Pillar Point Bommie is the most interesting shore-accessible scuba dive at Tidal River and the only bommie dive on the Prom reachable from a beach. Scuba Doctor lists it at 2–25 m for Advanced divers: a large granite bommie rising to within 7 m of the surface, 75 m off the tip of Pillar Point at the north-western end of Norman Bay. The bommie is a single massive granite block standing on a boulder and sand floor, with kelp on its crown, coralline turf and sponge on its flanks, and hydroids and anemones in the deeper sections, and because it stands in the flow off the point it attracts fish in a way the fringing reef does not: long-finned pike hang in schools over the top, magpie perch and wrasse work the sides, sweep and zebrafish school in the current, and weedy seadragons are recorded around the base and along the kelp on the point.

Crayfish sit under the boulders at the base, protected here. The water is the clear western-Prom water and the bommie is a fine subject for wide-angle photography on a calm day. The difficulties are access and exposure.

Reaching it means a stiff walk along the beach in gear, a 75 m surface swim off a headland tip where surge and current build, and a return the same way, so it is an Advanced dive from shore and a much easier one from a boat launched off the same beach. It needs an easterly-wind day with no swell, and slack water. Pillar Point South, 250 m to the north-east, is the gentler shore dive on the same headland and the sensible fallback when the bommie is too rough.

From the Norman Bay car park at Tidal River walk north-west along the beach to its end below Pillar Point (about 500 m) – Scuba Doctor calls it a stiff walk in full scuba gear. Enter from the sand beside the rocks, swim out along the southern side of the point and continue about 75 m offshore from the tip to the bommie, which is easiest to find on a calm day when the swell shows on its top. The Tidal River beach launch is at this end of the beach and a boat can drop divers on the bommie directly.

Off the tip of a headland on the exposed western coast; needs calm seas, no swell and minimal wind, ideally an easterly, and is best at slack water because strong surge and currents develop away from the shoreline, especially at the tip of Pillar Point (Pillar Point tide predictions). Avoid moderate to strong onshore south-westerly to north-westerly winds. Summer and autumn easterly days.

Swim out on the surface along the southern side of Pillar Point to the bommie, descend on its lee side to the base at 15–25 m and circle it, looking for seadragons on the kelp edge and the hydroids and anemones on the deeper faces. Ascend up the bommie to 7 m, then return underwater along the reef to the point and the beach, or ascend under an SMB for a boat pick-up.

No operator. Shore dives and snorkels done by campers at Tidal River and by clubs (Dive La Trobe, VSAG, Melbourne University Underwater Club) on Prom camping trips; No air fills at Tidal River or Port Welshpool; the nearest compressor is roughly 100 km away (Melbourne's south-east or Inverloch/Leongatha area by arrangement) – bring all cylinders or a portable compressor