The Crags

Reef Dive | Shore access

The Crags

Depth: 8 m (26 ft) to 10 m (33 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The Crags is an area of reefs and rock platforms about 11 kilometres west of Port Fairy off the Princes Highway (A1) on Victoria's Discovery Coast facing south-west loking out to Deen Maar (Lady Julia Percy) Island, 19 kilometres offshore. It's a wild and scenic section of the coastline with high cliffs and jagged outcrops. The Crags is a part of the Crags Coastal Reserve.

The first Crags West Beach lies at the end of The Crags car park. It's a 60 metre strip of sand at the base of the bluffs, fronted by shallow reefs and tidal pools. The second western beach is another narrow, 80 metre long sand strip partly covered by rock falls. It's fronted by a continuous reef flat with tidal pools exposed at low tide. These beaches have low waves at the shore, owing to the extensive inner and outer reefs. However, be very careful as the reefs are irregular and full of deep holes. On the more open beaches, permanent rips run out through the gaps in the reefs, while the outer reefs are extremely treacherous.

Diving and snorkelling at The Crags is great when you can get in. There is a lot of fish life in the area, and plenty of invertebrate growth in the many caves and overhangs. The depth is mainly 8 to 10 metres close to shore, with deeper areas further out.

The Crags is home to a monument commemorating the loss of four crew when on 15 February 1944, a Royal Australian Air Force Avro Anson (AW878), for reasons unknown, attempted a landing on Lady Julia Percy Island, lost control and crashed. The wreck of the Avro Anson AW 878 aircraft can be dived on out at Deen Maar (Lady Julia Percy) Island.

Location: Crags Road, Yambuk, Victoria 3285

Parking: From Port Fairy head west on the Princes Highway (A1) for 11.7 kilometres, turn left into Crags Rad and the car park is 2.9 kilometres ahead. From Yambuk had east on the Princes Highway (A1) for 8.9 kilometres, turn right into Crags Road and then proceed 2.9 kilometres to the car park.The Crags is the only public access to the coast between Yambuk and Port Fairy. Before gearing up check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Warning: Weather conditions at The Crags vary considerably with very strong winds and squalls frequently ocurring. This is a highly hazardous area with deep water, rocks and reefs, with a strong rip feeder current running along the beach and a rip running out past the headland. Always go with a buddy and be extremely careful. Experienced divers and snorkellers only.

Entry/Exit: The best option is from The Crags West Beach at the end of the car park.

Ideal Conditions: The Crags is a very exposed shore dive site, so it should only be dived when the seas are flat and calm with very little swell. Conditions are usually best with no wind, or after a few days of northerlies, as surface conditions remain calm.

See WillyWeather (Yambuk Beach) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

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.

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.

 

The Crags Location Map

Latitude: 38° 22.304′ S   (38.371731° S / 38° 22′ 18.23″ S)
Longitude: 142° 6.585′ E   (142.109745° E / 142° 6′ 35.08″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2021-07-03 10:21:50 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:02:55 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: McKechnie Craig Bommie, 3,018 m, bearing 128°, SE
Discovery Coast.
Depth: 8 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.