There are shipwrecks and wildlife encounters to be had in Port Phillip Bay, unbeknown to many.
Diving in Melbourne
Many people are un-aware that you can actually dive in some amazing locations in the greater Melbourne area. In Port Phillip Bay there are ship wrecks, cannon forts, seals, stingrays, cold water kelps and corals, crinoids, starfish, and many fish species. This scuba diving is cold water diving and a wetsuit is necessary.
According to Heritage Victoria there are 130 wrecks found in Port Phillip with the likes of sunken submarines, steam-ships, ferries, wooden ships and scuttled iron ships. There are also many unaccounted ship wrecks yet to be found!
Where can I dive in Melbourne?
Portsea – Port Phillip Bay
Queenscliff – Port Phillip Bay
Getting there:
From Melbourne: Take a train from Southern Cross Station to Geelong on the V-line.
Once in Geelong take a connecting Bus number 56 to Queenscliff.
Train tickets from Melbourne > Geelong are $10 each way
Bus tickets from Geelong > Queenscliff are $3.60 each way
Who:
I dived with Scubabo. This company is able to pick divers up from Queenscliff and Portsea. Scubabo runs training programs for divers looking to get qualified in SSI open water diver, advanced diver, rescue diver and dive master. For already ticketed divers Scubabo can take you on a range of dive sites from wreck diving, wall diving, to historic sites and more.
What can you expect to see?
This will depend on the type of dive you do, and your experience. With any dive, seeing marine animals cannot be 100% guaranteed. However seeing stingrays, seals and fish is a high probability.
You may encounter on dives in Port Phillip Bay:
- Ship wrecks – If you do a wreck dive…. Expect to see a shipwreck!
- Seals / Stingrays/ Fish
- Cold water kelps / Seagrass / Soft Substrates / Sponge gardens / Cold water corals / Cold water reefs.
If I had to make a recommendation I would highly recommend ship wreck diving or visiting a historic site in Port Phillip Bay.
Want to keep reading? You might enjoy:
Videos by author – Wreck diving in New South Wales
Want to give it a try?
To get in touch with Scubabo Melbourne you can reach them here:
For an impressive list of wreck dives check out: