Local shore Dives

Swansea Bridge

Dive Swansea offers an amazing range of local Shore Dives. Some of our favourites are featured below.

Swansea Bridge, Honda Hole, Catherine Hill Bay, Cabbage Tree Bay , Norah Head and Terrigal Haven

These are just a few site we run regularly to these locations with Dive Guides.

Dive Swansea is located just 20 meters from the dive site entrance at Swansea Bridge. Perfectly located to go shore diving. We set you up with the gear and jump in across the road at the boat ramp entry point.

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Swansea is the place where people in Newcastle come to dive and is only 45 minutes from the Central Coast and 2 hours from Sydney.

You can only dive “comfortably” under the bridge on still water at high or low tide. High tide is generally the best visibility. We post tide times every week on our website and or Facebook. Also, very exciting is a drift dive. You can fly like a Manta Ray down the channel. We recommend that divers with a Drift Dive certification complete this dive unaccompanied. If it is your first time, please book one of our experienced dive guides to ensure that you have an amazing experience.

With so much amazing diving close by why not stay the weekend, Swansea has accommodation to suit any budget, and if you have a non-diving partner, there is so much to keep them occupied.

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Flag Staff

Flagstaff is just a short 5 min drive from our dive centre. It is a small bay right at Swansea heads and is also protected from the swell by Moon Island another one of our popular boat dive sites . Unless the winds are blowing from the Southeast diving is generally protected.

The dive site ranges in bottom topography from sandy areas where the rays like to hang to green/yellow weedy sea gardens where the fish and Nudibranch like to hide. That mixed with a backdrop of giant boulders make for a beautiful dive. Other critters that have been spotted on this site are Port-Jackson sharks, spotted rays, schools of mullet, king fish and Australian salmon!

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Over the winter period when the water is beautifully clear, between Flagstaff and Moon Island we are lucky enough to get visits from the Grey Nurse Sharks. Grey Nurse are large Sharks but known to be “friendly” to divers and non-aggressive. It’s a great time to dive Swansea region!
How to Get There
You can enter from the sandy beach at the bay or off the rocks just south of the bay. It's a shallow dive ranging in depth from 5 metres to 8 metres, Flagstaff suits all ranges of diver skills.

Ask our staff how to navigate to Reid’s Reserve where you will park your car and walk 20 metres to the entry point.

Cabbage Tree Bay

Great site for beginners. Cabbage tree bay is a sandy bay that leads out to a wall dive on the right-hand side, so you follow the wall reef out and back.

Maximum Depth
3 to 9 metres
Dive Type
All levels
Entry
Beach Entry left of the boat ramp
Exits
Beach Exit left of the boat ramp
Marine Life
Sting Rays
Wobbegong
Port Jackson

Tips for Diving
The boat ramp is still occasionally used so be careful of boats and please always use a dive flag.

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Terrigal Heaven

Terrigal Heaven is an easily accessible dive site with and easy exit and entry point. The dive site itself has a sloping sandy bottom. Underneath the moored boats is sand flats and seagrass. The seagrass in the Haven is a much-overlooked habitat with some of the most interesting critters. Follow the rocks on the right-hand side out and left-hand side exiting your dive. The is a Giant Anchor at the point sitting in 10metres of water most people use this as a reference point to go past and turn around to make their way back . If you find that you still have not used half your air, you can continue out following along the wall and you will be able to make two different journeys. If keep going out far enough you’ll come along an old boat trailer which has seahorse hanging around it on a rocky – kelp bottom.

The other journey is you swim up over the rock wall tide pending and go out over the other side and it is a large rocky boulder type bottom that goes down to 14 m in depth.

Terrigal Haven is normally the best place to dive on a southerly wind as its very protected.

Maximum Depth
3 to 15 metres
Dive Type
Shore Dive
Recommended Experience
Beginner to Advanced Divers
Entry
Head down the steps right side of the Terrigal boat ramp and enter via the shore. Be careful there are the occasional rock or dip in the sand here
Exits
Exit in the same location as entry

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Catherine Hill Bay

Catherine Hill Bay is known for its an old mining town with some old heritage building and the Long Jetty still there.

The old coal loader is the dominating feature of the bay, a shallow dive that goes to about 11m. Under and about the coal loader you can find a plethora of ship chains, cables and hardware including the remains of the SS Wallarah. A relatively sandy dive, you will also likely get to see a few rays!

The pylons of the old coal loader have spent decades growing their own reef and are now home to lots of fish species and nudibranch. To the south of the loader is the calmest entry and exit point for the area, a shallow dive with schooling fish and, like the loader, a plethora of ship chains, cables, and hardware. Follow a chain and see what you end up with!

There are literally dozens of dive sites on the shoreline off the rocks at Catherine Hill bay but Dive Swansea recommends a Dive guide for diving these areas for the first time as sometimes can be challenging

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Snapper Point

Snapper point it is a rocky headland with many swim throughs, boulders, overhangs, arches, and beautiful sponge walls. This is our owner Ian’s Favourite Dive site. You need to first dive with a dive Swansea Dive guide as can be a bit challenging at times but thoroughly enjoyable.

Depth
5 to 12 metres
Dive Type
Shore Dive
Recommended Experience
Advanced to Expert
Entry
Giant stride of the rocks out at front of headlands

Exits
Exit via the Beach right hand corner
Tips for Diving
Best to dive on a day when there is under 1 metre swell.

Best time to dive is when westerly winds are blowing over the rocks and seas are dead flat.

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Desoto Inlet Also known as Honda Hole

Desoto Inlet is a shallow boat dive via Catherine Hill Bay. Consisting of overhangs and large rocks and may little caverns and swim throughs. It gets its name from an Old Desoto motor vehicle driven off the cliff into the inlet. Desoto Inlet is on the southern side of the south point, about 80m long and 10m wide. You will alternatively hear the site called Honda hole.

Maximum Depth
5 to 16 metres
Dive Type
Boat
Recommended Experience
Advanced to Expert
Entry
Boat Entry from entrance of the outlet then hug either the left or right hand side of the walls and go in and back out.

Exits
Exit via boat
Marine Life
Yellowtail
Silver Sweep
Flatheads
Port Jackson Sharks
Wobbegong Sharks
Rays
Shrimp
Nudibranch

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