Buckleys Cave is the hollow in the cliff below the Point Lonsdale lighthouse where William Buckley, the convict who escaped from the short-lived Sorrento settlement in 1803, is said to have sheltered during the thirty-two years he lived with the Wadawurrung people before walking into John Batman's camp in 1835. The reef below the cave, on the Bass Strait side of the point, is the most exposed and most demanding shore dive on the Bellarine and one of the few places a diver can enter the Rip's edge from the rocks. The ground is limestone and calcarenite reef running from the platform edge at 2 m out to about 10 m, with a distinctive outcrop known as Mushroom Rock and a deep gutter, the shark gutter, cutting through it, all of it scoured by the tide and swell into ledges and holes.

The growth is fully oceanic: kelp and crayweed on the tops, sponges, ascidians and jewel anemones under the ledges, and fish that include blue-throat wrasse, magpie perch, old wives, sweep, boarfish, leatherjackets, scalyfin, zebrafish, southern rock lobster in the holes, Port Jackson sharks in the gutter (hence the name) and fur seals from the Heads. The reef is also a graveyard: the Glaneuse (1886) lies 150 m west-south-west, and the George Roper, Black Boy, Holyhead and Gange were all lost on the Lonsdale reefs, their scattered iron visible to divers who know where to look; the wrecks themselves are documented separately. Everything about the dive turns on conditions.

It needs Heads slack water, a small swell and no southerly, and The Scuba Doctor is blunt that it is for experienced divers only. When it comes together it is a spectacular free dive; when it does not, the platform is a dangerous place to be.

Point Lonsdale is 5 km west of Queenscliff; drive to the lighthouse reserve at the end of Point Lonsdale Road and park in the lighthouse car park or along the foreshore (free, busy in holidays). Take the path from the lighthouse down toward Buckleys Cave and the rock platform on the ocean side, a carry of 100-200 m over steps and rock. Access is not difficult, especially at low water, and you can enter straight into the water or walk out onto the platform and enter from its edge.

Exit at the same place. This is a slack-water dive: plan around Port Phillip Heads tide tables with local advice.

An exposed Bass Strait shore dive at the edge of the Rip. It needs slack water at Port Phillip Heads and a small swell (under about 1 m) with no southerly or south-westerly wind; westerly swell wraps around the point and breaks over the platform. Best after several days of northerlies in autumn or early winter.

The Scuba Doctor's warning is explicit: these shore dives are for experienced divers only and skill is required to pick the conditions. Visibility 5-12 m on clean water. Heavy shipping, ferry and pleasure-boat traffic passes within a few hundred metres through the Rip.

Enter from the platform at Heads slack water in low swell, descend to 4-6 m and work out along the reef to Mushroom Rock and the shark gutter at 6-10 m, look for wreck iron from the Glaneuse 150 m west-south-west if slack allows, and turn back inshore well before the tide turns, ascending in the lee of the platform. Keep the dive short; 30-35 minutes is plenty.

No regular operator – experienced local divers and clubs only; Dive Victoria Group (Queenscliff) dives the adjacent wrecks by boat and can advise on tides.