Port Campbell Bay is the one genuinely sheltered shore dive on the whole Shipwreck Coast, and for that reason it is the place most visiting divers actually get wet between Apollo Bay and Warrnambool. The town sits at the head of a narrow drowned valley whose entrance is pinched between limestone cliffs, and the effect is to filter the Southern Ocean swell down to half a metre at the beach on an ordinary day. The dive follows the eastern reef wall of the bay from the beach in front of the surf club out toward the entrance. On the right the wall rises in ledges and undercuts covered in kelp and encrusting invertebrates; on the left the old river bed forms a sand and seagrass channel. Depths increase gradually from 2 m to about 12 m near the mouth. Along the wall the Scuba Doctor notes crayfish and nudibranchs among the marine vegetation, and the fish are the typical western Victorian community – blue-throat wrasse, herring cale, sea sweep, bastard trumpeter, leatherjackets – with rays and flathead on the sand and plenty of invertebrates sheltering in the rock and seagrass. Overgrown mooring blocks made from engine blocks and gearboxes lie along the way and, beneath the cliff opposite the jetty, the iron frames of the Napier, the steamer lost in 1878 while salvaging the Loch Ard.

It is an easy, forgiving dive of an hour or more with a sand entry and exit and a wall to follow home, suitable for Open Water divers, students and snorkellers, and it can be done in conditions that close every other site on the coast. It also works as a night dive. The bay is used by the local cray fleet from the jetty on the eastern side, so a flag and float are advisable and the lobster sea cages near the jetty are off limits. Combined with the jetty and the Napier it forms a compact cluster of shallow dives within a few hundred metres of the cafes, and it is the natural place to spend a day waiting for the swell to drop for the Loch Ard.

Port Campbell is on the Great Ocean Road 66 km east of Warrnambool. Park on Cairns Street behind the beach reserve and surf club (a minute's walk to the sand) or on Lord Street by the jetty. Gear up at the car, walk across the reserve to the beach and enter from the sand in front of the surf lifesaving club.

Follow the reef wall on your right seaward with the old river bed on your left. Exit at the same beach. The jetty crane is available for licensed permit holders to launch boats but is not needed for this dive.

Port Campbell Bay is a 200 m wide, partly in-filled valley with a narrow entrance that greatly reduces wave action, and waves at the beach average only 0.5 m; rips occur only during large seas. It is best dived at low tide with low swell and offshore winds anywhere from west through north to east; a moderate to strong southerly pushes surge into the bay and cuts visibility. Visibility ranges from 3 m after a blow to 20 m in settled weather.

It is the go-to dive on this coast when the swell is 1.5–2 m and everything exposed is unworkable, but in a big swell even the bay breaks. Occasional beach erosion exposes rock at the entry.

Enter from the beach and follow the reef wall on your right seaward in 2–6 m, exploring the ledges, kelp and seagrass and the old river-bed channel on your left. Continue toward the bay entrance to 10–12 m if the surge allows, passing the overgrown moorings and the Napier wreck beneath the eastern cliff, then turn at half gas and return along the same wall to the beach.

No operator in Port Campbell; Warrnambool Diving and visiting clubs use it as a guided or independent shore dive; popular with snorkellers in summer.