Rapid Bay Jetty

South Australia’s most popular dragon site – only a 90 minute drive from the city!

About Rapid Bay

Rapid Bay Jetty on the Fleurieu Peninsula is about an hour and a half drive from Adelaide. It is Diving Adelaide’s most popular shore dive due to the fact that it’s the home of several Leafy Sea Dragons. Most of our conducted Leafy Sea Dragon tours take place at Rapid Bay Jetty. Quite often our customers ask: “But will we be likely to see a Leafy Sea Dragon on a shore dive?” and the answer is YES! The Leafy Sea Dragons actually live underneath the jetty at Rapid Bay so there isn’t a better way of seeing them.

The Rapid Bay Jetty actually consists of two jetties right next to each other. There is one old jetty, which is no longer accessible to the public, and a new jetty that is open to the public to dive and fish from. Scuba divers dive across from the new to the old jetty (as this is where the “Leafies” live and there is much more to see under the old jetty compared to the new jetty). To enter you can simply access the water from a nice platform and easy stairs that are located towards the end of the new jetty. There aren’t any toilets (or other facilities) located close to the jetty, but you can find toilets at the Rapid Bay Camping ground that you’ll see on your right before the Rapid Bay Jetty parking area. As there is no kiosk or anything similar here, make sure you bring enough food and drinks.

Guided Dive Pricing (2 Dives)

The jetties at Rapid Bay are our most popular leafy sea dragon tour destination, as the bay is protected from most winds (except northerlies) and with easy entry and exit, it’s a great place to dive from!

The tour pricing structure is as follows:

$289 Standard Course Price
$169 Bring 1 friend – Save $120 per person
$149 Bring 2 friends – Save $140 per person
$129 Bring 3 friends – Save $160 per person

Leafy Sea Dragon Tours

For more information about tours at Rapid Bay, please visit our Guided Leafy Sea Dragon Tour page.

A photographer's playground

Rapid Bay is not only a very popular site because of high chances of spotting Leafy Sea Dragons, but also because the old jetty with the light shining through the beams is a beautiful dive site and a photographer’s dream itself.

The old jetty pylons are beautifully overgrown with soft corals in a multitude of colours and form a stunning backdrop for any critters you will find!

You’ll find sponges and ascidians in bright colours like yellow, orange, purple and blue.

Besides the main attraction (the leafy sea dragons), you can find anglerfish, blue ringed octopus, nudibranchs, big bull rays, eagle rays and if you’re lucky a dolphin, sea lion or weedy sea dragon!

Unguided jetty dives

Simply book some rental gear through our online rental gear portal, hire a car (if required) and explore the jetty with your dive buddies instead of with one our professional guides! We’re always happy to draw you a mud map and share recent sightings of exciting critters!

The most exciting parts of the jetties are less than 10m deep, so you get lots of bottom time and as you’re under a jetty, navigating the site is easy! There are stairs on either side of the jetty, within a few steps of the car park, so getting in and out couldn’t be made any easier. On high tide, you can also simply do a giant stride from the jetty!

The big schools of fish tend to hang out around the T-Section, which is a little further along the jetty. One of our favourite photography moments is when the sun is out and you see rays shining straight through the old jetty into the water column underneath. If you’re lucky you will meet one of the massive local Bull Rays, which are very friendly and usually quite curious! Don’t be surprised if they circle you a couple of times!

Even though it’s a jetty, navigating this site can be a bit daunting if you haven’t dived it before. This is mainly because of its strange shape towards the end and the fact that compasses don’t work properly underneath the (metal) structure.

There isn’t much life underneath the new jetty and there are a lot of fishermen, so we don’t recommend diving the new jetty.

See below for a map of the dive site and a standard dive plan.

Please don’t forget to bring your certification card when renting gear.