The third edition of this excellent book covers some 120 dive sites from Cape Otway to Wilsons Promontory, including Port Phillip and Western Port. The diagrams are detailed and enable the diver to locate the site precisely. Site descriptions and historic information of wrecks add to the value of the book. Meticulously researched and dived, it provides details of land access and underwater terrain including reefs, wrecks, piers, and seabed composition. Take this book with you and you can pinpoint your dive site. Quite superb.
Along Victoria's coastline, divers can choose from approximately one hundred and twenty shore dive sites, giving an outstanding variety of diving experiences:
- sixteen capes and headlands
- eight major bays
- dozens of offshore reefs of limestone, sandstone and basalt
- a great variety of temperate marine life, including abalone and crays
- twenty-five jetties and piers
- twenty accessible shipwrecks and hulks
- sea caves, blowholes, some drift dives
- safe introductory day sites for newly qualified divers to enjoy developing their dive skills
- night diving opportunities
All sites are arranged travelling eastwards from Cape Otway to the start of Wilsons Promontory, in chapters reflecting local regions, with maps for all dive sites. Chapters include:
- The Great Ocean Road - Cape Otway to Lorne
- The Surf Coast - Airey's Inlet to Barwon Heads
- Port Phillip Bay - Williamstown to Portsea
- The Back Beaches and Cape Schank - Portsea to Cape Schank
- Flinders and Westernport Bay - Flinders to Hastings
- San Remo and Phillip Island
- Gippsland to the Cape - Kilcunda to Cape Liptrap
Victorian divers, as well as visitors, will find this well-designed book most useful. It is not merely a guidebook. As an experienced diving instructor, Ian Lewis has incorporated much information which will improve your dive skills through knowledge of weather and tides, entries and exits, and reading sea conditions appropriate to each dive site. There is much to learn and enjoy as you shore dive Victoria's fascinating coastline.
