Blairgowrie Pier
Conditions & tides
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Marine forecast via Copernicus Marine. Score is a rule-based guide from swell/wind vs. the site's exposure — always dive your own assessment.
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About this site
Blairgowrie Pier is a pier dive in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, halfway between Portsea and Rye. It is among Melbourne's newest piers and a favourite with underwater photographers. The pylons are completely covered in colourful sponges, ascidians, algae and kelp, and shelter shrimp, crabs, sea stars, tube worms, scallops and many nudibranchs.
Among the pylons you can find big-belly and short-head seahorses, octopus, spider crabs, stingarees, cuttlefish, pipefish, dragonets, southern fiddler rays, smooth stingrays, flatheads and plenty of reef fish. Shaw's cowfish are a photographer's favourite. The pier also holds tasseled frogfish, an endemic fish found only in southern Australia, but their camouflage makes them very hard to find. Every year from late May to mid-June, giant spider crabs gather in the shallows off the pier, and Blairgowrie and Rye are known as the best places to see it.
It is a good night dive, with squid and octopus under torchlight and sometimes stargazers and skates. Blue-ringed octopus can also be found on night dives here, and they are venomous, so look but do not handle them.
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The pier can be dived all year. Water temperature runs from 8°C in winter to 20°C in late summer, and visibility averages 6 to 10 m, occasionally over 15 m. Warmer summer and autumn water brings more marine life and a greater variety of species.
Marine life here
Confirmed by our research team, reported by independent divers, or observed nearby via iNaturalist — each entry is labelled with its source.
CuttlefishCuttlefishReported here · unconfirmed
StingrayStingrayReported here · unconfirmed
CrocodilefishCrocodilefishReported here · unconfirmed
Blue-ringed octopusBlue-ringed octopusReported here · unconfirmed
Short-tailed CeratosomaCeratosoma brevicaudatumReported here · unconfirmed
made-up phyllodesmiumPhyllodesmium serratumReported here · unconfirmed
Verco's NudibranchTambja verconisReported here · unconfirmed
Fleshy DoriopsillaDoriopsilla carneolaReported here · unconfirmed
Pink Sponge VerconiaVerconia haliclonaReported here · unconfirmed
Hedgpeth's DoridPolycera hedgpethiReported here · unconfirmed
Goniobranchus epicuriusReported here · unconfirmed
Bigbelly SeahorseHippocampus abdominalisReported here · unconfirmed
Chromodoris alternataReported here · unconfirmed
Discodoris paroaReported here · unconfirmed
NudibranchNudibranchConfirmed present · 2 independent sources
SeahorseSeahorseReported here · unconfirmed
OctopusOctopusReported here · unconfirmed
PipefishPipefishReported here · unconfirmed
SquidSquidReported here · unconfirmed
FrogfishFrogfishReported here · unconfirmed
Durable tips from divers — access, hazards, marine life, facilities. For day-of conditions, use the report tool in the conditions card above.
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