Bellarine Peninsula Diving
Scuba diving in Bellarine Peninsula
The Bellarine Peninsula is located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia and is surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. Bellarine Peninsula diving offers an interesting array of dive sites which include shore, reefs, drift and wreck dives see the Bellarine Peninsula diving map. The marine life is abundant and you may even swim with seals at Pope's Eye in the marine park.Always dive according to your level of training.
Never enter the water without checking with Bellarine Peninsula diving centers for safety, additional information, level required for each dive site and without being accompanied by a professional.
All the information provided is purely informative for our readers and shouldn't be used as is to plan your immersion.
Possible to dive all year round.
The Ballerine Peninsula diving is very varied and has a lot of dive sites with varying degrees of difficulty in the Corio Bay area, Port Philip Bay and Queenscliff just to name a few.
There are lots of opportunities for drift diving around the Ballerine Peninsula. There are very easy and slow drift dives to fast challenging ones.
Between Point Lonsdale and Queenscliff there's a popular drift dive that'a conducted over a kelp forest. Lots of abalone can be seen on this dive as well as rock lobster. Port Philip has great drift diving but special care needs to be taken because the currents are strong and there's a lot of boat traffic.
If you're looking for a relaxed drift dive then go for the bay off Rye where the Bay's commercial scallop beds are located. This is a slower dive which will leave you the time to enjoy what's happening around you. You will also see spider crabs, octopus and sea pens. There are numerous other drift dives that you will discover when you visit the peninsula.
Reefs are numerous and vary from as shallow as 16 to 196 feet (5 metres to 60 metres). Therefore all divers of all levels of experience will find a reef to suit their needs. The reefs are teeming with marine life. You can expest to see lots of crayfish, Abalone, Blue Devils and seals just to mention a few check the Australia diving photos.
Pope's Eye is a man made basalt rock annulus. It was originally meant to be an Island Fort built in the late 1880's to protect the bay. It was never finished and now this horse shoe shaped structure is a marine reserve. It's very rich in marine life which includes wrasses, globe fish, morwong and yellowtail. There's also algae and one of the last kelp forests in the bay. The inside of Pope's Eye has anchorage in 6 to 9 feet (2-3 meters) of water while the outside has about 39 meter (12 meters).
On the Point Nepean Side, there are scattered reefs of varying depths outside port Phillip Heads. The marine life here is abundant and varied. Depths vary from 39 to 59 feet (12 to 18 meters). This area is made of mainly soft calcium and erosion has taken its toll making small swim throughs and valleys.
Shore dives are at depths of 9 to 32 feet (3-10 meters), therefore snorkelers and divers who just want to have an easy relaxing dive can go for these. There's plenty of marine life to see on the shore dives shallow reefs. Sea dragons, cray fish, cuttlefish and magpie morwong are among the fish life that can be seen. There's usually great visibility and you may even be able to see some wrecks close to the shore.
There are many different interesting wrecks here, each with it's unique story to tell. The depths and difficulties of the wreck dives vary. Some may be attempted by novices but a good part are for experienced divers. The depths go from 65 to 169 feet (20 meters to 60) and more. One popular wreck is The Cogee, a cargo transport is a popular wreck dive. She went down in 1903 following a collision near Port Phillip Heads. She is at a depth of 111 feet(34 meters) and recommended only for experienced div
