Refuge Cove is the eastern Prom's natural harbour – a 400 m entrance opening into a kilometre-wide cove ringed by forested slopes rising 200–300 m, with two beaches of pure rounded quartz sand and a walkers' campsite – and it has sheltered sailors since the sealing days. For divers it is the eastern coast's most accessible site because boats can anchor and stay, and the north wall is the better of its two dives. Scuba Doctor lists it at 5–20 m for Open Water divers and describes boulders sloping down to a sandy bottom at 14 m, with groups of boulders forming swim-throughs, caves and overhangs – an easy dive but certainly not boring.

The wall runs along the cove's northern shore from the beach towards the entrance, granite blocks stacked against the headland with kelp on top and gaps between them big enough to swim through, floored with sand. Fish are what the site is known for: schools of baitfish pursued by salmon in the open water of the cove, blue-throat wrasse, long-nose boarfish and barber perch in large numbers, with leatherjackets, old wives and morwong on the reef, bullseyes in the caves and draughtboard sharks and Port Jackson sharks in the gaps. Sponge and ascidian growth is modest compared with the outer walls but the overhangs carry colour.

Snorkellers can work the same boulders from the northern beach, and boat campers use the cove for night dives. Its exposure is to easterly swell, which produces surge on the north wall, but in westerly weather it is the best refuge on the coast and a place a boat can wait out a change while still diving. Refuge Cove suits every level from snorkeller to Advanced diver and is the natural base for an eastern Prom trip, with Horn Point, Larkin Cove and Brown Head Pinnacle all within 2 km.

Boat only. Launch at Port Welshpool (sealed all-tide ramp, jetty and trailer parking on Corner Inlet, 2.5 hours from Melbourne) and run south through Corner Inlet's marked channels and out past Rabbit Island down the eastern Prom coast – about 30–40 km and 60–90 minutes to Sealers/Refuge Cove, longer to Waterloo Bay and South East Point. The coast is exposed to easterly and southerly swell and has no facilities; carry fuel, radio and all air, and plan around the weather window and Corner Inlet tides.

Refuge Cove is about 33 km from Port Welshpool and is the eastern Prom's main anchorage; yachts and trailer boats anchor in the cove and the north wall is dived from the anchorage or a short dinghy ride. Walkers reach the cove on the two-day track from Tidal River via Sealers Cove and can snorkel it from the beach.

Best with calm seas, no swell and no wind; light offshore north-westerly to northerly winds may be acceptable. The cove is the best shelter on the eastern Prom in westerly weather, but the north wall is prone to surge during an easterly swell and strong onshore north-easterly to southerly winds should be avoided. Diveable on more days than any other eastern Prom site; summer and autumn.

Enter from the anchored boat or dinghy on the north side of the cove, descend the boulder slope to the sand at 14 m and follow the wall seaward towards the entrance, weaving through the boulder groups' swim-throughs, caves and overhangs, to a maximum of 20 m. Turn at half gas and return along the wall at 6–10 m, finishing under the boat.

No dive charter operates at Wilsons Promontory. Sites are dived from club and private trailer boats – Dive La Trobe, VSAG, Melbourne University Underwater Club and Dive Victoria Group run occasional camping-and-diving trips – launching at Tidal River (beach launch, permit/key from Parks Victoria), Port Welshpool or Sandy Point. Wilsons Promontory Cruises (Port Welshpool) runs sightseeing cruises to Skull Rock and the islands but no diving.