Cape Paterson's Bay Beach is the most sheltered shore dive and snorkel on the Gippsland ocean coast, a small bay at the eastern end of the village enclosed by a natural rock break that, in the Bass Coast diving guide's words, prevents waves from entering, with kelp gardens inside and beyond it and a large sea-water rock pool built into the platform at its edge. It sits at the western end of the Bunurong Coastal Drive, immediately outside the marine national park's western boundary at Undertow Bay, and it is where families snorkel, schools train and new divers do their first ocean dives on this coast. Inside the break the bay floor is sand at 2–4 m with rock and kelp along its edges – wrasse, leatherjackets, zebrafish, sea stars, sea hares, crabs, abalone and cuttlefish are easily seen at snorkel depth – and through the gap the reef continues as sandstone shelves and gutters under kelp to about 10 m, with sweep, morwong, old wives, Port Jackson sharks and stingarees in the gutters, crayfish in the ledges and the marine park's invertebrate colour on the walls.

The sheltered aspect means it is often diveable in southerly winds when Eagles Nest, Shack Bay and Twin Reefs are unworkable, which makes it the reliable fallback for a Bunurong dive weekend, and its facilities – car park, toilets, a general store and cafe in the village and a caravan park – are the best on the coast. Its limitations are its modest depth and summer crowds, which stir the sand and reduce visibility. Cape Paterson Bay Beach suits beginners, snorkellers and training, and it gives every diver on this coast a place to get wet when the swell says no everywhere else.

Fishing rules apply here (outside the no-take park), and the rock pool itself is for swimming.

Cape Paterson is 135 km (1 hr 50 min) from Melbourne via the Bass Highway to Wonthaggi, then Cape Paterson Road south for 9 km. Bay Beach is at the eastern end of the village, reached from the car park at the end of Surf Beach Road/Bay Beach car park, with steps down to the sand – a 2–5 minute carry. Enter off the sand beside the sea-water rock pool and swim out through the gap in the natural rock break to the kelp reef beyond; exit onto the same beach.

The patrolled First Surf Beach is a few hundred metres west.

More sheltered than anywhere else on this coast because a natural rock break across the mouth of the bay prevents most waves from entering – the Bass Coast guide notes it is best in southerly winds, when the surf beaches are blown out, though a northerly is also fine. Occasional rips form at the gap in the break in larger swell, and crowding by swimmers and snorkellers in summer reduces visibility. High tide gives the most water over the inner reef.

Year-round; a good winter site on calm days.

Enter off Bay Beach, cross the sandy floor of the bay at 2–4 m and pass through the gap in the rock break to the kelp reef outside, working along it with the rocks on one shoulder to 6–10 m. Turn at half gas or if swell increases at the gap, return through the gap and finish in the bay; snorkellers stay inside the break over the kelp and rock pool.

No dive shop on the Bunurong coast; sites are dived by independent divers and Melbourne/Gippsland clubs (SEADS – South East Australian Dive Society, Dive La Trobe, VSAG). Nearest air fills in Melbourne's south-east or by arrangement in the Latrobe Valley.