Melbourne is a favourite Australian city among backpackers. Beyond its iconic skyline, it's packed with artsy cafés, street art — think sprawling mural walls and live busker performances — and a wonderfully convenient public transport system. The first time I walked through Melbourne's city centre, I felt like I was back in Singapore: people from every corner of the world share the streets, and the Chinese community is far from a minority. Any well-researched backpacker already knows all of that — but did you know you can go scuba diving in Melbourne?
Getting There and Geography
Melbourne Dive Sites
Along Melbourne's southern coast, around the Sorrento Beachside area — including Portsea, Blairgowrie, Rye, and Flinders — shore diving is very much on the cards. If you've done shore dives in northern Taiwan, you'll be familiar with the drill: rent a scuba tank / cylinder, gear up, and jump in with your friends. It works exactly the same way here! And if shore diving isn't enough, local boat operators also run boat dive trips.
Although these spots are technically in the Melbourne region, they're a fair distance from the city centre. I'd strongly recommend renting a car with a few friends — you can even swing by the famous colourful bathing boxes on the way. Driving from the city takes just over an hour, whereas taking public transport requires two transfers and at least three hours. On this particular trip, I found a fellow diver online to share the ride out, but we didn't arrange a return journey together, which meant I had no way to get to the pier for the boat dive or the night diving the next day — a real shame.
For accommodation, I stayed in the dive operator's diver cabin, which was very comfortable and had a dedicated area for drying gear. The downside was that it was too far to walk to either the boat dive or shore dive entry points. On the upside, staying there let me meet a great bunch of divers — one of the most rewarding parts of any dive trip. Over two nights at the cabin, I got to know George, the person in charge of PADI (certification agency) instructor examinations for the Asia region. Chatting with him about my own instructor exam experience and swapping teaching tips with someone of that calibre was genuinely exciting. I later found out George was there to run a technical diving instructor training course — quite the eye-opener.
Equipment
If you're in Australia without your own gear and want to dive here, the boat operator won't provide it for you — but you can rent everything from a local dive shop. (If you have your own equipment but no weights, don't forget to rent a weight system too!)
The following two dive shops are recommended by the boat operator:
Extreme Watersports
Address: 1621-1623 Point Nepean Rd, Capel Sound VIC 3940
Phone: 03 59823432
Scuba Doctor Dive Shop
Address: 1/49 Peninsula, Rye VIC 3941
Phone: 03 59851700
Both shops fill tanks to the brim, which is why the boat operator recommends them. That said, if you're fine with around 200 bar, the shop below is also an option. For shore diving in particular, renting from here can be convenient since it's very close to one of the shore dive entry points — though the gear rental rates seem to run slightly higher.
Bayplay
Address: 3755 Point Nepean Road, Portsea VIC 3944
Phone: 0359840888
The diver I went with didn't have any gear of her own, so we rented equipment from Extreme Watersports and picked up tanks at Bayplay. One important note: shops in Australia tend to close early, so keep an eye on the return times.
Shore Diving
On this trip, my dive buddy and I completed two shore dives in one day. When you rent your scuba tank / cylinder from the dive shop, they'll usually hand you a map of the Sorrento area showing the available shore entry points (typically the pier or jetty of a small neighbourhood). It's worth asking the shop staff for a quick briefing on where to go once you're in the water. If you're not confident in your own navigation, you can hire a dive guide — though personally I didn't feel it was necessary; just follow the shop's directions and you'll be fine.
If you bring your own equipment, your shore diving costs are essentially just the tank fill: AUD $20–25.
This is where we jumped in for the shore dive
For our first dive, we entered at Portsea Pier with a giant stride off the jetty, then descended and swam along the left side of the pier — the right side is used by boat traffic. This dive lasted 80 minutes! Because the depth for shore diving here is only about 5 m, I still had around 110 bar left after 80 minutes, so I'd recommend renting a 12 L cylinder for shore dives here.
This site has one very famous resident: the Weedy Sea Dragon (pipefish)! Early in the dive I only spotted a few nudibranchs, but as we rounded the corner near the pier I caught a glimpse of one — and all three of us immediately got excited and followed it. Sea dragons move slowly and sometimes spin gracefully as they glide along; they're absolutely stunning. Near the far end of the pier, a slightly smaller one had also made its home. I'd only just bought my camera, so I spent ages chasing them around trying to get the shot. Beyond sea dragons, anyone who loves underwater photography — especially macro — is going to love this site. Compared to dive sites around Cairns, there's an incredible abundance of shrimp, crabs, and nudibranchs here, making it a fantastic place for beginners like me to practise.
Diving in Melbourne, Australia – Great Barrier Reef, seals, pipefish
For our second dive, we topped up at Bayplay and headed over to Blairgowrie Pier. One crucial rule at this site: never swim out beyond the underside of the pier, as passing boats could seriously injure you. That might sound like it leaves you with very little to explore, but there's actually plenty to see!
I found all sorts of shrimp species, Cowfish, Spider Crabs, two different types of seahorse, and even a massive Small-eyed Ray that glided past us! The only thing that drove us out of the water was the cold — water temperature was around 17–20°C — otherwise I could have stayed down there all day. The locals here are so lucky: some families were diving together with their kids, and I spotted a photographer lugging all their gear in solo to hunt for treasure.
