The breakwall is a very underrated divesite in the bay. It is swept by strong currents and often covered with fishermen above the water and fishing tackle below the water. Entry requires a rock scramble down the breakwall, to get in and out, or a long swim from the pipeline entry steps. This puts most divers off ever attempting the dive, but if you are interested in fish, particularly large fish, then this is a dive that you should attempt.
There are two common approaches to diving the breakwall. The first is to walk towards the end of the breakwall (~500m), entering the water ~30 minutes before the tide, and gently drift down the whole length of the wall. The second is to get in on the tide from the breakwall, or the pipeline entry, and swim up and down the wall. The first method is harder work but a better way to see all the site has to offer.
As already mentioned this is the site to come and see fish. The fishermen are there for a good reason, and you can expect to see schools of kingfish, huge drummer and mulloway, and huge masses of luderick, bream and sawtail surgeonfish. There are also vast schools of Mado, Silver Batfish, and Pomfreds, and smaller groups of Pike, Old Wives, Wrasses and Morwong. Rarer sightings include Black Cod, Tropical Batfish, Pigfish, Honeycomb Cod, Anthias, several species of Butterflyfish, and Highfin Coralfish.
In front of the breakwall it is mostly just bare sand swept clear by the currents and fishing tackle. Here you will find a variety of gobies and the occasional seahorse. On the wall itself are masses of tangled fishing line complete with hooks, sinkers and the occasional complete fishing rod thrown in by mistake? This is therefore a great place to collect fishing tackle and other discarded fishing gear. Near the end of the wall there is the remains of a small boat. The wall doesn’t seem to have a huge variety of invertebrate life as in amongst the rocks it tends to be quite dirty and silty. There are however occasional nudibranchs, heaps of urchins including some tropical diadem urchins, and featherstars.
Photo along Breakwall
Breakwall Mudmap
Click on the image to get a mudmap for the breakwall divesite