Another dive site between Botany Bay and Port Hacking that is rarely dived is Tabbagai Point. This is located off the southern section of Botany Bay National Park. If coming from Botany Bay, head south past Cape Solander to GPS 3434° 01' 34.5"S 15134° 13' 52.5"E. If you are coming from Port Hacking, head north past Cronulla Beach and Cape Baily till you reach the GPS Reading. Note that this GPS Reading is using WGS84 unlike most of the ones on this web site - if you use any other datum, you will need to convert the reading - see my GPS Page for more details.
S34 01 34.5 E151 13 52.5
Once at the location, head in towards the point and you will see that the depth comes up from 23 metres to 20 metres and gradually rises to 17 metres before going to about 13 metres. Go back over the wall and anchor in the 17 to 20 metre depth.
This site is very impressive, with a major walls dropping from about three or four metres close to the rock platform to 17 metres in one drop. This wall runs north-south until it reaches the point and it then turns a bit to the north-west. The bottom is composed of lots of large boulders. These form many small overhangs and caves, with a few swim-throughs. On the wall itself there are a couple of dead-end gullies and a large cave.
Deeper, there is a small wall which drops from 20 metres to 23 metres, although it is more prominent to the north. Unfortunately, this section of the reef has been devastated in early 2008 by construction work for the unwanted Sydney Water monstrosity, the Kurnell desalination plant. A huge amount of damage has been done by the mooring anchors for the (?) drilling platforms. There are huge sections of broken rock, with large gouge marks across the sponge and kelp gardens.
Luckily, the section closer to shore that is the more interesting part of the site does not appear to have been damaged.
Things to see here are nice gorgonias and sea squirts on the main wall, eastern blue devilfish in the many caves, kingfish, silver sweep, cuttlefish and more.
An excellent dive site.
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