Golden Bommies is one of the least-documented and most tempting of Phillip Island's boat sites: a field of rock bommies standing on a 38 m floor about 2.5 km south of Pyramid Rock, with their tops at about 20 m. Scuba Doctor gives the position and the depth range and rates it Deep/Technical but records nothing about the reef itself, and there is little in print from club divers, so what follows is inferred from the name, the depth and the neighbouring reefs. The name refers to the colour of the growth.

At this depth on the open Bass Strait coast, out of reach of surge and grazing, rock in the tidal stream is typically sheeted in yellow zoanthids and golden sponge, with gorgonian fans, sea whips and bryozoan lace on the walls, and that is what divers report from the comparable deep reefs off Cape Woolamai and the Prom. Bommies concentrate fish, so expect dense schools of butterfly perch and bullseyes on the up-current faces, boarfish and morwong on the ledges, blue devils in the caves and crayfish at the base, with visiting kingfish and seals in season. The dive is short by necessity – at 25–30 m average depth in 13 °C water the no-decompression window is tight – and it is a site for divers who are comfortable with deep descents on a shot line, tidal current and a surface interval spent well offshore in a small boat.

It is not on any operator's schedule and is dived only when a club or private boat has a rare flat day and wants something beyond The Pinnacles. For those divers it offers what the outer Phillip Island coast does best: clear water, big structure and colour, without another boat in sight. Treat the depth and remoteness with respect and confirm the reef's character for yourself.

Most boats launch at Newhaven and run west along the south coast past Cape Woolamai, Sunderland Bay and Pyramid Rock – about 16 km and 35–45 minutes in a fast boat with the whole run exposed to Bass Strait. Launching at Cowes or Rhyll and going west around The Nobbies is longer and crosses the Seal Rocks tide race. Locate the bommies on the sounder at 20 m rising from 38 m and drop a shot; anchoring on the rock is not recommended.

Open Bass Strait with no shelter from any direction; requires a swell under about 1 m and light winds, ideally a northerly, and a long settled period is better still because the site is deep and any residual swell adds surge to the descent and stop. Scuba Doctor lists it as diveable on slack water and on the running flood or ebb, but the tidal stream off this coast is significant and a shot line and SMB are needed. Best chance of conditions is late summer and autumn.

Not a winter site except on exceptional days.

Descend the shot to the top of a bommie at 20–22 m, tour the sponge-covered flanks and drop to the sand at 30–38 m only briefly to look at the base ledges, then work back up the structure. Plan a square profile with a turn on gas or NDL, EAN32 recommended, and ascend the shot or under an SMB with a deep stop and a full safety stop; the boat should be live and watching for markers.

Rated Deep/Technical by Scuba Doctor; EAN32 improves NDL at 25–30 m. Suitable as a light-deco dive for tech divers wanting time on the base at 38 m.

No regular operator – Melbourne club boats and private vessels only, a few times a year in calm weather.