I'm a novice diver and am planning on a trip to Melbourne in Feb next year. After getting responses to my previous posting, we're thinking GBR will be a bit far to get to. Are Philip Island or Nelson Bay (which are closer to Melbourne) any good for diving? Any good resorts (upto AUD 250-300) and dive centers that you can recommend? We're looking at non-liveaboards. Also wanted to know about what kind of marine life we can expect to see, visibility levels, currents, etc. Apart from Phillip Island and Nelson Bay, are there any other islands close to Melbourne where theres plenty of beach and the diving is good (and easy!)?
Hi Escher, never dived at Phillip Island but I hear it is great. I plan to go soon
But there is plenty of diving in Melbourne besides Phillip Island that you can make day trips to. Basically all around the bay
so you don't need an island. I do not think there are 'resorts' around but there is accommodation near most dive sites. With Phillip Island the only charter I have heard of is rusthunters.com, they are new I believe and I have heard they are good (but no personal experience with them). Never heard of a liveaboard in Melbourne so don't worry about that
For boat operators around Port Phillip Bay, try the Dive Victoria website at
www.divevictoria.com.au. They will charge $58 per boat dive, not sure what other charters are like as I have not used them. Never had a problem with Dive Victoria, they are very professional, however they rarely do double dives which some people find a pain. If you need gear hire or to buy other diving equipment you can hire at Dive Vic but I prefer Scuba Doctor in Rye at
The Scuba Doctor - Home - Scuba Service and Repair, Dive Shop, Courses and Trips. Dive Victoria runs boats out of Queenscliff or Portsea which are both about an hour and 15 minutes from the CBD on opposite sides of Port Phillip Bay. On the Dive Victoria site you can view different dive sites that they go to and also their itinerary (when it comes closer to your visit).
There are plenty of shore dives too, and some good sites include Portsea Pier, Rye Pier, Blairgowrie Pier, Mornington Pier, The Springs near Queenscliff, Flinders Pier, Black Rock Yacht Club, and a few others depending on what marine life you like? If you google any of those names on google maps in Victoria you can see where they are.
As far as marine life, there are tonnes of things to see, sharks, all kinds of fish, colourful soft corals, cephalopods, and so on. If you go to my gallery here (and ignore the first page as those pictures are Sydney pictures
) it might give you an idea. My favourite local photographer though (and much much more skilled than I!) has a website on flickr >
Flickr: JimSwims' Photostream. You can see more marine life there.
Visibility ranges from 3-20m. Averages 5-10m. Temperature in February will be the warmest at 19-22C approximately. Currents can be a problem as dives inside the Bay are done at slackwater, so if that ends early you will have to be comfortable doing a midwater ascent launching an SMB in a strong current (there are drift dives you can do also). The boats rarely anchor so most dives you are picked up by the boat wherever you end up. You can try navigate back to the shot line but sometimes the boat brings up the shot before you finish your dive, or in other situations the current will have picked up so no point in swimming against it
So I would
highly recommend bringing an SMB if you plan to do boat diving. With shore diving, currents I don't find too big a problem but surge can be I find. If that bothers you I find Blairgowrie Pier to be particularly protected and pretty much diveable in all kinds of weather.
Anyway hope that helps and yell out if you have more questions!
