Exploring a world of underwater wonder has never been easier, as the Gold Coast is home to the world’s first purpose-built floating reef. Soaring 22 metres above the sea floor, this design marvel includes nine giant reefs, each home to Queensland’s most colourful and diverse wildlife. Each reef also contains an underwater sculpture, which sways to and fro like a giant kelp forest. These beautiful and otherworldly structures, coated with green algae and surrounded by darting fish, are unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.
This is Wonder Reef, an innovative fusion of art, science and engineering. This $5 million dive attraction was jointly funded by the City of Gold Coast and the Queensland Government, and was first opened in 2022. As well as being an innovative and exciting addition to the Gold Coast dive trail, it has also created an amazing new habitat for the area’s spectacular and unique marine life.
Art meets science and sustainability
Queensland artist Daniel Templeman is responsible for designing the reef’s most notable feature, the nine sculptural ‘flutes’. He had previously designed public site-specific works, but this was his first underwater creation. Collaborating with reef specialist engineering company, Subcon Blue Solutions, on technical analysis and detailed design, Wonder Reef was brought to life.
The flutes were inspired by the concept of a hot-air balloon rising, and the sense of perspective you get when they are silhouetted at different distances in the sky. The reef sculptures twist, becoming larger towards the surface, like oxygen bubbles rising in the ocean. “I tried to make something that exaggerated that sense of buoyancy, something that pointed upwards to the sky,” Daniel says.
While each flute appears light and buoyant in the water, they weigh more than 738 tonnes on dry land. Matt Allen from Subcon says one of the biggest challenges was constructing the reef to be able to survive potential damaging cyclonic waves of over 18 metres.
Other challenges during construction included the sheer size of the sculptures and the complexity of the conical reef shapes. They were built to Australian standards for pressure vessels, meaning the welds and testing requirements were of the highest quality.
As the dive site is very exposed, engineers also had to wait for perfect weather to finally install the reef. Given the sculpture’s immense weight, Australia’s largest floating crane was used. The flutes were then individually tethered 30 metres down on the seafloor by reinforced concrete and steel pyramids, or ‘gravity anchors’, each weighing over 72 tonnes and clocking in at the height of a bus.
Wonder Reef is an extraordinary and interdisciplinary feat of engineering. As Daniel says, “this reef will capture the imagination and attention of not only divers but art lovers, architects, engineers, eco-tourists and marine conservationists across the globe.”
Magical marine life
The reef was specifically designed to attract and sustain a rich diversity of marine life. The structures are made from uncoated steel to maximise growth, while the use of environmentally friendly geopolymer concrete also helped to minimise Wonder Reef’s carbon footprint.
Already the reef has become home to hundreds of different marine species. First to arrive were algae, crustaceans and barnacles, shortly followed by lobsters, octopus, tropical fish, turtles and giant groupers.
Ideal diving conditions on the Gold Coast
The water temperatures on the Gold Coast are ideal, sitting between 18 and 26 degrees, and there are 11 dive sites to explore, ranging from shipwrecks to cliff faces to rocky reefs – and now the world’s first buoyant reef. Certified divers can dive to depths of 8, 18 and 30 metres, depending on their level of experience.
Divers can choose to join a certified tour with Gold Coast Dive Adventures, where they will be lef by a professional into this underwater oasis. Experienced divers with their own boat and dive equipment are also able to book a public mooring and explore this deep-sea world by themselves.
Where to stay when exploring Wonder Reef
There are so many awesome places to stay on the Gold Coast, but if it’s luxury you are after, with some more snorkelling time, then you can’t beat JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa, as it has a sensational lagoon pool, cafe and bar, where you can go diving with real fish!
There’s also a wonderful Japanese restaurant in the hotel called Misono that was made famous when Chris Hemsworth and family visited and raved about how much fun it is (the chef’s love to put on a show) and how good the food is.
Or, if you have the kids in tow and want some serious family fun, look no further than Paradise Resort Gold Coast. it’s water park was made for endless hours of fun, and there’s non-stop entertainment, classes for all ages in arts and crafts, great food and drinks, and even an ice skating rink, a gaming arcade and a mini train for little ones. The kids will be exchausted by the end of every fun-filled day.
Enjoyed this story filled with wonders of Wonder Reef? To read about the best beaches and waterways in the Gold Coast, click here.
