Sites you can reach from the beach, rocks or a jetty without a charter. Always check the local swell, tide and entry notes on each site page, and dive with a buddy.
203 sites · the first 48 shown as cards, the rest listed by state below
Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Free-parking western-suburbs training pier with a small artificial reef off its end; flat, easy and sheltered from…
Geelong & Bellarine · VIC
Calm, sheltered seagrass shallows at the Batman landing site with seahorses and nudibranchs; a picnic-reserve dive with…
Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Sheltered, shallow reef patches ideal for a first Western Port dive or snorkel; quiet beach with facilities.
Quietest entry in the sanctuary; very shallow close-in reef for snorkelling, children and relaxed night dives.
The sheltered river side of the Bluff, leading to a kelp-fringed bay between the reef pincers at Point Flinders with…
Sandstone pincer reef with kelp forests, small arches and sponge gardens on the ocean face of the Bluff; the best of…
The Bellarine's main ocean shore dive: kelp forests, sandstone arches and sponge gardens around a marine-sanctuary…
East Gippsland · VIC
Mallacoota's walk-in reef beside the ocean boat ramp – kelp, gutters, abalone and urchins on Victoria's far-east coast,…
Shipwreck Coast & Warrnambool · VIC
Circle the bases of limestone sea stacks in 10–20 m with crays in every undercut – Twelve Apostles scenery underwater,…
Swim among limestone sea stacks and reef gutters from a beach at the eastern end of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park –…
Ledges, overhangs and swim-throughs at 8-9 m (Friendly Bommie) reachable from a Queenscliff beach, with Heads-quality…
Boulder-and-slab reef marked by a beacon, full of crevice life; easy, sheltered beginner and snorkel dive.
Surf Coast & Great Ocean Road · VIC
Diving the reef that makes Australia's most famous wave: limestone shelves and overhangs with seadragons and blue…
Phillip Island & Western Port · VIC
Basalt platforms and seaward channels dropping to 12 m beneath Wild Dog Bluff with crayfish ledges and sponge walls; a…
Ledged limestone reef and gullied platforms around a surf-famous headland at Jan Juc; a rarely possible but beautiful…
Reef around a seabird stack with seahorses, big crabs and eagle rays; a natural-reef alternative to the piers.
Sheltered bayside jetty beside the Cerberus hulk; one of Melbourne's favourite spring night dives for bioluminescence.
Victoria's premier pier dive: sponge-covered pylons, 100+ nudibranch species, seahorses, four octopus species and…
The most sheltered of the Cape Otway coves: a campground beach, an old jetty and a kelp reef holding crays and…
Two dives from one beach – the sea cave and ledges of The Bridge and the long reef of Koreen Point; a sandy exit makes…
Port Phillip Heads · VIC
The shore entry to the outer Lonsdale Reef beneath William Buckley's cave – Shark Gutter, Mushroom Rock and five…
Rock-platform entry to the edge of the Rip beneath the Point Lonsdale lighthouse, with Mushroom Rock, the shark gutter…
Portland & the West · VIC
Basalt walls and ledges to 36 m under the Cape Nelson lighthouse with the richest invertebrate growth on the Portland…
Bass Coast · VIC
A kelp-fringed bay behind a natural rock break at Cape Paterson – the Gippsland ocean coast's most sheltered shore…
Gullies, gorges and bommies around a basalt headland with The Arch swim-through and Shark Cave full of Port Jacksons;…
Apollo Bay's own ship: a 1932 coastal steamer with boiler, engine and bow still standing on sand in 9 m, a surface swim…
A sheltered-looking cove below the Great Ocean Road east of Lorne with deep water off its northern platform and…
House bricks and scattered iron from the 1839 Henty barque off Needle Rock at pretty Childers Cove – the first great…
Ruins of a Victorian spa resort's piers in shallow, sheltered water full of seahorses and nudibranchs; historic bottles…
Heritage-listed remains of an 1890 steamer pier with rails and fittings on a shallow seagrass bottom; seahorses and a…
Victoria's earliest screw-steamer wreck (1852) and possibly the first steamship across the Pacific – remains of her…
Quiet cliff-foot reef exploration between Mornington and Mount Eliza; can be linked with Fosters and Fossil beaches.
A sheltered, easy-access pier on Western Port's eastern shore known chiefly for bottle and relic fossicking at slack…
Queenscliff's shore dive below the historic Cottage by the Sea: ledges and sponge reef to 10 m with seadragons, blue…
Phillip Island's easiest and most reliable dive – a long Western Port pier with seahorses, crabs and octopus on the…
Easy, west-facing reef and weed bay near The Nobbies that is diveable on easterly winds when Phillip Island's south…
Crays, bommies and visiting fur seals from Seal Point, directly under the Cape Otway lighthouse – the wildest of the…
The most sheltered shore dive in the Bay of Islands Coastal Park – reef gutters and stack bases inside a kilometre-wide…
Multiple basalt reefs in 5–12 m below the Grand Prix circuit bluffs, with some shelter from south-westerly swell and…
Geelong's deepest pier dive under a 1850s wool pier, sheltered from south and west winds; a study in native versus…
Sheltered north-facing Corio Bay beach with seahorses, pipefish and nudibranchs in seagrass and hydroid beds; a quiet…
The most accessible back-beach dive: ledges, kelp, bommies and caves around a small sandy cove with a staircase entry.
Sponge-garden reefs in 30–60 m under the Bonney Upwelling's blue whale feeding ground, on Victoria's most exposed coast…
Ultra-shallow training and night dive with the pylons and rail wheels of the old jetty 200 m out; sheltered from…
A living shellfish-reef restoration site in easy depth; watch a bay reef being rebuilt.
A kilometres-long limestone reef beneath the red bluffs of Aireys Inlet, with a beginner-friendly inner reef and a main…
A volcanic sea stack and basalt table below the Split Point lighthouse, ringed by kelp, crays, catsharks and seals…
Sandstone gutters and ledges under Bunurong's dinosaur-fossil stack with resting Port Jackson sharks, big crayfish and…
Other ways to find a dive