Point Franklin is the rocky point midway between Parker Inlet and the Cape Otway lightstation, on the stretch of coast where the Bass Strait shoreline turns the corner into the Southern Ocean. Twenty to thirty metre vegetated bluffs stand behind a steep, barless beach, rock platforms run out from both ends and reefs continue offshore into 14 m. It is a place of large angled gutters cut into the platform, big underwater rock slabs and, further out, isolated reefs surrounded by sand, and it carries the heavy growth and abundant life that comes from being in the path of everything the Southern Ocean sends. Bull kelp and thick brown algae cover the ridges, sponges and ascidians pack the shaded faces of the gutters, and the cracks hold abalone and southern rock lobster in numbers that make the point popular with spearfishers on the rare calm days. Schools of ocean-going fish – sweep, salmon, trevally, sometimes kingfish – move through the deep water off the tip, and the reef fish are the usual western Victorian set of wrasse, magpie perch, zebrafish, herring cale and leatherjackets, with Port Jackson sharks and rays on the sand.

The Scuba Doctor rates it Advanced and calls it a highly hazardous area, and both are fair. The deep water directly off the beach means the shore break is heavy in any swell, the gutters surge, and the offshore reefs are a real swim from the beach with no shelter on the way. It is, however, the most interesting of the Cape Otway shore sites for an experienced diver: deeper than Blanket Bay or Parker Inlet, more varied in structure, and with the best chance of pelagic fish and seals from the colony at nearby Seal Point. The point should be walked to and the sea assessed before gearing up, and weak or average swimmers should not consider diving or snorkelling here.

From the Great Ocean Road follow Lighthouse Road (C157) toward the Cape Otway lightstation; about 2 km before the lighthouse a signposted vehicle track on the left leads toward Point Franklin and Crayfish Bay (dry-weather 2WD, rough in places). Park at the end of the track and walk the short path down to Point Franklin West Beach, a steep beach with no bar and rock platforms at both ends. Walk out to the tip of the point first to look at the sea; if the platforms are breaking white, do not enter.

The entry and exit is from the middle of the beach. Roughly 3 hours from Melbourne and 30 km from Apollo Bay.

Cape Otway is the most exposed headland on the Victorian coast and all of these coves face the open Southern Ocean or Bass Strait. Diving requires a day of exceptionally good weather: calm seas, no swell (under about 0.5 m) and no rough weather forecast, which in practice means summer and autumn under a high with offshore north to north-westerly winds; an offshore wind will flatten the sea inside the reefs. Waves average 1.5 m outside the reefs even on ordinary days.

Southerly through westerly winds and any swell over a metre make every entry dangerous. Conditions change quickly and a calm morning can be unworkable by midday. Walk to the point and look before gearing up.

Point Franklin is a highly hazardous area: the point takes swell from the south and east and the beach is steep with deep water directly off it, so any swell produces a heavy shore break and strong sweep along the platforms.

Enter from the middle of the beach on a rising mid tide, fin out over the deep water beside the point and descend on the reef in 5–6 m. Work the angled gutters and rock slabs along the point out to the offshore reef in 10–14 m, keeping the point as a reference. Turn at half gas, return along the platform and surface off the middle of the beach, timing the exit between sets.

No operator – experienced local shore divers and spearfishers only.