If you’re thinking of scuba diving at Busselton Jetty, this article is for you. I’ll outline where it is, how to access Busselton Jetty and tell you about my scuba dive at the far end of the jetty. 

About Busselton Jetty

Busselton Jetty is no ordinary jetty! Busselton Jetty is over a mile long — it’s 1.8 kilometres long. It’s  the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern hemisphere and offers incredible experiences on the shore and in the water. 

Where is Busselton Jetty?

Located in the pristine Geographe Bay, Busselton Jetty is a favourite tourist destination for visitors from around the world. Geographe Bay boasts pristine beaches, protected from strong winds, with holiday vibes all year round. It’s a favourite spot for Perth locals, who head south for summer and winter holidays in and around the bay. 

Busselton Jetty is located in Busselton, not far from the town centre. If you’re planning a trip to Perth, keep in mind that Busselton is around three hours south of Perth, but totally worth the trip. It’s not far from the Margaret River region, famous for wines, good food, galleries, and again, beaches! 

How to access Busselton Jetty

There’s plenty of parking along the Busselton foreshore and parks and an adventure playground for kids to explore. Busselton Jetty is an accessible tourist destination, with disabled parking, ramps and an elevator at the Busselton Jetty Underwater Observatory. 

At the shore end of Busselton Jetty you’ll find the Interpretive Centre, which is the blue and white building. When the Interpretive Centre is closed, jetty entrance is free. 

When it’s open, entry to the jetty is free for kids and teens under 18 and adults aged 18 and over can pay $4 for Jetty Day Pass. The Busselton Jetty Interpretive Centre is usually open from 8.30am to 5.15pm. It’s a place where you can buy Jetty tickets, Underwater Observatory tickets, Jetty train tickets, postcards, drinks and sunscreen. You can even buy fishing gear, bait, jewellery, local produce and more. 

What can you do at Busselton Jetty?

On the jetty itself, plenty of people can be seen walking along the jetty and enjoying the views, as well as fishing. Busselton Jetty sits in the beautiful Geographe Bay, the waves are either nonexistent or super flat, so there’s plenty of people who also swim around the jetty, jump off the jetty and then at the deep end of the jetty there are opportunities to go snorkelling and scuba diving. 

Near Busselton Jetty, there are also plenty of places to eat, several playgrounds, bike paths and the shops are only a short walk away. The shore is flat for quite a few kilometres, so it’s a great place to go for a run or ride bikes with the family. The water here is really something, it’s a beautiful place to swim or kayak.

At the end of Busselton Jetty, beyond the Underwater Observatory, is actually a section of jetty that’s currently closed as it’s being developed. They’re adding “locally sourced, world class food and beverages” as well as a new artificial reef trail, so things like sculptures and statues are being placed under the Jetty. 

Busselton Jetty Train

When the weather’s good, people enjoy walking from one end of the jetty to the other. If it’s a bit hot, raining or you just want to kick up your feet, you can hop on the Busselton Jetty Train. The train leaves the Interpretive Centre on the hour. Wheelchairs and walkers can be taken on the train but prams can’t be taken on board. You can fit 4-6 people in each carriage, so get there early to nab a carriage for you and your crew.

Scuba diving at Busselton Jetty

Snorkelling equipment is easy enough to carry the length of Busselton Jetty but it isn’t really practical to carry dive tanks that far. If you’re bringing your own scuba gear, you can put it all in a trolley and wheel it down the length of the jetty, but you won’t be able to take it on the Busselton Jetty Train. Thankfully it’s possible to hire equipment at the deep end of Busselton Jetty, so I just took my own mask, fins and regulators which were easy enough to carry. 

Hiring scuba diving equipment

At the end of Busselton Jetty you can hire scuba diving equipment from Dive Busselton Jetty. I hired a couple of tanks, BCD, wetsuit and weight belt from Dive Busselton Jetty. 

It’s a shallow dive, with a maximum depth of 9 metres so the air in each tank lasted about 90 minutes. 

Dive Busselton Jetty also offers undersea walks, night dives and you can even get your PADI Open Water Diver qualification with them. 

In the water at Busselton Jetty

Busselton Jetty has a few ladders, stairs and platforms which give you access to the water. These are shared platforms, so keep in mind that other snorkelers, scuba divers, fishers and swimmers might be in the area. 

Remember to stay at least 10 metres from the Underwater Observatory windows. While fishing is allowed on the Busselton Jetty, towards the end of the jetty there’s a large metal gate and beyond that, there’s no fishing allowed. 

This section of jetty is known as the Busselton Jetty Sanctuary — this is a protected area so don’t fish or take anything from that zone. This is a good thing because if you’re snorkelling or scuba diving, you don’t need to worry about fishing lines, hooks or baits. You can still swim towards the beach on the other side of that gate, just keep in mind you might get snagged, so make sure you have some kind of tool to free yourself if needed. 

Marine life you might see when you scuba dive at Busselton Jetty

When you scuba dive at Busselton Jetty you’ll have the opportunity to see over 300 species of marine life. The jetty is over 150 years old, and the pylons have created an artificial reef, with coral, sponges, fish and invertebrates calling it home. 

What’s interesting is that Busselton is hardly a tropical region, in fact, like Perth, the air is far from humid and in winter it can still get quite cold. But thanks to the West Australian Current which is classed as a cold surface current and the Leeuwin Current which is a tropical current, at Busselton Jetty there are a diverse range of tropical and subtropical species. 

In my video you’ll see me scuba diving at Busselton Jetty with Elliott Fraser. The weather started out perfectly with hardly a breeze blowing but after we had finished our second dive   there was a fair gale blowing, so I started to get  really cold.  

The conditions under water were beautiful and clear. On our dives, we saw a very curious octopus, Samson fish, Australian Spotted Snapper, Black Rabbitfish, Western Blue Devil, Tarwhine, Western Crested Morwong, Spinytail Leather Jacket, Globefish, Western King Wrasse, Brown Spotted Wrasse, Banded Sweeps, Woodward Pomfrets, Yellow Headed Hulafish, Western Striped Cardinalfish, Shaw’s Cowfish, Sanded Seaperch, Dusky Morwong, sea stars, Marked Stingaree, Western Red Scorpionfish (it’s an ambush predator with amazing camouflage) and more.   

We also saw several Australian Giant Cuttlefish — check out my video to see Elliott feed the cuttlefish, they’re so fast. Cuttlefish bones are easily found on the shore around Perth, but they are pretty elusive creatures, so to see one on our dive was pretty awesome. 

If you’re into scuba diving, check out my scuba dives at Rottnest Island with Bucketlist Diver.

Well that’s it from me! Enjoy life! Have a great time and I’ll see you all on the next adventure!

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