Cottage By The Sea

The Grotto is named after the many small caves and large overhangs that form this site. Located on top of the Lonsdale Wall system, this area is teeming with marine life and a photographers dream. This site gradually increases in depth to around 23 metres in a system of interesting rock formations and overhangs.

Spec Reef (aka Spectacular Reef) is part of the former Yarra River bed and lies in the South Channel, Port Phillip, Victoria. It is, therefore, subject to shipping traffic. The area is quite large and offers many different dive sites.

Situated in the famous Sponge Gardens, Boarfish Reef lies approximately halfway between Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale. It starts in approximately 10 metres of water and gradually increases in depth to around 22 metres in a system of interesting rock formations and overhangs and swim-throughs.

The Drop-off is located on the western end of Spectacular Reef, and consists of a series of walls thatplunge to over 60 meters in 5-10m increments. This makes it a great dive for all levels. Huge boulders the size of houses are scattered over the area, lying where the ancient Yarra River deposited them.

Constructed in Glasgow Scotland in 1874 for Samuel Ramsden of Melbourne and named after his wife, this ship cost 10,000 pounds. She was a three-masted iron barque 151 ft long and 27 ft wide with a gross tonnage of 415 tons. The vessel sunk in 1875 on her first voyage out of Melbourne when she struck Corsair rock.

This is a dive in the middle of the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park. The plateau is a huge rocky platform in around the 16-meter range winding its way around the edge of the platform. This is the deepest water in Victoria, originally part of the river Yarra.

Devil’s Drop Off is one of the Melbourne’s most popular dive sites onits famous Lonsdale Wall. Devil’s Drop Off begins with a large drop-off from around 12 to 30 metres and continues with many ledges, overhangs and swim throughs.

Foggy Reef sits at the southern-most end of the Lonsdale wall system. The top of the wall is a great dive for beginners as it is around 8 meters deep. If you swim northeast you will find the edge of the wall. This site is part of the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park.

Pope’s Eye is a sandy shoal with a partially completed bluestone fortification called the Annulus. It was to be the foundation of an island fort in the 1880’s to protect the bay.

Discovered and named by one of the great local diving legends, this dive site is spectacular. Approximately 1 kilometer from the Point Lonsdale Light and clear of the shipping channel, just outside Port Phillip Heads, is an amazing area of bommies, or underwater rock formations.