Green Point is a low sandstone reef at the southern end of Brighton Beach, just around the point from the famous row of coloured bathing boxes. It is one of a chain of small shore reefs between Brighton and Black Rock that give inner-bayside divers an alternative to piers, and it is among the easiest of them thanks to a big car park by the railway station and a ramped path to the sand. The reef is shallow: a flat top at 1-2 m that the tide barely covers at low water, with an outer edge dropping to 4-5 m onto sand and patchy seagrass.

The dive is a slow traverse of that edge, checking the undercuts and boulder gaps for blennies, wrasse, leatherjackets, moonlighters, zebrafish, sea urchins and cushion stars, with fiddler rays, stingarees and flathead on the sand and the odd octopus or cuttlefish under a ledge. Seahorses and pipefish live in the weed for those who look closely. None of it is dramatic, but the reef has more life per metre than the sand piers to the north and it is a pleasant night dive, when octopus, squid and rays are far more active.

Navigation is simple (reef on one side, sand on the other) and depth never exceeds 5 m, so it is well suited to newly certified divers, snorkellers and anyone wanting a short, low-effort dive close to town. The South Road reefs and old Kennett Baths site are a few hundred metres south and can be reached in the same dive by a fit pair with a good air supply.

From Beach Road at Brighton Beach turn into the Green Point car park beside the Brighton Beach railway station (Melway 76 C3); it is a short walk from the station if you come by train. Parking is plentiful but ticketed. Gear up at the car, walk south down the ramped path to the beach and enter from the sand south of the reef, where the water is very shallow for the first 30-50 m.

Swim west out over the reef, then follow the reef edge north. Exit back at the same beach. Total carry is about 100 m.

Best in northerly to south-easterly (offshore) winds; avoid strong southerly through westerly to north-westerly winds, which put chop onto this open shoreline and silt the reef. Dive just before high tide for the clearest water and enough depth over the shallow reef top. Visibility 3-6 m in good conditions, less after rain.

No swell. Boat traffic close inshore is common, so tow a flag.

Enter from the beach south of the point, fin west over the reef flat, descend where it reaches 2-3 m, follow the reef edge north at 3-5 m for about 20 minutes, turn at half gas, return along the shallower inner edge and exit at the entry beach.

No regular commercial operator – dived independently and by Melbourne dive clubs and shop social-dive programs (Scuba Culture, Aquability, Melbourne Diving Services run occasional shore-dive nights at bayside piers); Ricketts Point-based snorkel tours run separately.