Dromana Pier is the shallowest of the Peninsula's regularly dived piers and, for that reason, one of the most useful: with barely 2 m at the head, a 12-litre cylinder lasts an hour and a half, and instructors use it for first open-water dives when they want unlimited bottom time and zero pressure. It runs about 200 m out from the centre of Dromana over clean sand and seagrass, and the pylons carry the standard bay community of sponges, ascidians and hydroids with the seahorses, nudibranchs and leatherjackets that go with them. The bottom around the pylons is where the interest lies: bluespotted goatfish work the sand, southern fiddler rays and smooth stingrays settle in the seagrass edge, bay trout and juvenile fish shoal in spring, and the southern blue-ringed octopus is common enough in the shell rubble that the source repeats the standard warning not to touch.

Two hundred metres straight out beyond the head the pylon stumps and cast-iron rail wheels of the original Dromana jetty lie on the sand in 4–5 m – the remains of a long, once-busy steamer pier – and they form the most structured habitat on the site, worth the swim for octopus, cuttlefish and schooling fish. The dive is entirely benign in the right wind and entirely pointless in the wrong one, because a westerly makes the whole shallow shelf opaque. Dromana suits trainees, snorkellers, photographers who want bright, shallow macro subjects, and night divers, for whom the sand comes alive with squid, sand octopus and stargazers.

It does not suit anyone wanting depth, and the pier's low deck means the shore entry is preferred. The old-jetty extension is what lifts it above a training puddle.

Dromana Pier is at the foot of Pier Street where it meets Point Nepean Road, in the centre of Dromana, 80 km from Melbourne via the Mornington Peninsula Freeway. Park at the northern end of Pier Street beside the pier or along Point Nepean Road; the walk to the water is under 50 m. Most divers enter from the beach on either side of the pier root and swim out along the pylons, because the pier is very shallow – only about 2 m at the head.

A giant stride or side roll from the end is possible only at high tide after checking the depth. Exit onto the beach.

Dromana Pier faces north-west and is not diveable in strong westerly to northerly winds, which push a chop straight onto the beach and turn the shallow water to soup. It is best with light-to-moderate offshore southerly to easterly winds and on an incoming or peak high tide, which adds critical depth – at low tide much of the pier is under a metre. No current.

Because Arthurs Seat rises directly behind the town the pier is well sheltered from southerlies, making it a good fallback when Rye and Blairgowrie are marginal. Boat and jet-ski traffic is moderate in summer.

Enter from the beach, descend beside the first pylons in 1–2 m and follow one row out to the head at 2–3 m, then continue straight out across the sand for about 200 m to the old jetty pylons and rail wheels in 4–5 m. Circle them, return to the pier head and come back along the opposite pylon row, finishing on the seagrass at the root.

Used regularly for Open Water training by Extreme Watersport (Capel Sound), The Scuba Doctor (Rye) and Melbourne shops; guided night dives run occasionally. No charter needed.