Bradleys Head is the bushland promontory below Taronga Zoo that carries the foremast of the first HMAS Sydney, the Doris Fitton amphitheatre and one of the harbour's best-known lookouts, and its rocky tip is where the main shipping channel turns. Divers know it mainly as the shore departure point for the Currajong wreck, 230 m out on a 120° bearing along a line of stakes, and for the Centennial in Taylors Bay to the east; Michael McFadyen describes the Currajong approach from 'the Bradleys Head stairs', and a Colorado diver's page records 'a few hundred meters out from the Bradley Head lighthouse ... in a shipping channel with frequent ferry traffic'. But the shoreline reef itself is a modest dive: kelp-covered sandstone and boulders in 3–8 m along the Taylors Bay side and toward Athol Bay, dropping to sand at 10–12 m before the bottom falls away steeply into the channel.

Life is the harbour's inshore reef cast – luderick, bream, yellowtail and old wives around the kelp, leatherjackets, cuttlefish and octopus in the rocks, stingarees on the sand, Port Jackson sharks in winter and, along the Taylors Bay reef, the mussel beds and striped catfish schools that also cover the Centennial. Tropical juveniles appear in autumn. The site is governed by traffic and tide.

The point is the busiest corner of the harbour, the stream runs hard mid-tide, and any excursion beyond the rocks toward the stakes is a channel crossing with ferries overhead; the reef dive is safe only at slack high water, close to the rocks, with a float. It suits experienced harbour divers curious about the point, VIZ-style navigators using it to reach the Centennial, and nobody else; the national park setting, steps and parking are good, and the view from the mast is the best thing about the day.

From Military Road, Mosman, take Bradleys Head Road through Sydney Harbour National Park to the car park near the tip (NPWS fees; also reachable by the Taronga Zoo ferry and a 1 km walk). Carry gear 100–200 m down to the stone steps and rock platform below the mast of HMAS Sydney (I). Enter from the steps; the reef runs east along the Taylors Bay shore and west toward Athol Bay.

Do not swim out toward the channel markers. Exit at the steps.

Deep inside the harbour with no swell, but the tip of Bradleys Head is the pivot of the main shipping channel: ferries to Manly and Taronga, harbour cruises and ships pass within 200 m, the tidal stream runs hard around the point mid-tide, and the wash is constant. Dive at slack high water, stay within 50 m of the rocks, tow a float and surface only at the steps. Visibility 2–8 m, best on a winter flood, brown after rain.

Enter at the steps, descend to 4–5 m and follow the rock edge east into Taylors Bay along the kelp and boulders to 8–10 m (the Centennial wreck lies further along the bay), turn at half air and return along the same edge to the steps; never head out on the 120° bearing toward the Currajong without the tide, night and traffic conditions that dive demands.

No operator; VIZ dive club (Currajong and Centennial surveys), independent divers.