There are very few places in the world where you can see Dolphins, Seals, Seahorses and Octopus, all whilst exploring a sunken shipwreck, and gathering a bag of delicious fresh Scallops - but Victoria, Australia is one of them!
The Scuba Diving in Victoria is world class! We have some of the best temperate water wall diving in the world, right on Melbourne's doorstep in Port Phillip heads, with techni-coloured sponge gardens, and abundant kelp beds. There are over 50 diveable Shipwrecks ranging from WW1 submarines, to missile frigates, dredges & sailing skiffs. And Victoria boasts some of the most easily accessible, yet marine life abundant, shore diving in Australia - just ask the BBC Wildlife crews who have dived here for several of their productions!
Colourful sponge gardens, kelp forests and shipwrecks not withstanding, the best part of Victorian Scuba Diving is the abundance and sheer variety of marine life on offer. Victoria's state marine symbol is the Weedy Seadragon, a bizarre and colourful creature that looks like an elongated and graffiti-sprayed Seahorse. There are local dive sites where we can guarantee these critters are living, and where you don't need to be a true eagle-eye to spot them.
Every year Victoria plays host to one of the weirdest marine aggregations on Earth - the annual Giant Spider-Crab Congregation. These ugly crustaceans flock to our local waters in their thousands for their yearly moulting and mating frenzy, and for the short time period they are here divers from all over the world come to see them.
With other incredible bucket-list-worthy creatures like Tassled Anglerfish, Big-belly Seahorses, Giant Cuttlefish, Southern Blue-ringed Octopus, Giant Smoothrays, Australian Fur Seals, and even ancient 7-Gill Sharks all spotted regularly in Melbourne's local waters, there's always something amazing to see. Check out some of these creatures in our Gallery page.
There's no denying that winters in Victoria can be cold, and yet it's also fair to say that the summers in Victoria get hot! In regular life we dress accordingly, so that we can regulate our temperature, and Scuba Diving is no different. You wouldn't go out in winter wearing just a t-shirt - you put on a jacket or fleece - and likewise when we Scuba Dive during the colder months we wear extra thermal protection to ensure we can continue to enjoy our diving. Winter diving in Victoria is arguably better than summer diving - it's quieter, the waters are clearer, and there's more wildlife activity - so all of our training at Aquatic Adventures is tailored to prepare you for diving in colder waters. We wear thicker wetsuits, we plan our dives more efficiently, and we always ensure we have access to some good quality Melbourne coffee for afterwards (for those who drink it).
It would be a huge call to say that Victorian divers are the best in the world, but one thing is certain - learning to dive in Victoria definitely makes you a much better diver than learning in the tropics does.Far be it from us to imply that tropical diving isn't amazing, and that the training offered there isn't of excellent quality - it is! However, when you learn to dive somewhere that has more challenging conditions (colder, slightly murkier water) like Victoria, you develop much stronger skills faster. It's then easy to go and enjoy the tropical waters of the world (like we do regularly - see our Travel page for details), as the conditions are easier. Experience tells us that the opposite isn't true - we rarely, if ever, see a tropically trained diver able to cope straight away with our local conditions, and that means they don't necessarily get to fully enjoy the wonders of Victorian diving.
