunity to catch crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See How To Catch Crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Catch Bag Reef Drift

Depth: 12 metres (39 feet) to 24 metres (79 feet)

Great Crayfish Dive Site

The name Catch Bag Reef Drift originates back in the mists of time. The story goes that one day a cray diver of great notoriety had the largest cray he had ever seen in his catch bag. Unfortunately as he handed his gear to the boat the catch bag was lost along with the cray.

This drift is conducted on the flood tide over a kelp forest in the Lonsdale Bight between Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff in Port Phillip. This site also makes a great slack water dive.

During the drift you will encounter large fronds of kelp with broken sandstone reef, home to the Southern Rock Lobster (Crayfish) and Abalone. During the summer months, big schools of large Yellow Tail Kingfish can be seen.

Divers have the opportunity to catch crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See How To Catch Crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Deep Pinnacles

Depth: 16 metres (52 feet) to 25 metres (82 feet)

Deep Pinnacles lies just outside Port Phillip Heads on the Point Lonsdale side is an area of scattered reef and rock bommies rising out of the sea bed. The sea life in this is area is prolific with Crayfish, Blue Devils, Abalone, and much more. The soft calcium that comprises most of the terrain in this area has eroded into lots of little swim throughs valleys and overhangs, all topped off with a light scattering of kelp.

Divers have the opportunity to catch crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See How To Catch Crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Diamond Bay

Depth: 1 metre (3.3 feet) to 10 metres (33 feet)

Diamond Bay
© Mornington Peninsula
Regional Tourism

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond

Ideal Conditions:
As an ocean beach Diamond Bay is affected by rips, currents, swell and strong winds and can be very dangerous. To dive here there must be very little to no swell and if any winds, a northerly. Be aware that conditions here can change very quickly also.

What To Expect:
First off, to get to this dive site, which is amazing and not often dived, there is a bit of a walk. Over sand dunes and down stairs, so this may not be for everyone, but if you have a good set of legs on you it is well worth it. It's about 130 m from the car park with the last 50 metres consisting of stairs and a walk across the soft sand of the beach.

It has many rock ledges and overhangs, kelp beds, reefs and small walls. In these is a variety of life including the odd crayfish! You'll also find old wives, boarfish, abalone, and schooling fish.

Another thing to be mindful is of the visibility, it can change quite quickly with the swell as its a sandy bottom. It advisable to go with someone who has been before also to come to the surface to check conditions and for navigational purposes every once in a while.

Diamond Bay Ocean Beach | Credit: David Bryant, Seapics

Now you can walk straight in from the stairs though you'll probably find more and avoid just looking at sand if you head over to side and swim towards either point. Once you get about half way along the bay is where the dive really starts and also begins to deepen. You'll find some bommies and kelp forest just before the point on the right hand side — the direction usually taken.

Diamond Bay is a spectacular dive site but not often diveable. This site is more protected than other Mornington Peninsula Back Beach dive sites so when others are too rough this site can be okay.

Awesome looking landscape with lots of kelp, gullies, interesting rock formations and overhangs due to the surf pounding at the rocks. Not much macro life but you can find lots of crayfish and abalone (so bring measuring device if you want to catch some), wrasse, sharks including catsharks and Port Jacksons and lots of leatherjackets.

Viz can be bad close to shore but clears up the further out you go if the weather is good. Weather can turn bad quickly so it can be helpful to check on conditions now and again throughout the dive. There are often rock fisherman on the east side of the bay on the cliff face or shallow rock ledge on the west so beware of their fishing lines.

If you're lucky enough to dive here on the right day everyone will be jealous. There aren't many facilities here so make sure you have everything you need including dive flag, knife, SMB and possibly a catch bag!

Access: Via shore down steep stairs from carpark.

Facilities: Free park - fairly small so busy in summer.

Weather Required: Very little swell (less than 6 ft, with periods of 10s or more) which generally means 3-4 days of N to NE winds prior to diving here.

