Mount Everest is a granite mound on the eastern side of Governor Island that Scuba Chronicles describes as stretching from a sandy 40 m bottom right up to 5 m under the surface. On the way down there is a 20 m drop-off leading to a cavern with soft corals, and the upper parts of the mound are covered in kelp and sea grasses.

Michael McFadyen's Castle Cave dive finishes by circling the reef clockwise to Mount Everest, which he describes as a five-metre peak accessible in calm seas. That makes it a natural end point for a Castle dive and a good place for a long safety stop, with the surrounding reef and its fish in view. Striped trumpeter, octopus, southern rock lobster, leatherjackets and banded morwong are recorded in the area, and the deeper faces carry sea whips, sponges and zoanthids like the rest of the reserve.

As a standalone dive, Mount Everest offers a full vertical profile in one site. Divers can go deep on the flanks and work steadily upward, which makes gas and decompression planning easy. In practice most visitors see it as part of The Castle dive rather than on its own.

It suits Advanced Open Water divers. The summit can be surgy and is only comfortable in calm conditions, and divers should be careful of boat traffic when ascending from such a shallow point close to the Gulch. Nitrox is useful if the plan includes time on the deeper flanks before the ascent to the summit.

Bicheno is on the Tasman Highway (A3), about 2 hr 15 min (180 km) from Hobart and 2 hr (160 km) from Launceston. Boats launch from the small ramp at The Gulch (Waubs Gulch), the narrow channel between Governor Island and the town foreshore off Esplanade; there is trailer parking beside the ramp and fishing co-op. The Governor Island sites are only 2-5 minutes' run out of the Gulch.

Tasmanian boat diving is almost always done as a live-boat drop and pick-up rather than at anchor. Mount Everest is on the same reef as The Castle on the eastern side of Governor Island, 3 minutes from the ramp. It is often visited at the end of a Castle dive.

The Governor Island sites face east into the Tasman Sea, so easterly and north-easterly swell over about 1.5 m, or a fresh easterly/north-easterly sea breeze, makes them rough and surgy and can close the Gulch entrance. Westerly and north-westerly winds blow offshore and give the flattest seas; southerly swell wraps in and stirs the bottom, and a big southerly can drop visibility under 2 m for days. Winter (June-September) usually brings the clearest water (20-30 m) and most settled westerly weather; summer afternoons are often spoiled by the NE sea breeze, so dive mornings.

The 5 m summit is only visitable in calm seas.

Descend the mound to the 20 m drop-off and the cavern with soft corals, explore to your planned depth, then spiral up the mound clockwise to the summit at about 5 m for the safety stop. Alternatively finish a Castle Cave dive here.

No confirmed full-time commercial dive operator in Bicheno as of 2026: the long-running Bicheno Dive Centre was reported closed (Michael McFadyen) although some tourism pages still list it - verify before travelling. Sites are dived by club boats (Tas Uni Dive Club, Tasmanian Scuba Diving Club, Leven Scuba Club), the annual Combined Clubs Weekend each June, and occasional trips from Launceston (Tasmanian Divers) and Hobart (Go Dive Tasmania) shops.