Hippolyte Rocks

Hippolyte Rocks

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-05-02

Hippolyte Rocks is one of the most demanding dives off Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula. The group is a small granite island, Big Hippolyte, with neighbouring rocks and reefs known as Little Hippolyte, the Needle and the Pie, lying off the peninsula's east coast near Cape Hauy. Big Hippolyte covers about 5.3 ha, has a flat top and is ringed by cliffs up to 65 m high, and the island itself is part of Tasman National Park.

Hippolyte Rocks is surrounded by the Hippolyte Rocks Marine Conservation Area, and the rocks hold a large fur seal haul-out. Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania notes that the haul-out is a hunting ground for the vulnerable white shark, and that the area supports breeding short-tailed shearwaters, fairy prions, common diving-petrels and black-faced cormorants. Fishing is permitted in Tasmania's marine conservation areas, so expect fishing boats around the rocks.

The Seals

Australian fur seals use Big Hippolyte as a haul-out. NRE Tasmania describes haul-outs as non-breeding sites where most of the animals are adult and subadult males. Its seal watching guidelines ask boats to stay at least 50 m from a seal colony, or 100 m during the November to December pupping season, to slow below 10 knots within 200 m and 5 knots within 100 m, and never to land. Seals are wild animals that can bite and carry disease, so let them come to you and never touch them.

The seals are the obvious residents from the boat, but the dive's reputation rests on the reef below. For a shallow dive built around seals, Michael McFadyen's seal dive with Eaglehawk Dive Centre was at the closer Cape Hauy haul-out.

Underwater

In a 2024 ABC News story, dive instructor and marine scientist Matt Testoni called Hippolyte Rocks and nearby Trident Reef the best dive sites in Tasmania and some of the best deep diving in Australia. He described bull kelp growing to about 15 m, deeper than at other sites, then from about 30 m a reef of colourful sponges and corals with thousands of fish of more than 20 species, including butterfly perch, large schools of real bastard trumpeter and plenty of boarfish. He has also seen big bluefin tuna there. He dived to about 55 m and believes the reef goes to about 65 m. The Pie, a rock just below the surface, drops away into large canyons.

The Hippolytes have also claimed ships. The steamer Tasman struck the Needle in 1883 and her wreck lies at about 70 m, a technical dive; Eaglehawk Dive Centre lists it under technical diving as coming soon. The Nord hit the same uncharted rock in 1915 but stayed afloat for hours and sank in Munro Bight, where the SS Nord wreck is dived today.

Who Should Dive It

This is not a dive for someone inexperienced. Testoni told the ABC that recreational divers can dive the rocks to 40 m, that anything deeper needs technical training, and that divers should have at least 60 dives and a deep diving qualification and go with a professional operator. The site is so exposed that it needs no swell and a wind from the west; he said the Easter long weekend was one of the few weekends in the previous year when the rocks could be dived. He also warned that tuna fishing boats are often running overhead, so surface carefully and stay close to your boat.

Conditions

There are no published water temperature or visibility records for the Hippolytes themselves, so use the figures for the Eaglehawk Neck area. McFadyen gives about 11°C in winter and 15 to 16°C in February and March, and Eaglehawk Dive Centre says the winter minimum is 12°C. DAN's Alert Diver (2015) gives average temperatures of about 13 to 18°C, visibility from about 9 m to more than 30 m with the clearest water in winter (June to September), and currents from mild to wild depending on the site.

Site Access and Logistics

Hippolyte Rocks is a boat dive only. Eaglehawk Dive Centre runs two-dive boat trips from Pirates Bay at Eaglehawk Neck and lists Hippolyte Rock among its longer runs, with a fuel surcharge of $35 per person per day on top of the standard trip ($160 without gear or $275 with full gear, as at October 2026). There is normally no dive guide in the water; a guide is available for a fee by prior arrangement. The boat needs at least two divers to run, usually carries seven, and nitrox is available by prior arrangement. The centre says a two-piece 7 mm wetsuit is comfortable year round and hires wetsuits; it also offers custom-made wetsuits and drysuits.

For distance, McFadyen puts Cape Hauy about 13 km and 20 minutes by boat from the Pirates Bay ramp, and the Hippolytes lie farther out, visible from Cape Hauy. DAN noted in 2015 that the nearest hyperbaric chamber is at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

When the Hippolytes are blown out, closer sites on the same coast include The Thumbs, Cape Hauy, Waterfall Bay and Fortescue Bay. For the wider picture, see the best places to dive in Tasmania.

Sources

- Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: Marine Conservation Areas - NRE Tasmania: Seal watching guidelines - Wikipedia: Hippolyte Rocks - ABC News: Below the Hippolyte Rocks on the Tasman Peninsula lies a colourful reef full of coral, sponges and fish (2024) - Eaglehawk Dive Centre: Dive services and prices - Eaglehawk Dive Centre: FAQ - Eaglehawk Dive Centre: Our dives - Michael McFadyen: Eaglehawk Neck general information - Michael McFadyen: Cape Hauy Seals - Michael McFadyen: SS Nord - DAN Alert Diver: Tasmania (Brandon Cole, 2015) - Discover Tasmania: Diving and snorkelling in Tasmania

Header photo: An Australian fur seal hauled out on Hippolyte Rocks off the Tasman Peninsula, by JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.