The Glaneuse was a French three-masted iron barque of 502 tons, built at La Seyne near Toulon in 1870 and owned at the time of her loss by Bourdes et Fils of Bordeaux. She arrived off Port Phillip Heads on 1 October 1886, failed to obtain a pilot, and during the night drifted stern first in a light south-westerly onto the Point Lonsdale reef, where she was wrecked on 2 October 1886. Her crew were saved. Her name survives on the shore as Glaneuse Reef and in the memory of the town, where her figurehead was displayed for many years.

Underwater there is, in most seasons, nothing. The Scuba Doctor listing is candid: 'All that remains of the hapless Glaneuse below the surface is the exposure of its rusting iron hull from time to time, after storms have removed the layer of sand that normally covers the wreck site.' When a winter blow has scoured the beach, sections of frames and plating appear in 2–6 m in the surf line between Buckley's Cave and the back beach; when the sand returns they vanish again. The reef around the site carries the usual Point Lonsdale ledge fauna – crayfish, abalone, wrasse and sweep – and the listing notes the location among the platform's shore dives from Buckleys Cave.

It is included here because it is a named, protected historic shipwreck on the Scuba Doctor list and one of the five wrecks reachable from the lighthouse car park, not because it is a dive to plan a trip around. The listing says it is rarely dived because its position in the surf line makes it 'uncomfortable and dangerous on all but the rarest of totally calm days', and that is the whole of the advice: check from the cliff whether iron is showing, wait for a flat ebb slack, and treat it as an add-on to a Buckleys Cave or Point Lonsdale Light dive.

From the Point Lonsdale lighthouse car park take the path past Buckley's Cave to the platform and swim 150 m west along the shore inside the surf line, or approach from the back beach 400 m to the north-west. There is nothing to see unless a storm has stripped the sand; check from the cliff path first. Enter and exit at the platform gutter near Buckley's Cave at low water on a totally calm day.

Air fills Dive Victoria Group, Queenscliff. Melway 499 J7.

Rarely diveable: the listing says the wreck is 'rarely dived due to its location in the surf line making diving uncomfortable and dangerous on all but the rarest of totally calm days'. It needs zero swell, no wind and low water at the end of the ebb, and even then surge runs across the site; the flood arrives fast over the reef. Sand covers the iron most of the year and it is only exposed for a while after big winter storms, so the useful windows are calm spells in autumn and early winter following a blow.

Tide reference WillyWeather 'Rip Bank'.

On a flat day at low water, swim from the Buckleys Cave gutter west along the inside of the reef to the mark, search the sand and ledges at 2–6 m for exposed hull iron, and return the same way within 20–30 minutes before the flood; float and flag.

No commercial operator runs these shore dives; Dive Victoria Group (Queenscliff) can advise on conditions and occasionally guides the platform for experienced groups. Dived independently by Bellarine and Geelong club divers on the rare calm ebb slacks.