A significant task lies ahead to both map and understand the nature and extent of Australia's shelf habitats. This is needed to inform both research and management of the new Australian Marine Park network as well as the multiple extractive industries and their use/impacts on habitats and associated biodiversity. While multibeam mapping approaches are now accelerating in this task, the extent of shelf area, coupled with relatively shallow waters, means this approach will take many years/decades for completion, and at significant cost. In many shelf areas, such mapping approaches also yield ambiguous data, or data is gridded at such low resolution, that major habitat differences cannot be differentiated (e.g. sediment from limestone pavement). Here we describe a drop-camera (BOSS) approach developed in the US and refined in Australia via NESP Hub and Parks Australia funded projects, coupled with a balanced sampling design, to provide clear validation of areas previously sampled by multibeam in the Zeehan and Franklin Marine Parks. By also mimicking a rapid visual count for fishes, we demonstrate the value of this cost-effective approach to rapidly undertake initial inventory of shelf habitats in AMPs, along with associated invertebrate and fish diversity. Thus informing future detailed inventory and monitoring.