Weekend range
The Best Dive Sites Within Two Hours of Melbourne
Sites within roughly 120 km straight-line distance of central Melbourne, ordered by how regularly they are dived and how well they are documented.
Everything within about 120 km of Melbourne: the bayside reefs, the Mornington Peninsula piers, Port Phillip Heads, the Bellarine and Western Port. Cold water, world-class macro, and the biggest wreck collection in the country outside the Heads.
February to May is the settled season; the piers work year-round on the right wind.
Updated daily from the directory. 30 sites listed.
1. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
McGregor Rock, Quiet Corner
19 km from Melbourne · The sheltered fallback corner of Ricketts Point; profuse fish life over shallow ledges when other bayside sites are blown out.
2. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Banksia Point, Ricketts Point
20 km from Melbourne · Quietest entry in the sanctuary; very shallow close-in reef for snorkelling, children and relaxed night dives.
3. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Tea House Reef, Ricketts Point
20 km from Melbourne · The central reef of the sanctuary with navigable channels, dense tame fish and the best facilities of any bayside shore dive; the standard Melbourne night and training site.
4. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary
20 km from Melbourne · Melbourne's flagship marine sanctuary: eight shallow reef entries, tame fish, sea caves and seagrass twenty minutes from the CBD, perfect for beginners, snorkellers and night dives.
5. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Tea House Bay, Ricketts Point
21 km from Melbourne · The most sheltered and accessible water in the sanctuary, right in front of the teahouse; sand and seagrass critters plus reef edges.
6. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Middle Reef, Ricketts Point
21 km from Melbourne · Uncrowded shallow reef edge between the teahouse and the life saving club; simple night dive and a good intertidal-to-subtidal study site.
7. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Triangle Reef, Ricketts Point
21 km from Melbourne · Deepest reef in the sanctuary (to 8 m) off a proper beach with showers; the sanctuary's main scuba training site and a fine night dive.
8. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
Table Rock, Ricketts Point
21 km from Melbourne · The sanctuary's best terrain: undercut ledges and a cave-like hollow under a sandstone headland, with bigger fish and rays; a favourite Melbourne night dive.
9. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Mornington Pier
45 km from Melbourne · Deepest of the northern piers with a reef along Schnapper Point; cuttlefish, seahorses and squid; diveable when southerlies blow out everything else.
10. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Popes Eye
57 km from Melbourne · An 1880s fort foundation turned marine reserve: a sheltered inner lagoon packed with tame fish, an outer wall of gorgonians and feather stars to 14 m, nesting gannets overhead and seals dropping in – the most reliable easy dive at the Heads.
11. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Chinamans Hat
57 km from Melbourne · Purpose-built seal haul-out beside the South Channel where Australian fur seals sleep, spar and come out to investigate snorkellers – the bay's best wildlife stop and a regular surface-interval visit for Heads charters.
12. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Portsea Hole
60 km from Melbourne · A 75 m vertical calcarenite wall from 12 m to 27 m with a sand bowl to 33 m, 500 m off Portsea Pier – sixteen sponge species, clouds of perch and Victoria's standard deep-training dive.
13. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Boarfish Reef
60 km from Melbourne · Multi-site reef in Lonsdale Bight with caves, swim-throughs, a 4 m upright admiralty anchor in 10 m and a 400 m sponge garden along its northern tip – the Queenscliff fleet's most-dived reef.
14. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Lonsdale Wall Shallow
60 km from Melbourne · A shallower section of the Lonsdale wall system, with a published 12–25 m range and boat access timed around slack water.
15. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Portsea Pier
60 km from Melbourne · Port Phillip's oldest dive pier, with sea dragons and night-dive octopus.
16. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Party Point
61 km from Melbourne · Vertical Lonsdale Wall face with a step-out every 6–9 m and a cave-like overhang behind each one, from 12 m to 45 m – the most-dived drop on the wall and usable by every certification level in the same slack.
17. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Lonsdale Wall
61 km from Melbourne · The signature Heads wall, dropping past 40 m under sponge gardens, dived on a 20-minute slack.
18. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Blairgowrie Pier
63 km from Melbourne · The best pier dive in Australia: seadragons, cuttlefish, frogfish, seahorses and the spider crab aggregation in May.
19. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Rye Pier
63 km from Melbourne · Seahorses on nearly every pylon, the annual giant spider crab aggregation, big stingrays and superb night diving – all in 7 m from a car park.
20. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
ex-HMAS Canberra
66 km from Melbourne · A 138 m frigate scuttled off Ocean Grove with cut access points at every deck, dived daily in season.
21. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Flinders Pier
74 km from Melbourne · Weedy seadragons almost guaranteed in 5 m of water on Western Port.
22. Melbourne & Port Phillip Bay · VIC
PS Ozone
42 km from Melbourne · The 1886 'Greyhound of Port Phillip' scuttled as a breakwater – paddle wheel above water, boilers and steering gear in 3 m, with the hulk Dominion alongside; ideal snorkel and training wreck.
23. Geelong & Bellarine · VIC
St Leonards Pier
45 km from Melbourne · The Bellarine's best pier: 4-6 m of sheltered, weedy water with seahorses, stargazers and cuttlefish, an 1850s wreck's ribs, and superb night diving.
24. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Popes Eye Anchor Farm
56 km from Melbourne · Thirteen historic ships' anchors – Admiralty, Trotman and Rogers Patent patterns recovered during channel deepening – laid out on the sand in 10 m beside Popes Eye with interpretive plaques.
25. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
South Channel Fort
57 km from Melbourne · Granite caves and tunnels around an 1880s fort island, with seals, cuttlefish and blue devils in the middle of Port Phillip.
26. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Sponge Garden Drift
58 km from Melbourne · Ebb-tide float drift from shallow reef over carpets of coloured sponges to bommies at 20 m off Queenscliff – the easiest and most sheltered way to see the Heads' filter-feeder gardens.
27. Mornington Peninsula · VIC
Dromana Pier
58 km from Melbourne · Ultra-shallow training and night dive with the pylons and rail wheels of the old jetty 200 m out; sheltered from southerlies by Arthurs Seat.
28. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Boarfish Reef Drift
59 km from Melbourne · Float-line drift across the Boarfish Reef sponge gardens and outcrops off Queenscliff – no navigation, no kicking, several hundred metres of reef in one dive.
29. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Eliza Ramsden
59 km from Melbourne · Upright iron barque lost in 1875 after striking Corsair Rock: intact starboard plating and decking, bluestone ballast and a donkey boiler at 14–22 m, grown over with soft coral and zoanthids – the best sailing-ship wreck in the bay.
30. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Kelp Beds Reef
60 km from Melbourne · The bommie field in Lonsdale Bight where the chart-marked giant kelp forest once stood – now smaller kelps over rock and sponge gardens between, dived at slack or drifted on the flood.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best dive site near Melbourne?
The top of this list is the most regularly dived, well-documented site within weekend range of Melbourne. Scroll for shore dives you can do without a charter.
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