Academy Of Scuba

Rye Pier is one of Melbourne's best know and most-loved shore dive sites and is a great day or night dive. It consists of an L-shaped pier roughly 500m in length, under which lives a whole lot of exciting marine life. Depth ranges from 2 - 6m. Growth has encrusted the pylons, so there's plenty to see. Rye Pier is the easiest place to see Seahorses in the world! Common sightings here include octopus (Sand, Blue Ringed, Maori and Keel, among others), cuttlefish, giant smoothrays, seahorses, leatherjackets, calamari, dumpling squid, goatfish, as well as Giant Spider Crabs in their thousands and large schools of salmon and pike in the right season.

Blairgowrie Pier is a fantastic site for photographers, due to the abundant macro life. It's also a popular training site, due to its sheltered position and manageable depth range (2-7m). The pier pylons and sea wall are heavily encrusted with sponges - home to many Seahorses and Nudibranchs - even the odd Tasselled Anglerfish. Ledges and hidey holes make great homes for numerous species of Rays, as well as Octopus, Squid and Giant Cuttlefish. You can also see Stargazers, Flathead, Decorator Crabs, Goatfish and many others. Blairgowrie Pier often hosts the annual Giant Spider Crab march in May-June each year. Thousands of crabs gather in the shallow waters to moult.

Accessible, full of life, and consistently rewarding, Portsea Pier captures the very best of Mornington Peninsula diving. It’s the perfect site for relaxed dives, photography, and unforgettable encounters with Victoria’s famous Weedy Seadragons, amongst numerous other marine species.

Portsea Hole is about 500m from the Portsea Pier and is a remnant of the old Yarra River. The top of the hole is at 14m and to the north there is a vertical wall approximately 75m(250ft) long which drops to sand at 27m (90ft), then into a sand bowl which bottoms at 33m(110ft).

Pope’s Eye is a sandy shoal with a partially completed bluestone fortification called the Annulus. It was to be the foundation of an island fort in the 1880’s to protect the bay.

Constructed in Glasgow Scotland in 1874 for Samuel Ramsden of Melbourne and named after his wife, this ship cost 10,000 pounds. She was a three-masted iron barque 151 ft long and 27 ft wide with a gross tonnage of 415 tons. The vessel sunk in 1875 on her first voyage out of Melbourne when she struck Corsair rock.