Bay of Martyrs

Reef Dive | Shore access

Bay of Martyrs | Source: Film Victoria

Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 10 m (33 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The Bay of Martyrs is an open, 2.5 km long, south-west facing bay containing numerous reefs and sea stacks. It forms a part of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park, a 32 kilometre stretch of coastal reserve on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria along the Great Ocean Road between Peterborough and Warrnambool. While there is plenty of interesting structure to explore and marine life to see on a shore dive, many boat dives here are also popular.

The shoreline is composed predominantly of 10 metre high, red limestone bluffs. Within the bay are several smaller bays and beaches, two of which are named Massacre Bay and Crofts Bay. The main Bay of Martyrs Beach lies at the eastern end of the bay. It is 500 metres long, faces south-west and is backed by a mixture of irregular bluffs and dunes, with the Great Ocean Road just behind. There is a car park and beach access at the eastern end.

Diving and Snorkelling the Bay of Martyrs

Bay of Martyrs faces south-west into the Southern Ocean. You can be done as a shore dive. Head out to the offshore reefs, or explore along the eastern end of the bay and around the point into Worm Bay. However, there is much more to explore if you are doing boat dives here.

Bay of Martyrs Parking
© Google Street View

Location: Great Ocean Road, Peterborough, Victoria 3270

Parking: There is a car parking off the Great Ocean Road (B100) with steps down the bluff to the beach. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Entry/Exit: Off the beach.

Ideal Conditions: Bay of Martyrs is best dived at high tide when the reefs are covered. See WillyWeather (Bay of Martyrs) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boat Launching: The nearest boat launching facility is at the Peterborough Bay of Islands Boat Ramp just north of here, or you can venture out from the Peterborough Curdies River Dorey Street Boat Ramp.

Middens around Massacre Bay are testimony to Aboriginal contact with the area. The place names — Massacre Bay, Massacre Point, Bay of Martyrs — refer to a strong component of local oral history which suggests that Europeans killed a large group of Kirrae-Wurrong Aboriginal men by driving them off the cliffs hereabouts. The women and children were allegedly killed in a nearby swamp. Although there is, not surprisingly, no written evidence, it seems the local Aboriginal population dropped from a couple of thousand to virtually nil at some point, which may suggest migration but this is not what local folklore suggests.

Eastern Maar country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Eastern Maar people of south-western Victoria between the Shaw and Eumerella Rivers and from Yambuk in the south to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. This truly ancient Country extends as far north as Ararat and encompasses the coastal townships of Port Fairy in the west, Warrnambool, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Lorne, and Airies Inlet in the east, including the Great Ocean Road area. It also stretches 100 metres out to sea from low tide and therefore includes the iconic Twelve Apostles. "Eastern Maar" is a name adopted by the people who identify as Maar, Eastern Gunditjmara, Tjap Wurrung, Peek Whurrong, Kirrae Whurrung, Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch (Tooram Tribe) amongst others. We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Maar as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

 

Bay of Martyrs Location Map

Latitude: 38° 35.922′ S   (38.598704° S / 38° 35′ 55.33″ S)
Longitude: 142° 51.561′ E   (142.859346° E / 142° 51′ 33.65″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-06-02 09:31:13 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:40:11 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Nursery Bay, 801 m, bearing 154°, SSE
Peterborough, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 1 to 10 m.

DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.