Clifton Springs was a Victorian-era spa resort, its mineral springs drawing steamer loads of visitors from Melbourne and Geelong from the 1870s until the hotel burnt down in the 1920s. Three piers served it, and their ruins are now the dive site: the Short Pier in the west near today's boat harbour, the Salt Water Bath Pier in the middle where the enclosed sea baths once stood, and the long Steamship Pier in the east, which is heritage-listed and documented as a separate site. Neither pier survives above water; what remains are rows of stumps, fallen piles, iron fittings, rubble and the flotsam of a resort, spread across a shallow sand, seagrass and shell bottom in 1-4 m.

The Scuba Doctor describes it as a delightful shore dive, suitable for snorkellers and a nice night dive, and it is: the old timber and rubble give structure on an otherwise soft bottom, and the syngnathid life is excellent, with seahorses and pipefish on the weedy stumps, nudibranchs on the hydroids and sponges, stingarees and fiddler rays on the sand and octopus and dumpling squid at night. Bottle collecting is a traditional pastime here; old glass from the resort era still surfaces, but digging stirs the fine sediment and wrecks the visibility for everyone, so look rather than excavate. Plans have been floated for an underwater sculpture trail, The Sunken Gallery, on this foreshore.

The site is sheltered from southerlies, has free parking at the harbour, and is very shallow, so it is a high-tide dive. With Curlewis to the west and the Steamship Pier to the east it forms a run of three easy, quiet Corio Bay shore dives within a few kilometres.

From Geelong take Portarlington Road east to Drysdale, then Jetty Road north to Clifton Springs (25 minutes). Park at the Clifton Springs boat harbour car park at the end of Jetty Road or along Beacon Point Road above the foreshore (free). Walk down to the beach, 50-150 m depending on where you park, and enter from the sand near the harbour breakwater for the Short Pier ruins, or 300 m further east for the old baths pier.

Both are shallow, so surface swim until it is deep enough to descend. Exit on the same beach. The Steamship Pier ruins are a further 600 m east.

Protected from southerly winds by the Bellarine hills; northerlies and north-westerlies bring chop onto this north-facing shore. Best at high tide as it is very shallow; visibility 3-6 m, better in winter and after dry weather, poor after rain. No swell.

Boat traffic from the Clifton Springs ramp and harbour is steady in summer, so tow a flag and keep clear of the channel.

Enter near the harbour breakwater at high tide, fin out to the line of old piles of the Short Pier, descend at 2 m and follow the stumps out to their end at about 4 m, search the weed and rubble around them, then work east along the shore to the baths pier stumps and return, turning at half gas.

No regular commercial operator – dived independently and by Geelong clubs; Bay City Scuba in East Geelong is the local shop and dive club and uses the Corio Bay and Bellarine shore sites for training and club nights.