Diving Options Around Victoria

[Mustard Dave]

I am travelling to Australia next Thursday with my better half, who is from Lysterfield near Melbourne. We are going to be staying with her dad in the family home, and also have plans to go to her brother's place in Dinner Plain (neither of which are dive locations).

We can probably only fit one day's diving in. We will probably hire kit, but are toying with taking our drysuits, mask, computer and regs if we can fit the suits. We both dive regularly in the UK, and we are looking for something in the recreational range, up to 35m.

We have been looking at Dive Jervis Bay as an option. Does anybody have any experience of them, or can you recommend anywhere around the same distance from the Melbourne area?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[clownfishsydney]

Long way from Dinner Plain to Jervis Bay for one day's diving. Long way from Dinner Plain to anywhere to dive.

Melbourne has diving, but probably not worth bringing dive gear for just one day.

 

[astr0b0y]

Bit over an hours drive to Portsea pier from Lysterfield where you may be able to find a charter to take you into the bay our outside the heads.
You can check these operators schedules:

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Both outfits are located on the other side of the bay so hiring from them is not really an option. You’d also probably want to organise a guide for these etc..

Other option would be pier dives (Portsea, Rye, Flinders) which might be a better bet - weather this time of year is highly changeable.

You could fly to Bali for a couple of days diving which would be quicker and cheaper (per dive) than Dinners Plains to Jarvis Bay.

 

[stiebs]

Like others have said, Dinner Plain to Jervis Bay is a long way for a day trip. It's a 9 hour drive from Lysterfield or Dinner Plain to Jervis Bay, and its over mountain ranges so altitude will be a consideration on the return trip.

Lysterfield to Portsea is definitely doable. If you do end up doing that, make sure you give yourself plenty of time if you're going to Dinner Plain after diving - Dinner Plain is at 1500m above sea level, and if you're driving via Mt Hotham, you'll reach an altitude of 1700m.

There's some excellent diving out of Portsea, including some great wall dives within the bay that range from 18m to 60m. There are also plenty of wrecks, with about 4 or 5 in the 26m-36m range that have regular charters out to them.

Bay City Scuba (Bay City Scuba – Learn Experience Live) and Scubabo (Scubabo Dive Victoria - Premier Boat Charters & Dive Courses!) are the two biggest charter operators.

Hiring kit may be logistically challenging. There are couple of dive shops in Rye, which is en route to Portsea, about 20mins away. ScubaDoctor (The Scuba Doctor - Melbourne Dive Shop, Guided Dives, Air Fills, Service and Repairs) and Extreme Watersport (www.extremewatersport.com.au/) come to mind. However you will unlikely be able to hire gear, get on the boat, and return the gear in the same day.

There are a couple of dive shops not too far from Lysterfield. Aquatics Adventures (www.aquaticadventures.com.au) is the closest, but I don't know anything about them. I can recommend
Ocean Divers though (oceandivers.com.au) which is a little further.

Charter boats here in Melbourne are very much self catering. Sort out your own gear. Gear up in the carpark, get your gear down to the pier and make sure you get on the right boat at the right time. There are no dive guides, but the boat captains generally give good briefings. Virtually all dives are descent on a shot line and a free ascent on an SMB, so make sure you bring an SMB - shops don't generally hire them.

The weather has been attrocious here over the past week, with squawling winds and thunderstorms. Marine conditions have cancelled almost all diving other than some carefully chosen well protected pier dives. Forecast looks on the up though, so fingers crossed the swell drops and visibility improves by next week.

If that hasn't turned you off, there is definitely great diving to be had.

Depending on timing, you may want to do a boat dive in the morning, and then drop by Rye Pier on the way home for a shore dive. It's only about 5m under the pier, and gets out to about 10m if you can get some local knowledge to follow the path out to the octopus's garden.

 

[Seepferdchencam]

Aquatic Adventures is a great shop and would be the easiest logistically from Lysterfield. Ollie, the owner, is from the UK, but you can't hold that against him. They run a big club so if the stars align you might be able to lean on their local knowledge.

As Stiebs says, Scuba Doctor is close to Portsea. They hire but get quite busy so allow a good margin of time if hiring. They also have a club and you can join in on a club dive for AUD$20.

Extreme Watersport has recently changed hands. The new owner is lovely, but I don't know about the hire gear situation. I'm going there tomorrow so will ask and report back.

 

[Seepferdchencam]

Extreme Watersport are also doing hire gear, so you're fine there too.

 

[happy-diver]

 

[Mustard Dave]

Thanks for the replies. We decided not to bother in the end. We contacted a few places, but nobody seemed to want to know, plus we found we had less room for kit in our cases than we wanted.

We will be back again at some point, and probably nearer summer, so I will have a look at people's recommendations again then.