Port Phillip · Australia · Reef
Boarfish Reef
A 10-22 m reef of overhangs and swim-throughs
Area photo: Kgbo · CC BY-SA 4.0
Boarfish Reef lies about halfway between Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale, in the ground divers here call the Sponge Gardens. It starts in about ten metres and works down to around twenty-two through rock formations, overhangs and swim-throughs, so the dive is a gradual descent along structure rather than a drop onto one feature.
Where it is and how deep
38.2793° S, 144.6342° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The shallow end of the reef is at about ten metres, and that is where most dives are shaped from. From there the rock steps and slopes down to roughly twenty-two, breaking up as it goes into formations with overhangs cut back under them and swim-throughs passing through the rock. Each section is small enough to work properly before moving on to the next one.
Running the profile deep to shallow makes sense: take the twenty-two-metre end first and let the reef bring you back up as you work through the structure, finishing on the shallow ground with plenty of gas left. Boarfish give the reef its name, and blue devil fish, leather jackets, crayfish, nudibranchs, mosaic sea stars and yellow sea spiders are the animals commonly seen along it. The site sits in the Sponge Gardens and is dived from a boat on the slack.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Port Phillip: The spider crab aggregation runs May–Jul; winter also brings the clearest water, while summer is warmest but greener.
Sources
- Boarfish Reef — Scubago/SSI
More dive sites in Port Phillip
An unfinished 1880s fort ring with a gannet colony on top
Walls stepping down past 60 m, strewn with house-sized boulders
Ledges and swim-throughs in 6-9 m, straight off the car park
Wall
Small caves and big overhangs on top of the Lonsdale Wall
Wall
A broken wall from 12 m to 30 m, cut with overhangs
Wall
The shallow 8 m top of the Lonsdale wall system
Reef
A 16 m rock platform dived along its winding edge
Pinnacle
A 200 m rock circled in one dive, 18 m sand to 12 m top
Similar dives elsewhere
Sheltered ledge from 16 m up to 5 m, thick with nudibranchs
Shallow reef of nooks and crannies, anchor at 10 m
Overhangs and boulders in a 10 m-wide inlet named for a car driven off the cliff
The southernmost reef where plate coral grows this thickly