Light of the Age was an American-built clipper – a three-masted wooden ship of 1,287 tons, 59 m (194.6 ft) long, launched at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1855 as the Beacon Light and renamed in 1857 – one of the fast softwood clippers built for the Australian gold-rush passenger trade. On 16 January 1868, inbound from Liverpool to Melbourne with 42 passengers and 34 crew, she ran ashore on the reef west of Point Lonsdale in poor visibility. Everyone was saved, but the ship was a total loss, and the inquiry found her master, Captain Thomas Reid Porter, had navigated badly for a day or two before making King Island and had been frequently intoxicated throughout the voyage.

The wreck was rediscovered by divers in the late 1960s and became a popular site; what makes it unusual is its preservation. Marine concretions and corrosion products have formed a cement-like capping over the cargo and the lower hull, sealing them in a hard crust on the reef in 4–6 m, so that instead of scattered timbers there is a solid archaeological mass with iron fittings, fastenings and cargo remains locked into it. The Victorian Archaeological Survey recorded the site in the 1980s and it remains one of the more informative wooden-clipper wrecks on the coast.

Around it the Barwon Coast reef carries kelp, sweep, wrasse, magpie perch and crayfish in the ledges. It is a shore dive for flat days only, off an open surf beach with strong rips, and visits are now rare. It suits experienced Open Water divers who can judge swell and who enjoy the detective work of an early wreck, and it makes a natural pairing with the George Roper and Holyhead on the other side of the lighthouse when a glassy day arrives.

Divers should remember the concretion is the site's protection and leave it untouched.

Drive Melbourne–Point Lonsdale via the Geelong Ring Road and Bellarine Highway (about 1 h 45 min). Park at the Point Lonsdale back beach car park off Ocean Road (toilets, surf life saving club) and walk west along the surf beach for 10–15 minutes to the reef area below the dunes at the published GPS; the wreck lies 150–250 m offshore over reef and sand in 4–6 m. It is a surf-beach entry and only sensible at low tide on a day with no swell.

Boats from Queenscliff (15 minutes west along the coast) can anchor on sand outside the reef. The dunes behind the beach are the Lonsdale Lakes reserve; keep to the beach.

An open surf beach facing south-west into Bass Strait: any swell above about 0.5 m produces breaking waves over the reef, strong rips along the beach and surge that makes the shallow wreck unworkable, and the site is diveable perhaps a couple of days a month in summer and autumn. Northerly winds flatten it; south-westerlies close it for days. Low tide gives easier identification of the reef line but a longer walk through the shallows; a rising tide after low water is the safest window.

Visibility is 3–10 m and drops sharply when the Barwon River is in flood. The tidal stream from The Rip is felt along this coast on the ebb.

Enter on a flat day at low water, swim out over the reef to the cement-like concretion capping the cargo and hull remains in 4–6 m, and work around it looking for iron knees, fastenings and the concreted cargo, then return along the reef to the beach before the swell or rip strengthens. 40 minutes.

No operator schedules it; occasional Queenscliff Dive Centre or Dive Victoria guided shore dives and independent local divers on flat days. It was a popular dive in the 1970s after its late-1960s rediscovery and is now visited rarely.