Mills Reef Beach

Reef Dive | Shore access

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 20 m (66 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Mills Reef Beach (aka Golf Course East and Reef Point) is a shore diving and snorkelling site, between Killarney to the east and Port Fairy to the west, off the Princes Highway on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast.

This site provides shore access to Mills Reef, a distinctive T-shape reef that runs 100 metres out to sea from the sandy shore. It features a 10 to 15-metre vertical wall a further 50 metres out which takes you down to a sandy bottom at 20 metres and provides excellent diving.

Diving and Snorkelling at Mills Reef Beach

One of the best dives around Port Fairy, Mills Reef Beach faces south-east and has lots of fish and invertebrate life.

The wall at Mills Reef lies to the west of Mills Reef Beach. It's best reached from a boat and is easily spotted using a depth sounder. However, you can also explore the area as a shore dive from this beach. The weed growth on the submerged rock shelf makes an entry from shore a bit of a chore, but not impossible. Nice site for snorkelling.

There are several other reefs in the area which run out to sea from the sandy shore.

Location: Port Fairy, Victoria 3284

Parking: There is a car park at the eastern end of Skenes Road, east of the Port Fairy Golf Club, about 180 metres from the beach. From the Princes Highway (A1), turn south onto Woodbine Road, and then left onto Skenes Road. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Safety First: This area is frequented by boats, so please make sure you display your dive flag in this area.

Entry/exit: Enter and exit from the beach.

Ideal Conditions: Diving Mills Reef Beach requires calm conditions and a very low swell. See WillyWeather (Reef Point) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boats can be launched at the Port Fairy, Griffiths Street Boat Ramp or the Killarney Bay East Boat Ramp.

Abalone Dive Site
© Mark Norman, Museum Victoria

Divers have the opportunity to catch Abalone at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, legal abalone tool, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, and abalone measure. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch abalone.

See article-catching-abalone for practical abalone hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-abalone-dives for a list of other Abalone dive sites near Melbourne.

Divers have the opportunity to catch Southern Rock Lobster (aka Crayfish) at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, current Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence, rock lobster measure, and cray tags. Once you get back to the dive boat, or shore, make sure you clip the tail and tag your Crayfish as per Fisheries requirements. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch crays. See article-catching-crayfish for practical cray hunting advice from The Scuba Doctor, plus melbourne-cray-dives for a list of other crayfish dive sites near Melbourne. For tips on cooking your Crays, please see article-cooking-crayfish.

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.

Mills Reef Beach Location Map

Latitude: 38° 21.637′ S (38.360624° S / 38° 21′ 38.25″ S)
Longitude: 142° 17.493′ E (142.291542° E / 142° 17′ 29.55″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2022-05-19 05:14:53 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:13:56 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Mills Reef, 924 m, bearing 210°, SSW
Killarney, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 2 to 20 m.

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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.