The inner northern headland of Botany Bay, Sydney's second major metropolitan waterway, is Henry Head. The outer headland of the bay is Cape Banks. There is a distance of just over 1,000 metres between these points. There are quite a few dive sites in between these two points. On Cape Banks is the wreck of the SS Minmi which sank on 13 May 1937. This wreck gave its name to another dive site called Minmi Trench.

Over the years I have dived other parts of this section of the entrance, but mostly closer to Henry Head. In fact, 30 years ago we used to dive that site a lot differently to the way we do now, starting more to the east and following the sand edge to the west and north before returning to the anchor. This site like all the above are best on an incoming or high tide.

In February 2025 I went out on the boat owned by another member of St George Scuba Club. He decided to take us to what he called Henry Head. However, the spot he went to is not really anywhere near the Henry Head we dive, it was about 400 metres south-east of our site. Anyway, after the dive we decided to name this new one Pink Floyd. The primary reason was that this site has an excellent wall (one of Pink Floyd's most famous albums is called The Wall) and there is a lot of pink coloured sea tulips and gorgonias.

As you come out of Botany Bay, travel past Henry Head towards Cape Banks and head to the GPS mark for the anchoring spot of 34° 00.0806' S 151° 14.4061' E (this GPS Reading was taken usingWGS84 - if you use any other datum, you will need to convert the reading - see my GPS Page for more details). Run in towards the shore near this mark and drop anchor once the depth comes up from 26 metres to 18 metres or so.

Red gorgonia and sea tulip	Large pink sea fan

This is a very good starting point, especially on an incoming tide. Once in the water, head to the sand edge and then turn to your left. You will be heading south or south-east along this section. The reef edge is a shear wall here, coming up from 26 metres or so to about 18 metres on the top. After a while the reef turns more to the east.

The reef has some sections where there are small breaks or gutters, with boulders here and there. All along the wall there are overhangs. Some are quite large but others are very low.

Part of the wall	Looking towards the wall from a lower section near the sand

The wall has lots of sea tulips (pink ones abound) on the sides, with some small gorgonias. These are orange and red mostly. There are also lots of sponges and sea fans, plenty of these are pink too. The are lots of fish along the wall, seapike and yellowtail are prolific and there are plenty of mado as well. The overhangs are likely to be home to some rarer fish at times, like pineapplefish and blue devilfish.

Orange sponge and the wall	Red gorgonia and the wall

The reef continues to wander a bit as it heads east. I had thought that I might sight a sea dragon along the sand, but I did not see any. It is likely that there are some here, or at least there used to be before the huge rains of 2022 decimated the sea dragon population of Botany Bay and Sydney in general.

After just under 30 minutes we came across a gutter or trench that ran parallel to the outer edge of the reef. At the time I was thinking that this might have been part of Minmi Trench, but upon review I don't think it was. At the eastern end of this trench we turned around and came up a bit higher on the wall. I was using Nitrox 31%, but if you are on air you would need to turn a bit earlier as otherwise you will run out of bottom time much earlier.

Orange gorgonia and Peta Kirby	Pink sea fan

I came back in the trench before coming back to the outer reef section. We then came back with the current helping us. We alternated with following the very top edge of the wall or maybe a little lower. The top is between 17 and 20 metres. The top of the reef is covered in sponges and also sea fans. It is quite beautiful.

Nudibranch	Basketstar on a sea tulip

As I mentioned, all along this reef there is great sponge life, all manner of colours. Reds, blues, greens, pinks, yellows and whites. There are sea tulips all over, also of many different colours as well as lots of small gorgonias. Fishlife is also prolific, with large schools of silver sweep and yellowtail. There are also lots of black reef and mosaic leatherjackets, cuttlefish, octopus and all the usual Sydney fishlife.

One drawback of this dive site is that as it is at the entrance to Botany Bay, it is subject to possible poor visibility. However, if you dive on high or incoming tide you should get reasonable visibility. On my dive here we have had over 20 metres.

This is a site that needs quite a few dives to properly explore, even using a scooter. A truly great dive site. I think that Abyss Dive may possibly do part of this site as a drift dive.