Location: Sorrento Back Beaches
MELWAY Ref: Page 156 B12.

Diamond Bay is just a 10 minute drive from The Scuba Doctor Dive Shop. Please drop in and catch up with us before and/or after your dive.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any dive on the Back Beaches. Please read the warnings on the web page Diving the Back Beaches before diving or snorkelling this site.

Dragons Lair

Depth: 12 metres (39 feet) to 18 metres (59 feet)

Just outside Port Phillip Heads on the Point Lonsdale Side is an area of scattered reef. The Dragon's Lair area is renowned for hunting Crayfish and Abalone, or for the photographer the same ledges and reef also provide protection for Blue Devils, Weedy Sea Dragons, Stingrays, delicate sea fans and much more. The soft calcium that comprises most of the terrain in this area has eroded into lots of little swim throughs valleys and overhangs all topped off with a light scattering of kelp.

Divers have the opportunity to catch crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See How To Catch Crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Kelp Beds Reef Drift

Depth: 10 metres (33 feet) to 21 metres (69 feet)

Kelp Beds Reef Drift is conducted on the flood tide over a macro cysts kelp forest in Lonsdale Bight between Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff. This dive site also makes a great slack water dive, with depths ranging from 10 to 21 metres. During the drift dive you will encounter large fronds of kelp with broken sandstone reef, often home to the Southern Rock Lobster (Crayfish) and Abalone. During the summer months, big schools of large Yellow Tail Kingfish can be seen, or large schools of Old Wives.

Divers have the opportunity to catch crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See How To Catch Crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Portsea Back Beach Wall

Depth: 12 metres (39 feet) to 18 metres (59 feet)

Portsea Back Beach Wall is an area of scattered reef that lies just outside Port Phillip Heads in Bass Strait on the Point Nepean side. The sea life in this is area is prolific with Crayfish, Blue Devils, Weedy Sea Dragons, Seals, Abalone and much more.

The soft calcium that comprises most of the terrain in this area has eroded into lots of little swim throughs valleys and overhangs all topped off with a light scattering of kelp. This is a fantastic dive site for an avid fish photographer. This also near the area where Australian prime minister Harold Hold disappeared, so who knows what might be found here.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Sorrento Back Beach

Depth: 2 metres (6.6 feet) to 20 metres (66 feet)

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond

Ideal Conditions:
The sea needs to be flat with no swell.

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

What To Expect:

Out through Port Phillip Heads past Point Nepean to the south east lies the Sorrento Back Beach dive site. Although some of this area can be dived as a shore dive a lot can't. It's these areas we venture to by dive boat in order to explore the lovely reefs and rocky outcrops.

The incredible ledges and overhangs here are usually a haven for Crayfish, snapper and other lovely edible and photogenic critters. A great dive when the seas are calm and the wind has blown from the north for a few days.

Sorrento Back Beach Shore Dives

The three main dive sites from the shore at Sorrento Back Beach are:

1. the platforms by the headland,
2. a reasonable snorkel southwards out to the areas around Darby Rock, or
3. after a 10 to 15 minute walk around the coastline to the west, the enclosed gullies at Sphinx Rock.

The walk at Sorrento Back Beach is slightly easier then many of the other back beach dives. Though during the summer months it gets really busy as lots of families bring down the kids to swim in the large artificial rock pool. Go early to get a decent park!

Be sure to always take a dive flag and a knife. You might also want to take a catch bag down here too! Abalone and crayfish can be found here. Be sure to always carry the appropriate measuring device as the rangers have been known to join you in the water as well as wait on shore.

It is recommended to dive here the first time with someone who is familiar with the area and has dived here before. Be aware of the walks involved. It's not for the unfit!

Divers have the opportunity to catch crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See How To Catch Crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

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 How to Catch Abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor.

Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any dive on the Back Beaches. Please read the warnings on the web page Diving the Back Beaches before diving or snorkelling this site.

See also, Parks Victoria: Sorrento Back Beach.