The Gove Town Wharf in Melville Bay is the easy, convenient dive of the Gove area. The Marine Life Network describes it as a site for the photographer, with a maximum depth of about 16 m and pylons covered with flatworms, decorator crabs, nudibranchs, sea stars and feather stars, and notes that fish of quite large size and number hang around the pylons.

Like wharves everywhere in the tropics, the structure has become an artificial reef. The pylons are encrusted with sponges, ascidians, hydroids, soft corals and oysters, creating a vertical garden that hosts an enormous range of small invertebrates. Macro photographers can spend an entire dive on a few pylons searching for nudibranchs, shrimps, flatworms and crabs. The shade under the wharf deck attracts schools of snapper, trevally, batfish and baitfish, and larger residents such as cod and groper; the sandy and silty bottom holds rays and flathead.

Its main advantage is that it is shallow, sheltered in Melville Bay and close to town, so it can be dived when the trade wind makes offshore islands impractical. Visibility is lower than at the islands and drops after rain or when ships have stirred the bottom.

This is a working port, and access rules must be respected – dive only with permission and never near shipping. Within those limits it suits divers of all levels, including new divers and photographers, and it is one of the few Gove sites where a night dive is realistic. For visiting divers waiting out a windy spell, it is the most reliable way to get wet around Nhulunbuy.

The wharf is in Gove Harbour on Melville Bay, a short drive from Nhulunbuy town centre and close to the Gove Boat Club on Drimmie Head Road. It is a working port facility, so diving requires permission from the port operator and must avoid shipping operations; local divers usually arrange access through the dive operator or club and approach by boat from the Gove Boat Club ramp. Do not dive when a ship is berthed or manoeuvring.

The Gove Peninsula sits at the north-west corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and tidal ranges here are much smaller than at Darwin (roughly 2–3 m), so diving is less tide-bound – but slack water still matters at channel and point sites. From April to September the south-east trade wind blows hard (often 15–25 knots), making the exposed east-facing coast and offshore islands rough by late morning; early starts and sites in the lee of islands are the norm. The build-up and early wet (October–December) bring glassy calm days and the best visibility.

In the wet season (December–March) the Gulf side is often still diveable, but inshore sites lose visibility after rain, cyclones are possible and box jellyfish are present.

Enter beside the outer pylons, descend to 10–16 m and weave slowly along the pylon rows, examining each for nudibranchs, flatworms and decorator crabs. Look under the wharf deck for schools of big fish. Keep well inside the wharf structure away from vessel movements, and ascend beside a pylon.

Gove Diving & Fishing Charters (Nhulunbuy, ph 08 8987 3445) has provided air fills, gear hire, courses and boat trips to the offshore islands; confirm current operation before travelling. Otherwise private boats from the Gove Boat Club ramp, and local residents' informal dive groups.