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Spearfishing Snorkels
There are a variety of snorkels available at The Scuba Doctor and it is important to recognise the difference between the styles of snorkels.
Basic snorkels are a simple tube from your mouth to the surface that allows you to breathe while your face is under the water. Snorkels with purge valves provide a way to clear your snorkel without completely surfacing.
Some snorkels have a flexible piece towards the mouth-piece of the snorkel. These are beneficial to divers as it means the snorkel hangs beside your face and not in front of your face while diving.
Pickering Point
Reef Dive | 
Shore access
Pickering Point
Depth: 5 m (16 ft) to 20 m (66 ft)
Level: Open Water and beyond.
Pickering Point is a diving and snorkelling site suitable for all levels of divers in the right conditions. It lies just east of Thunder Point in the Merri Marine Sanctuary south-west of Warrnambool, located between the Harbour Breakwater and Thunder Point Coastal Reserve, on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast.
Merri Marine Sanctuary is a protected no-take zone that includes Pickering Point. See the Merri Marine Sanctuary Map.
Pickering Point & Merri Marine Sanctuary | © The Scuba Doctor Australia
Diving and Snorkelling at Pickering Point
Pickering Point Shore Entry
© Sally Watson
At Pickering Point the bottom slopes gently from 5 metres in close to 20 metres on the reefs about 200 metres offshore. There are plenty of interesting ledges, smim throughs and gutters creating great habitat for a vast array of marine life.
It's particularly diverse and colourful and is accessible during low tides with plenty of reef fish and invertebrates. Little Penguins roost and breed on the islands within the Merri Marine Sanctuary and hunt in and beyond the sanctuary for food to feed themselves and their chicks.
Follow the reef around to the right (north) where you'll find a cavern, several channels, and overhangs with lots of fish, crayfish and rays.
Pickering Point faces south-west into the Southern Ocean and is suitable for all levels of divers and snorkellers in the right conditions. It needs to be very calm with low swell. Conditions need to be constantly monitored as they can change quickly into dangerously rough seas with big sells and strong currents.
Merri Marine Sanctuary Parking
© Google Street View
Location: Viaduct Road, Warrnambool, Victoria 3280
Parking: Park along the western side of Viaduct Road, near the first set of steps closest to the concrete wall (i.e southern end of the parking). Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.
Entry/Exit: Shore entry is from Singray Bay. Take the steps down onto the beach, walk towards Pickering Point and enter the water.
Ideal Conditions: This dive site is prone to surge and swell and is best dived at low tide on a low swell with light offshore northerly winds. See WillyWeather (Thunder Point) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.
Boat Launching: Pickering Point ia also popular as a boat dive heading out from the nearby Warrnambool (Lady Bay) boat ramp.
{{southern-ocean-warning}}History: Pickering Point is named after William Pickering, a government surveyor who in 1844 completed Tyers' survey of the country between the Moyne and the mouth of Merri Creek (Warrnambool & District Historical Society).
{{sally-watson}} {{merri-marine-sanctuary}}
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.
Pickering Point Location Map
Latitude: 38° 24.042′ S (38.4007° S / 38° 24′ 2.52″ S)
Longitude: 142° 28.149′ E (142.46915° E / 142° 28′ 8.94″ E)
Datum: WGS84 |
Google Map
| Get directions
Added: 2021-06-07 08:52:59 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-24 09:39:23 GMT
Source: GPS
Nearest Neighbour: Middle Island, 346 m, bearing 145°, SE
Merri Marine Sanctuary.
Warrnambool, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 5 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.
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