Point Lowly

Point Lowly Dive Site Guide | Whyalla, SA, Australia

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2025-05-09

The first dive into the breeding aggregation is a sensory event divers tend to remember in specific detail years later. The entry over the rocks is unglamorous, a short stumble across cobbled limestone into knee-deep water, a mask clear, and then a descent of barely two metres to the first cuttlefish. The animal is large, a metre across with arms extended, and it is ignoring the diver completely. Two other males are posturing above a ledge, their mantles pulsing through waves of colour in rapid succession, the contrast so fast it is almost difficult to track. A fourth male approaches from the left, another display begins, and somewhere in the middle of the action a female watches with the detached composure of the party being competed over. Point Lowly from late autumn through winter hosts the largest known aggregation of giant cuttlefish on the planet, and the scale and intimacy of the encounter have no equivalent in Australian recreational diving.

Point Lowly is a rocky headland approximately 35 kilometres north of Whyalla on the western shore of Upper Spencer Gulf, a lighthouse-topped point that has hosted the aggregation for as long as anyone has been paying attention. The Barngarla people are the Traditional Custodians of this stretch of coast. The exact drivers of the aggregation remain only partially understood; the combination of water temperature, current patterns, rocky substrate suitable for egg attachment, and the gulf's particular bathymetry appears to concentrate giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) at this site in numbers that are not replicated anywhere else on the planet. Research led through the University of Adelaide and ongoing monitoring by local dive operators have established the aggregation as a globally significant event, and the Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park now includes protections specifically designed to maintain it.

The underwater terrain at Point Lowly and the adjacent Stony Point is typical of the upper gulf, rocky reef and boulders extending from the shoreline in 2 to 12 metres of water, with sand and rubble between the reef sections and patches of seagrass in the shallower fringes. In any season this would be a functional gulf reef dive, with cuttlefish, leatherjackets, weedy sea dragons in the seagrass and the invertebrate community that cool, productive southern Australian water sustains. From May through August, the site is transformed. A dive of 40 minutes through the shallow reef can involve encounters with dozens or hundreds of individual cuttlefish within a short radius of the entry point. The animals occupy every gutter, every rock ledge, every vertical face, and the experience is one of complete immersion in a single species at a density that simply does not happen elsewhere.

The behaviour during breeding season is unlike cuttlefish at any other site or time. Males compete in continuous displays, waves of pigment moving across their mantles in rapid succession, body shape shifting, arms fanning outward, and the competition between males for access to females drives interactions that play out across every patch of reef. Smaller males adopt female colouration to slip past larger competitors, a mimicry strategy that has been documented extensively at the site. Pairs spawn under rock ledges, the female depositing eggs in the shaded spaces where they will incubate over the coming weeks. Throughout the action, the cuttlefish's tolerance for a non-threatening diver is remarkable; the entire event is conducted at arm's length from a settled, slow-breathing observer. Outside the breeding season, the reef reverts to a gentler rhythm. Weedy sea dragons appear in the seagrass zones, nudibranchs work the rocky faces, and the water's clarity for this part of the gulf makes the site genuinely pleasant year-round, but the May to August window is what defines the place.

Visibility runs from 5 to 18 metres depending on conditions, with the clearer water typically arriving on calm days through the aggregation period. The wind-driven variability in the shallow, enclosed upper gulf means sessions can be affected quickly by a rising northerly. Water temperature sits between 14°C in the breeding months and 22°C in summer; a 7mm wetsuit with hood is the year-round choice, and many regulars dive a drysuit through peak winter. Current at the site is mild on most tidal cycles, and the dive is accessible across the tide range. The hazard of the shallow depth is less current than the risk of surface wind pushing divers away from the entry, and a tight navigation plan back to the entry rocks is always sensible.

Repeat divers look at the site across seasons to understand the full cycle. Egg masses can be observed in sheltered crevices through August into September. Juvenile cuttlefish appear in the shallows from late spring, translucent and mobile, and the generational continuity is one of the quieter pleasures of monitoring the site across years. The southern blue-ringed octopus (Hapalochlaena maculosa) is present in crevices and, as everywhere in southern Australian waters, should be observed without contact. Harlequin fish, old wives and Adelaide weedfish hold territories through the reef, and the sponge-encrusted faces at 10 metres carry a nudibranch community that rewards slower exploration outside the peak season. Night dives on the site produce an almost hallucinatory version of the daytime reef, hunting behaviour, bioluminescent responses, and the first stirrings of hatchling cuttlefish.

Point Lowly during aggregation is an event rather than a dive, and it functions as the pilgrimage destination for a significant proportion of southern Australia's diving community every winter. The quality of what is possible here, at less than 10 metres of depth, in water cold enough to remember, in a place far from anywhere, is the reason it continues to reward the drive.

## Site Access and Logistics

Point Lowly is approximately 35 kilometres north of Whyalla via the Lincoln Highway and Point Lowly Road, and Stony Point, the principal aggregation dive entry, is a short walk from the Santos western boundary fence line where a 60-metre pathway of recycled materials leads down over the rocks to the high-water mark. A car park and toilet facilities are provided at the Point Lowly lighthouse reserve. Whyalla Diving Services (https://whyalladivingservices.com.au) is the established Whyalla operator and runs guided snorkel and dive sessions through the aggregation period, with equipment hire and briefing. Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries (EMS) also offers guided snorkel experiences at Stony Point with accredited guides during the peak months. Shore entry requires neoprene boots for the rocky foreshore; a 7mm wetsuit with hood is the realistic minimum for the breeding season. Open Water certification is appropriate given the shallow depth, though divers unfamiliar with cold-water conditions should consider a briefing with a local operator on their first visit. The site can be busy on winter weekends; arriving early, maintaining neutral buoyancy throughout, and adhering strictly to marine park guidelines is essential.

## Sources

- Whyalla Diving Services, cuttlefish map and dive guide (https://whyalladivingservices.com.au/cuttlefish-map/) - Department for Environment and Water SA, Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park - South Australian Trails, Cuttlefish Dive Experience (https://www.southaustraliantrails.com/trails/cuttlefish-dive-experience/) - Whyalla Visitor Centre, wildlife encounters (https://www.whyalla.com/wildlife-encounters) - Atlas of Living Australia, giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) distribution