George Kermode was a twin-screw steam bucket dredge built by Fleming and Ferguson at Paisley, Scotland, in 1914 as the Sir William Matthews, 70 m (230 ft) long and 803 tons. The Melbourne Harbour Trust bought her on 10 October 1941, renamed her after a Trust commissioner and put her to work on 22 June 1942 deepening the Yarra and the bay channels, which she did for more than thirty years. When she was retired the Victorian Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands chose her for its artificial reef programme, and on 1 April 1976 she was scuttled off the south coast of Phillip Island – Victoria's first deliberate artificial-reef wreck, three decades before the Canberra.

She landed upside down and broke in the middle, but the two halves are substantial and the wreck is described as fairly well intact with lots of penetration opportunities. The large bow section and chain lockers are the most ship-like part; amidships the break has spilled the workings of a bucket dredge across the sand – two massive boilers, enormous cog gear wheels, sections of the bucket ladder and a scatter of the dredge buckets themselves – and the hull rises to within about 12 m of the surface from a 20 m bottom. Qualified divers can enter the boilers and compartments, with the caution that an inverted, broken hull is disorienting inside.

Fifty years of Bass Strait colonisation have covered the steel in sponges, zoanthids and ascidians, and the wreck and the reef around it hold big schools of bullseyes and sweep, leatherjackets, magpie perch, cuttlefish, crayfish under the plates, and Australian fur seals from the nearby Seal Rocks colony that often join the dive. At 12–20 m the George Kermode is one of the few genuinely rewarding wrecks in Victoria within Open Water/Advanced limits, and many rate it the best wreck dive in the state for non-technical divers. The price is the exposed 22 km boat run and the need to wait for northerlies; it suits patient divers with access to a capable boat or a charter, and Wreck specialty students who want real penetration without depth.

Boat only, and a long run. From Melbourne drive to Newhaven on Phillip Island via the Bass Highway and Phillip Island Road (about 1 h 45 min); the Newhaven ramp beside the bridge has parking, toilets and a fuel outlet. From there it is about 22 km – 40–50 minutes in a fast boat – east and south around Cape Woolamai and west along the exposed south coast to the wreck off the Grand Prix circuit.

Flinders Pier and ramp on the Mornington Peninsula is the alternative, also about 22 km but across the open mouth of Western Port and more exposed to westerly and south-westerly weather. Occasional charters run from Newhaven, Rhyll or Flinders; most dives are private boats using the Scuba Doctor GPS (an alternative 'amidships' mark is at -38.5202, 145.2452). Nothing shows on the surface.

The south coast of Phillip Island faces straight into the Southern Ocean and the George Kermode is only workable when the swell is down. The Scuba Doctor's advice is that it needs a few days of strong northerly winds to flatten the swell; any south-westerly to south-easterly swell over about 1.5 m makes the long run uncomfortable and puts heavy surge through the shallow wreck, and the 22 km passage from Newhaven or Flinders means the decision has to be made on the forecast, not on arrival. The Flinders route across the mouth of Western Port is especially exposed to westerlies.

Visibility is usually 8–15 m and can reach 20 m after settled weather; run-off is not an issue this far from any river. Tidal streams are mild on the wreck but strong in the Western Port entrance on the Flinders approach.

Descend the anchor line onto the hull, which rises almost to 12 m from 20 m of sand. Orient along the 60°/240° axis, work the large intact bow section and chain lockers, then move through the broken midsection where the two huge boilers, the giant cog wheels and the bucket ladder gear lie, looking for the dredge buckets scattered on the sand. Trained divers can penetrate the boilers and compartments; the interior is disorienting because the hull is upside down.

Finish on the surrounding reef and return to the anchor for a 40-minute no-stop dive.

Recreational. Nitrox EAN32 useful for a long dive at 17 m. Penetration routes through the boilers and compartments need a reel and lights.

No weekly schedule. Dive Victoria Group and Phillip Island/Western Port operators (Island Dive, Flinders charters) run the George Kermode a few times a season when a run of northerlies flattens the south coast; Melbourne clubs organise private-boat trips from Newhaven. Expect it to be dived perhaps monthly in summer and autumn, rarely in winter.