Diving in Melbourne, Australia – Great Barrier Reef, seals, pipefish
It's currently summer in Australia, and the water temperature for both shore dives was around 18–20°C. I wore a 5mm Forth Element semi-dry wetsuit and only started feeling the cold towards the end of each dive. I'd strongly recommend a 7mm wetsuit and a hood.
Boat Diving
Redboat's vessel
This boat dive operator was recommended to me by a Korean instructor (the same one who dived the SS Yongala with me), and locals I know in Melbourne also gave it a big thumbs up. My friend and I decided to do two boat dives.
Redboat
Address: Portsea Pier, Portsea VIC 3944
Phone: 0400068627
This is a locally run operation. I was a bit lost on how to book when I first looked into it, so I'll walk you through the process in detail. Also worth noting: there's no one there who speaks Mandarin, which may be a challenge for those less comfortable in English. If you have any questions about booking, feel free to DM me on Instagram and I'll do my best to help — no sponsorship involved; I just made such a mess of things for the owner that I feel obligated to make it up to him by helping others!
The owner is an Australian named Luke. Through his involvement in technical diving, he discovered that the waters around his home are littered with decommissioned ships and submarines. Luke told me there are over 50 wrecks in the Victoria region alone, and an astonishing seven submarines. After World War II ended, Britain decided to gift all seven submarines to Australia. The Australian government was thrilled, naming them J1 through J7 and feeling like they'd scored a bargain — until they discovered that J6 was completely broken, and the other six had one problem or another. Even the functional ones cost far more to operate than they were worth, so the government simply sent all seven to the bottom of the deep blue sea. "It sounds a bit funny now," Luke told me with a laugh, "but this is probably the only place in the world where you can find this many submarines in one spot!"
Booking a Trip
Typically, two boats go out each day: one mostly carrying recreational divers and another catering mainly to technical divers. Some passengers come for snorkeling, some for scuba diving, and there's even a group that boards specifically for spearfishing! Before booking, make sure you have all your equipment, including a weight system. If you don't have weights, let Luke know in advance. Then head to the schedule on the official website and book the boat dive you want. After each dive, the boat returns to collect a new group, so if the sites you want are on different runs and the times don't overlap, you can book both without any problem. If you're unsure which site suits your skill level, send Redboat's Facebook page a message beforehand — they'll reply warmly and point you in the right direction.
Boat dives cost AUD $65 per dive, except HMAS Canberra which is AUD $75. Tank fills are AUD $25 on top of that, and everything is paid online by card. It's a bit pricey, but I think it's absolutely worth the experience.
For our first dive, we joined the technical diving masters at a more advanced site. Our group of four teamed up with a sidemount diver who was seriously cool — he was going down to catch lobster. In Victoria, spearfishing and hunting while on scuba is legal, but you need a licence and must adhere to catch limits.
The way boat diving works here is that the crew briefs you on the entry procedure and then you dive to your plan. Throughout the briefing for our first dive, I kept hearing "turn around when the current changes direction" — there was no mention of air pressure as a turn-around point. Why would you turn around when the current shifts?
I kept thinking I must have misheard, and double-checked with my friend and then with Luke. "The current will change before you get down to 120 bar," he said, completely confident. Sure enough, once we were underwater, it all made sense. We descended against a slight current at first, passed a broad expanse of seagrass at around 17 m, then swam northeast to the wall where we picked up a gentle current. After a while, the current direction genuinely reversed and we rode it back — the whole experience was exhilarating, because you could physically feel the shift in the water. The marine ecosystem here is completely different from anywhere I'd dived before: fish and coral species I'd never encountered, and sponges of the most vivid colours I've ever seen.
For our second dive, we went to Pope's Eye — a tiny bay (I'm not sure of the best way to describe it) built from stone during wartime as a miniature fortification, and reportedly the smallest marine protected area (MPA) in Australia. The rocks were absolutely packed with birds, and the crew mentioned these birds can dive to 13 m — so if you spot something mid-dive that looks suspiciously like a bird, trust your eyes. It is a bird!
This site is considerably more accessible and popular with visitors. Local Open Water Diver (PADI/SSI cert) courses run their open-water training sessions here. The site is home to an incredible number of nudibranchs less than half a centimetre long. About 40 minutes into the second dive, I was shivering so hard from the cold that I signalled to my dive buddy that I was heading up to warm up. Around 10 minutes later, everyone else gradually made their way back to the boat too.
Think that was the end? Think again.
After the dives, the boat headed to Chinaman's Hat and dropped us in to snorkel! This spot had at least 30–40 seals lounging on a platform, with a few leaping into the water to swim — and you get to swim right along with them! We were also lucky enough to spot a roughly 1.5 m Marbled Ray hunting crabs.
Afterword
This dive trip introduced me to so many accomplished divers — especially after conversations with George and the group of soon-to-be technical diving instructors — and left me with the humbling realisation that there is still so much to learn in this sport. One of the divers worked at an aquarium and shared all sorts of fascinating stories; several others recounted their personal encounters with great white sharks. The whole experience convinced me that before I leave Australia, I need to go and learn to dive in a drysuit — I'll share that adventure when the time comes!
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