The SS Casino was the western district's ship. Built by Gourlay Brothers in Dundee in 1882, the 160 ft iron screw steamer of 425 tons was bought by the Belfast and Koroit Steam Navigation Company and for nearly fifty years ran cargo and passengers between Melbourne and Apollo Bay, Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Portland – something like 2,500 voyages. On the morning of 10 July 1932, in a heavy sea, she tried to pick up her moorings off the Apollo Bay pier, dragged, and while the crew tried to run her ashore her own port anchor was driven through the hull. She rolled and sank within sight of the town; Captain Middleton and nine others died. It remains the worst tragedy in Apollo Bay's history and the wreck is commemorated by a memorial on the foreshore.

Today the Casino lies on her port side on a sand bottom about 300 m off the main beach in 9 m, stern toward the shore. The hull is about 50 m long and progressively broken toward the stern, but the bow and the midships engine section are still recognisable: the boiler and engine stand up from the sand, the propeller shaft and steering gear can be traced aft, and lifeboat davits, bollards and the stumps of the masts lie around the plating. The Victorian Maritime Archaeology Unit placed an information plinth on the site. Sand comes and goes with the swell, so the amount exposed varies from visit to visit, and the same surge that moves the sand keeps visibility in the 3–8 m range. Marine life is what you expect on an iron wreck in surge: kelp and turf on the upper plating, sweep and wrasse around the boiler, leatherjackets, crabs and the odd cray in the crevices, and rays on the surrounding sand. It is a shallow, easy dive in terms of depth and navigation and the most accessible wreck on the Great Ocean Road, but it earns an Intermediate rating for the long open-water swim and the need to judge the sea. Protected under the Heritage Act; nothing may be removed.

In Apollo Bay park in the beachside car park off the Great Ocean Road between the Apollo Bay Holiday Park and the Apollo Bay Museum (the old cable station), about 1 km north of the shops. Walk 50 m over the dunes to the beach; the wreck lies roughly 300 m straight out, marked by an information plinth on the foreshore and, on calm days, sometimes by a slick or a change in the surface. Swim out on the surface and descend when you pick up the hull on a compass line.

By boat, launch at the Apollo Bay harbour ramp (Breakwater Road) and run 5 minutes north along the beach; anchor on sand clear of the wreck.

Apollo Bay's beach faces east and is partly sheltered by Point Bunbury from the south-west, but the Casino site is still, in the Scuba Doctor's words, continuously subject to wave action even in low swell and calm conditions; the surge drives sand across the hull and cuts visibility. You want flat, calm seas with swell under about 0.8 m and light offshore westerly or northerly winds, ideally after a run of northerlies has settled the bay. Easterly and south-easterly seas come straight in and close it out, and strong winds and squalls are common.

Visibility is best on a high tide in the morning before the sea breeze. Perhaps 30–50 diveable days a year, most in autumn.

Swim out from the beach on a bearing of roughly east-north-east for about 300 m, descend onto the sand in 8–9 m and locate the hull, which runs with the stern toward the beach. Start at the bow, which is the most intact, work aft along the port side past the boiler and engine, cross over the davits and bollards on the deck side and return along the other side. Turn at half gas and swim back on the reciprocal bearing to the beach; no safety stop is needed at this depth.

No dedicated dive shop in Apollo Bay. Geelong and Melbourne clubs and Warrnambool Diving visit on calm days; Apollo Bay fishing charters (e.g. Surf-n-Fish) will occasionally drop divers on request.