Shortland Bluff is the sandstone headland at Queenscliff on which the Black Lighthouse and White Lighthouse stand, the pair of leading lights that guide ships through the Rip, and the reef below it is the most serious of the Queenscliff shore dives. The bluff rises about 15 m above the beach, and its submerged continuation has been carved by thousands of years of tidal current into ledges, gutters, undercuts and channels that run from 3 m near the shore to 15 m on the outer edge, a topography unlike anything else reachable from the sand inside the Heads. The Black Lighthouse itself is one of only a handful in the world built of unpainted black stone and the only one in the southern hemisphere.

Because the reef is flushed by oceanic water on every tide it carries Heads-quality growth: sponges, ascidians, bryozoans and jewel anemones on the shaded faces, kelp and mixed algae on the tops, and a fish community that includes blue-throat wrasse, old wives, magpie perch, leatherjackets, moonlighters, boarfish under ledges, scalyfin, sweep in the current and the occasional weedy seadragon and fur seal, with smooth stingrays and Port Jackson sharks on the sand and in the gutters. It is a tidal dive in the full sense: the streams along this shore run hard enough to sweep a diver out toward the Rip or into the harbour channel, and The Scuba Doctor's guidance is to dive right on slack water at the turn to the flood and to be extremely careful of the tidal flow. It therefore suits advanced divers with Heads experience, ideally with local advice on the day's slack, and it rewards them with a shore dive that feels like a Heads boat dive.

Beach 10B and Cottage by the Sea Reef, 500 m and 800 m west, are the shallower, slightly easier neighbours in the same tidal regime.

From Hesse Street, Queenscliff, drive or walk south to the foreshore below Fort Queenscliff and the lighthouses; park in Hesse Street or the foreshore parking near the bluff (free, limited in holidays). Walk down to Queenscliff Ocean View Beach and along to beach marker 11B, a carry of 100-200 m. Enter from the beach on the last of the flood and swim out to the reef below the bluff.

Exit on the same beach, or, if drifting east on the flood, at the beach toward the pier. Plan the dive around Port Phillip Heads slack water.

Protected from northerly and westerly winds by the town and bluff; conditions are usually best with no wind or after a few days of northerlies, when the Heads water is at its clearest. Southerly and south-easterly winds and ocean swell entering the Heads make it rough. The site is tidal: the Rip streams run hard along this shore and the dive must be done right on slack water at the turn to the flood (check Port Phillip Heads tide tables, allowing for the delay between predicted slack and actual slack at the shore).

Visibility 5-12 m on a good flood. Heavy boat and PWC traffic through the Heads; always tow a dive float with a flag.

Enter at marker 11B at Heads slack water before the flood, swim out to the reef, descend to 8-10 m and work along the sculpted sandstone ledges below the bluff, dropping to 12-15 m on the outer edge if slack holds, and turn back inshore as soon as the flood starts to build, letting it carry you gently east toward the pier beach. Ascend in the shallows with the float up. Keep the dive to 40 minutes.

No regular commercial operator – dived independently by experienced divers and by Queenscliff-based clubs; Dive Victoria Group (Queenscliff) can advise on tide timing.