The Caves is the Bunurong coast's low-tide dive, a large shallow pool set in the intertidal sandstone platform between Inverloch and Eagles Nest that Parks Victoria describes as opening out to the sea and accessible for divers at low tide, with rockpooling on the platform around it. It is named for the wave-cut caves and overhangs in the low cliffs behind the platform, part of the dinosaur-fossil coast that runs to Eagles Nest, and it sits just outside the eastern boundary of Bunurong Marine National Park in the Yallock-Bulluk Marine and Coastal Park. The pool is the attraction: a natural aquarium a few metres deep, sheltered by the platform, with clear water, a floor of sand and rock, walls of kelp and coralline algae, and a resident population of fish and invertebrates – wrasse, zebrafish, juvenile leatherjackets and morwong, sweep, gobies and blennies, sea stars, anemones, crabs, shrimp, sea hares, abalone and small crayfish in the crevices – that can be watched at snorkel depth by children and experienced divers alike.

Through the opening the reef continues seaward as gutters and ledges to about 8 m, with the same community as the marine park next door, including Port Jackson sharks and stingarees in the sandy gutters. The dive's rhythm is set by the tide rather than the swell: for an hour or so either side of low water the pool is calm and the opening passable; as the tide rises the platform floods, waves break across it and the opening turns into a rip, so timing and a prompt exit matter. The Caves suits snorkellers, families and beginners on calm mornings and gives more experienced divers a novel, sheltered way onto the Bunurong reef when the high-tide gully entries at Eagles Nest and Shack Bay are too rough.

Fossil hunting on the platform is popular but the fossils are protected; look, photograph, leave.

From Inverloch take the Bunurong Coastal Drive west about 4 km to The Caves car park (signposted, before Eagles Nest). A short track leads to the rock platform – a 5-minute carry. Parks Victoria notes that the platform hosts a large shallow pool that opens out to the sea and is accessible for divers at low tide; enter the pool from the platform within an hour or so of low water, snorkel or dive out through its seaward opening onto the reef, and return the same way before the tide covers the platform.

Unusually for this coast, The Caves is a low-tide site: the pool and its opening are accessible within an hour or so of low water, when the platform shelters the pool from swell. It still needs a small swell and a northerly or north-easterly wind, because at mid-tide and above waves break across the platform and the opening becomes a rip. Early morning low tides in autumn are ideal; check the Inverloch tide tables.

Visibility in the pool is excellent on calm days.

Enter the pool from the platform at low tide, explore its walls and floor at 1–3 m, then pass out through the seaward opening onto the reef and follow a gutter to 6–8 m, keeping the opening in sight. Turn at a third of gas or when surge in the opening increases, return into the pool and exit onto the platform. Snorkellers can enjoy the pool alone.

No dive shop on the Bunurong coast; sites are dived by independent divers and Melbourne/Gippsland clubs (SEADS – South East Australian Dive Society, Dive La Trobe, VSAG). Nearest air fills in Melbourne's south-east or by arrangement in the Latrobe Valley.