Turtle Bommie is a large digitate coral bommie inside Lady Musgrave's calm lagoon, filled with massive bushy corals and finger coral (Porites) colonies. It sits at 7-10 m, with visibility of 10-25 m, and is dived directly from the Lady Musgrave HQ pontoon as a shallow lagoon wall dive. The bommie serves as a cleaning station for resident green, loggerhead and hawksbill turtles, which hover or rest against the coral while cleaner fish pick algae and parasites from their shells.

For divers, that means close, calm turtle encounters in shallow, bright water, and it is one of the best places at Lady Musgrave for turtle photography and video. The coral itself is impressive: large, bushy colonies and finger corals create a complex structure that shelters blue and green chromis, damselfish and butterflyfish, while reef sharks patrol the surrounding sand. Because of its shallow depth and sheltered location, the site is suitable for non-certified beginners diving with an instructor, and for certified divers wanting a leisurely day or night dive.

It is available as an add-on to day tours or as part of an overnight stay on the pontoon. Like the rest of the lagoon, Turtle Bommie lies within a Marine National Park (Green) Zone, and turtles here are used to divers. Give them space at the cleaning station and they will usually stay put, allowing long observation.

Turtle nesting season on the island (November-March) brings extra adult turtles into the lagoon, and hatchlings run to the sea from about January to April, so visits in those months often see the most turtle activity around the bommie.

Lady Musgrave Island is about 96 km north-east of Bundaberg and 59 km east of the Town of 1770. Lady Musgrave Experience departs 15-17 Marina Drive, Burnett Heads (15 minutes' drive from Bundaberg; parking at the marina) at about 7:30 am for a roughly 2-hour crossing to its pontoon in the lagoon; 1770 Reef Eco Tours leaves the 1770 Marina (free parking beside the marina cafe) for a roughly 90-minute run. Private vessels anchor inside the lagoon via the marked entrance channel through the reef.

Turtle Bommie is inside the lagoon and is dived directly from the Lady Musgrave HQ pontoon.

The lagoon itself is diveable in almost any weather, but the crossing is open ocean and tours are cancelled when south-easterly trade winds exceed about 25 knots or the swell is over 2.5 m. Outer-reef drift sites are chosen by wind and tide: the northern and western edges shelter from south-easterlies, the southern ledges need light winds or northerlies. Currents strengthen on spring tides and the outer sites are run as drifts on either the flood or ebb.

Cyclone season is November-April; summer storms and plankton reduce visibility. Calmest seas are often September-November and March-April. The lagoon is sheltered from swell; the site is diveable whenever the crossing runs.

Enter from the Lady Musgrave HQ dive platform, descend onto the sand at 7-10 m and follow the lagoon wall with it on one shoulder, circling the big digitate bommie and waiting near its cleaning station for turtles. Turn at half air, return along the wall slightly shallower and finish the safety stop beneath the pontoon.

Lady Musgrave Experience runs daily tours from Burnett Heads (Bundaberg) aboard Reef Empress to its Lady Musgrave HQ pontoon, with certified divers transferring to the dive tender Underworld for the 'Adventure Outer Reef Double Dive'; overnight stays on the pontoon allow extra and night dives. 1770 Reef Eco Tours also dives Lady Musgrave from the Town of 1770. Offered as an add-on dive to day tours and overnight stays.