Bushrangers Bay

Bushrangers Bay Dive Site Guide — Shellharbour, NSW

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2025-06-09

The walk down to the water is the only hard part of diving Bushrangers Bay. From the parking area at Bass Point Reserve the path drops through coastal scrub and onto a small rocky platform, and then the bay opens out below — a horseshoe of dolerite gutters and kelp ledges sheltered from the worst of the southerly swell. Local divers call it Bushies, and the reason they come is straightforward: this is one of the most reliable grey nurse shark aggregations on the NSW coast, an aquatic reserve where the sharks hold in the gutters in numbers that justify the drive from Sydney or Wollongong.

Bushrangers Bay sits at the northern end of Bass Point Reserve, a dolerite headland on the Illawarra coast about 90 minutes south of Sydney and 20 minutes south of Wollongong. The wider area is part of the Bushrangers Bay Aquatic Reserve, declared in 1982 and one of the longest-running marine protected areas in NSW. The reserve is a strict look-but-don't-take zone, with no fishing, no spearing and no collecting of any marine life. Inside the bay the protection has done its work — the shark numbers have stayed strong, the resident fish have grown to size, and the reef itself reads as healthier than anywhere else on this stretch of coast.

The dive itself is a slow swim along the southern wall of the bay, then around the rocky pinnacle at the entrance and back through the central gutters. Depth ranges from 4 metres at the entry to around 15 metres along the deeper ledges, with most of the action between 8 and 12 metres. The terrain is dolerite — older, denser rock than the sandstone reefs further north — broken into the characteristic gutters and overhangs that grey nurse sharks favour for their resting behaviour. Kelp grows on the upper slopes, sponge gardens on the deeper walls, and the central sand patches give the gutters their structure. Navigation is straightforward; the bay is small enough to know on the second dive.

The grey nurse sharks are the reason most divers are here. The aggregation is at its most consistent from April to September, when six to fifteen sharks may be holding in the central gutters and along the southern wall, hovering with the slow, deliberate motion that the species is known for. They are critically endangered in eastern Australian waters and entirely placid toward divers — the rule at Bushrangers is to settle on the bottom and let the sharks do the moving, which they will, often closer than first-time divers expect. The site also holds Port Jackson sharks in winter, wobbegongs along the deeper ledges year-round, and the usual NSW supporting cast: blue groper, snapper, kingfish and large bullrays cruising the sand. The macro work along the sponge gardens is good but underrated, with nudibranchs through the cooler months and pygmy pipehorse for divers who slow down enough to find them.

Conditions at Bushrangers are forgiving by NSW standards. The bay sits in the lee of Bass Point and is sheltered from southerly swells; visibility typically runs from 5 to 15 metres, with the better days falling in the cooler months when the East Australian Current is weaker and the silt load is lower. Water temperature ranges from around 16°C in late winter to 22°C in summer, comfortable in a 5mm wetsuit year-round and a 3mm shortie in February and March. Currents are minimal inside the bay itself. The site shuts down on big easterly or north-easterly swells, which wrap into the bay and break the dive — easterly is the swell direction that ends a Bushrangers trip.

Repeat divers know the site rewards careful exploration of the boundary between the reef and the sand. The grey nurse aggregation is the headline, but the underrated dive is the one spent slowly along the southern wall looking for the resident species — the wobbegongs tucked into the lower overhangs, the schools of yellowtail working the kelp line, and the pygmy pipehorse and ornate cowfish in the deeper sponge gardens. The pinnacle at the bay's entrance, in around 12 metres, is the photographer's spot — a column of sponge growth with the sharks circulating around it on a good day. A second dive on the same trip pays off here, particularly mid-afternoon when the light angles into the gutters.

Bushrangers Bay is the dive that NSW divers send their interstate visitors to. It is not the deepest site, not the most dramatic, and not the most challenging — but for a reliable grey nurse encounter in a sheltered, shore-accessible setting, there is nothing else like it on the east coast. The reserve protection has held the site's quality for forty years, and the dive feels exactly like what a marine protected area is meant to deliver: an underwater landscape that has been left alone long enough to be itself.

## Site Access and Logistics

Bushrangers Bay is a shore dive accessed from Bass Point Reserve, Shellharbour, NSW. The entry point is a small rocky platform at the bay's northern end, reached via a short walk from the Bass Point Reserve car park (Bass Point Tourist Road, off Junction Road in Shellharbour). The car park is sealed and free; weekends in shark season can fill it by mid-morning. Public toilets and a picnic area sit at the reserve, but there are no rinse-down facilities on site.

Entry is a giant stride from the rock platform on a low to mid swell, then a surface swim of about 30 metres across the bay before descending. Exit is the same point, timed between sets. The walk back up the path with full kit is the most physically demanding part of the dive; a buddy carry of weight or doubles is sensible. Skill prerequisites are modest — an Open Water certification, a comfortable handle on a rocky shore entry, and a sense of swell timing — but divers should not attempt the entry if the bay is breaking on the platform.

Local operators: [Shellharbour Scuba](https://www.shellharbourscuba.com.au) runs guided shore dives at Bushrangers Bay and is the closest dedicated dive shop to the site. [Dive Near Me Wollongong](https://www.divenearme.com.au) also runs Illawarra-area trips. Sydney-based operators run dedicated grey nurse trips to Bushrangers during the cooler months.

## Sources

- NSW Department of Primary Industries — Bushrangers Bay Aquatic Reserve: [https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/marine-protected-areas/aquatic-reserves](https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/marine-protected-areas/aquatic-reserves) - Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving — Bushrangers Bay: [http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info](http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info) - Shellharbour Scuba: [https://www.shellharbourscuba.com.au](https://www.shellharbourscuba.com.au) - Dive Near Me Wollongong: [https://www.divenearme.com.au](https://www.divenearme.com.au) - Australian Marine Conservation Society — Grey nurse shark recovery