Tinderbox Marine Reserve

Tinderbox Marine Reserve, Hobart

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-09-09

Tinderbox Marine Reserve is the easiest marine reserve in Tasmania to reach. Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania puts it about 30 minutes' drive south of Hobart, calls it the state's most accessible marine reserve and recommends it for adults and children learning to snorkel or scuba dive. The whole reserve is a no-take area, and its shallow, sheltered reefs in Tinderbox Bay make an easy shore dive close to the city.

The Reserve

The reserve lies off the Tinderbox Peninsula, where the River Derwent meets the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, opposite Dennes Point on Bruny Island. Parks describes it extending about 700 m south-west of Tinderbox Beach and east from the beach around Piersons Point to 2.5 km north of Passage Point, and out to about 300 m from the high water mark. White paired poles on the shore mark the northern and western boundaries: you are on the line when the two poles align.

A local history of Tinderbox Beach dates the reserve to 1991. In 2009 the Tasmanian Government revoked the original reserve of about 60 ha and proclaimed a new Tinderbox Marine Nature Reserve of about 144 ha. Fishing and setting fishing gear are banned throughout, although fish caught outside the reserve can be landed at the boat ramp. Parks says the reserve is patrolled and substantial penalties apply for fishing or interfering with marine life.

The Diving

Parks names two easy places to get in, both in Tinderbox Bay. On the south-western shore, a narrow, kelp-covered sandstone reef carries grey finger sponges, green plate sponges and the bright green alga caulerpa, and seahorses are often seen there. At about 5 m the reef gives way to sand with patches of seagrass.

East of the boat ramp, a dolerite reef drops in a series of rock platforms to 6 to 10 m, with a seasonal giant kelp forest, feather stars, urchins, velvet and biscuit sea stars and jewel anemones. Parks suggests these shallow reefs and gulches for shore dives and night dives.

Elsewhere in the reserve, Parks describes giant kelp at the northern end where schools of bastard trumpeter swim, common kelp near Lucas Point with hulafish, wrasse, boarfish and draughtboard sharks, and a filter-feeding community of sponges, sea pens, sea whips, soft corals, gorgonians and basket stars in the stronger current around Piersons Point, with butterfly perch in deeper water. Parks also notes that giant kelp along Tasmania's east coast has declined drastically over the last 30 years as warmer East Australian Current water pushes south, so do not expect a dense forest.

Marine Life

Parks reports 77 seaweed species and 60 fish species recorded in the reserve. Bigbelly seahorses are commonly seen, and large rock lobsters and boarfish live here that are not usually seen outside the reserve. The sand holds heart urchins, sea cucumbers, sea hares, Whitley's skate and the Tasmanian numbfish, and Parks says a night dive along the edge of the reef is a good time to look for volutes and gurnards.

IMAS scientists and Reef Life Survey divers have counted fish and invertebrates on the reserve's reefs since 1992, mostly at about 5 m. Bluethroat wrasse turn up on almost every survey, and senator wrasse, southern hulafish, bastard trumpeter and toothbrush leatherjackets are also common. Southern rock lobsters are recorded on about three surveys in four and blacklip abalone on about half. Weedy seadragons appear only twice in more than 470 fish surveys, so treat one as a bonus rather than a promise.

The Snorkel Trail

Lonely Planet describes an underwater trail along a sandstone reef just offshore, marked with submerged information plates about the local ecosystem, but says the plates are now hard to read. The current Parks visitor guide and web pages do not mention the trail, so treat any plates you find as a curiosity rather than something to navigate by.

Conditions

Across those monitoring dives, recorded visibility ranged from about 4 to 13 m and was most often 5 to 8 m. The bay is sheltered, but Parks still tells snorkellers to beware of currents, and the current runs harder around Piersons Point. This is Tasmania's cool temperate water, so a thick wetsuit or a drysuit is the sensible choice.

For more southern Tasmanian options, see our guide to the best places to dive in Tasmania.

Site Access and Logistics

The main entry point is Tinderbox Bay, reached via Fergusson Avenue off Tinderbox Road. Park only in the marked parking areas, not on the roadside. There is no dive shop at the beach; Hobart dive centres such as Go Dive Tasmania hire equipment.

Tinderbox boat ramp is for small vessels only, with limited trailer parking, and Parks directs larger boats to the ramp at Dru Point, Margate. Boats must use the marked clearway, and motorboats are prohibited within 60 m of the beach. Swimmers and divers should keep clear of the ramp and clearway, and Parks asks snorkellers not to swim within 30 m of the ramp or across the boating channel.

Everything in the reserve is protected, so look but do not take or move anything. Parks asks divers to secure gauges close to the body, keep good buoyancy, avoid gripping the reef and watch their fins, and to clean and dry dive gear after every trip to avoid spreading marine pests.

Sources

- Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: Tinderbox Marine Reserve visitor guide (PDF) - Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: Snorkelling and scuba diving - Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania: Marine reserves - NRE Tasmania Recreational Fishing: Marine Reserves - Tasmanian Legislation: Proclamation under the Nature Conservation Act 2002 (Tinderbox and Ninepin Point, 2009) - Tasmanian Beaches: D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Tinderbox Beach history - Lonely Planet: Tinderbox Marine Reserve - Discover Tasmania: Diving and snorkelling in Tasmania - Reef Life Survey and IMAS via AODN: survey list, Tinderbox sites - Reef Life Survey and IMAS via AODN: fish counts, Tinderbox sites - Go Dive Tasmania

Header photo: A senator wrasse over sponges on a shallow reef in Tinderbox Marine Reserve, by Bruce Deagle, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.