Point Cooke Beach

Shore Dive | Shore access

Point Cooke Beach | © Unknown

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 5 m (16 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

Point Cooke Beach (aka Point Cook Beach) is a popular diving and snorkelling site offshore from the Point Cook Beach Recreation Area, between the RAAF Base Point Cook (to the west) and the historic homestead and Point Cooke (to the east). It's 680 metres to the west and outside of the Point Cooke Marine Sanctuary, and faces south-east into north-western Port Phillip.

A narrow sandy beach separates the land from the sea. Off the coast, a series of low basalt reefs rises from the seafloor, the remains of a volcanic activity and a lava flow across the western plains thousands of years ago. Point Cooke Beach receives low waves, which build a low, narrow beach fronted by shallow, intertidal sand and rock flats up to 200 metres wide.

Diving and Snorkelling at Point Cooke Beach

Beneath the water, countless marine animals and plants can be found. Exposed sections of rock support a range of life including tube worms, anemones and many different colourful algae. Prickly sea urchins are abundant near crevices, while sponges grow plentifully in dark corners. Small sharks and skates patrol the surrounding eelgrass beds and muddy seafloor.

Pods of bottlenose dolphins visit the sanctuary and in late summer, swarms of jellyfish pulsate over the reef. You may be lucky enough to encounter an entertaining fish called the Southern Blennie or be able to spot a Pipefish hidden in the seagrass. On the right day, you may come across large aggregations of Southern fiddler rays, basking in the shallow sandy areas.

Point Cooke Beach Parking
© Google Street View

Location: Point Cook Homestead Road, Point Cook, Victoria 3030
MELWAY Ref: Page 12 G11

Parking: There are a number of car parking areas off the Side Entrance Road at the Point Cooke Beach Recreation Area. From Melbourne follow the M1 to Central Ave (41) in Altona Meadows. Take exit 14 from M1 and travel south on Point Cook Rd. Turn left into Point Cook Homestead Road and then right into Side Entrance Rd in Point Cook. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Facilities: There are public toilets plus BBQ and picnic facilities.

Warning: Always go with a buddy and carry a dive knife. Make sure you tow a dive buoy with dive flag.

Entry/exist: From the car park, walk about 250 metres down to the beach, and enter the water.

Ideal Conditions: There is little background swell in this part of Port Phillip — the water is calm when the wind is still. In moderate winds the waves are choppy and under 0.5 metre. Best with light to moderate offshore westerly to north-easterly winds, or light onshore easterly to south-westerly winds. Not diveable in strong southerly winds. Avoid after rains due to the rain runoff reducing viability. Though high tide is ideal, you are able to dive at here on any tide. See WillyWeather (Point Cook) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Sea Urchin Dive Site
© Julian Finn, Museum Victoria

Divers have the opportunity to catch Sea Urchin at this dive site. Remember your catch bag, dive gloves and Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence. Please abide by all current fishing regulations if you intend to catch Sea Urchin.

See article-catching-sea-urchin for practical Sea Urchin catching advice from The Scuba Doctor, and melbourne-sea-urchin-dives for other dive sites where you can catch Sea Urchin near Melbourne.

Boon Wurrung / Bunurong country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Boon Wurrung / Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes parts of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-west, down to Wilson's Promontory in the south-east, including the Mornington Peninsula, French Island and Phillip Island, plus Western Port. We wish to acknowledge the Boon Wurrung as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.

 

Point Cooke Beach Location Map

Latitude: 37° 55.781′ S   (37.929684° S / 37° 55′ 46.86″ S)
Longitude: 144° 46.367′ E   (144.772791° E / 144° 46′ 22.05″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-04-18 19:54:52 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Diana, Point Cooke, 1,510 m, bearing 91°, E
Point Cook, Port Phillip.
Depth: 2 to 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.