Pea Soup Beach

Shore Dive | Shore access

Pea Soup Beach

Depth: 1 m (3.28 ft) to 5 m (16 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Pea Soup Beach (aka South Beach) is a shore diving and snorkelling site which lies on the south side of Port Fairy on Victoria's Discovery Coast where Ocean Drive runs past the caravan park and west along the shore for 2 km. It's east of where Mills Crescent meets Ocean Drive, opposite where James Street meets Ocean Drive, and west of The Passage.

The Pea Soup Beach shore is fringed by continuous basalt reefs lying 100 to 200 metres offshore. In the lee of the reef are two beaches, both bordered by low, basalt rocks. The first is Pea Soup Beach, or South Beach. It is a 500 metres long, south facing beach. It adjoins a smaller, 200 metre long beach that is backed by scarped dunes and, in places, a protective basalt seawall. The reefs completely protect the wide, low beaches at low tide. Shallow lagoons lie between the beaches and the reefs. At high tide, small waves reach the beaches and wash over continuous, shallow bars with no rips.

Diving and Snorkelling at Pea Soup Beach

Pea Soup Beach is a rocky lagoon extremely popular with young families for snorkelling. This shallow bay is sheltered from the swell by a reef system a hundred metres from the shore. It's an easy dive for beginners, often used as a diver training location, and sheltered when other sites are blown out.

Best option is to explore the reefs to the west of Pea Soup Beach. There is even an island to swim around. Another option is to head east and explore The Passage area.

There are lots of starfish to see. Night diving is great here too, lots of critters including Maori Octopus and Dumpling Squid come out at night.

Pea Soup Beach Parking
© Google Street View

Location: Port Fairy, Victoria 3284

Parking: There are three car parks along Ocean Drive that give direct access to the shore. There are public toilets on the opposite side of the road at one of the car parks. One is sign posted as Pea Soup Beach Car Park. A board walk takes you across the dunes down to the beach.

Entry/Exit: From Pea Soup Beach.

Ideal Conditions: Diving Pea Soup Beach requires calm conditions and a very low swell. Tidal currents can make conditions challenging in high seas. See WillyWeather (Pea Soup Beach) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boat Launching: Pea Soup Beach can be dived as a shore dive off the beach, or as a boat dive heading out from the Port Fairy, Griffiths Street Boat Ramp.

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.

 

Pea Soup Beach Location Map

Latitude: 38° 23.554′ S   (38.392568° S / 38° 23′ 33.24″ S)
Longitude: 142° 13.902′ E   (142.231695° E / 142° 13′ 54.1″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-06-22 20:03:54 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 17:56:42 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Ocean Drive, Port Fairy, 988 m, bearing 273°, W
Port Fairy, Discovery Coast.
Depth: 5 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.