Wonder Reef: $5m Gold Coast dive site sunk off coastline ahead of its 2022 opening
Installation work has begun on the Gold Coast’s first new major tourist attraction in more than a decade, which is due to open within months. SEE THE VIDEO AND INTERACTIVE TIMELINE
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THE Gold Coast’s first new major tourist attraction in more than a decade will be the “tonic” it needs to bounce back from Covid-19, city leaders say.
Installation of the $5m Wonder Reef offshore dive site began on Wednesday ahead of its opening in early 2022, after more than 12 years of debate.
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The attraction is expected to bring more than 160,000 new visitors to the city in its first 10 years and inject $32m into the economy.
Mayor Tom Tate said it was critical to have new attractions to draw visitors back to the city once Covid restrictions finally lift.
“The Gold Coast way is to diversify our tourism industry,” he said. “We are strong in it but we need to keep increasing the offering.
“It’ll be just like a theme park but underwater. A real wonderland.
“This sends out a signal that the Gold Coast never stops and is resilient in the time of Covid as we are having one of the world’s biggest dive attractions built.
“We have to keep creating and when international borders open the Gold Coast will be much sought after.”
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Wonder Reef will be the world’s first purpose-built “buoyant reef”.
Australia’s largest floating crane began lowering pieces of the reef into place at a depth of 30m, 2.5km off Main Beach.
The dive site is expected to be completed by the end of the week when it will cover more than 32,000 cubic metres of space.
Engineers will then spend eight months monitoring and testing it to ensure it is safe to dive on.
The project was jointly funded by the council and state government which has granted it a 50-year seabed lease.
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said: “This is a project to try and diversify the kind of experiences you can have in this region.
“We know businesses are going through a tough time right now.
“We need to make sure that once borders are open and people are vaccinated, we have that authentic tourism experience for everyone.
“They will be home to marine life which will be a great opportunity for people to come to the Gold Coast and get into the water here, which is iconic and beautiful.”
Marine experts will be brought in later this year to plant local coral species around the bases of the structures, which each weigh 72 tonnes, including almost 66 tonnes of concrete.
Each has around one tonne of chains that connect the concrete foundations to the floating metal flutes.
DIVE SITE’S WILD JOURNEY TO 2021
A REPLICA of the Great Pyramid of Giza, retired Soviet Union submarines and war ships, and a giant dome are just some of the bizarre proposals put forward as a Gold Coast dive site in the past decade.
The tourism attraction that would become Wonder Reef was first pitched to city leaders in 2009 as a way of lifting the economy out of the global financial crisis.
In early 2010, the state government gave the then Gold Coast Tourism a $71,800 grant to look at how to develop a dive site.
The concepts were immediate headline grabbers.
‘‘There are many scenarios out there,’’ said Gold Coast Tourism spokeswoman Stephanie Fuller at the time.
‘‘A number of naval vessels have been sunk; it could be an F-111 or something else like an underwater stone museum with artwork and a number of different sculptures where marine life attach to it.”
The F-111 concept was quickly abandoned, and efforts turned on securing the navy vessel HMAS Tobruk which was on the verge of retirement.
By late 2013 these plans had also fallen over, leading Mayor Tom Tate to propose a giant pyramid.
Concept drawings were developed but it failed to get the backing of the state government, as did hopes of securing a Soviet-era Typhoon-class nuclear submarine.
Even sinking the set of the Gold Coast-shot Pirates of the Caribbean was mooted.
Once retired navy warships were finally ruled out in 2018, the state government came on-board and agreed to jointly fund a purpose-built dive facility.
The ideas haven’t stopped flowing, with Cr Tate also promoting hopes of building a second and third stage of the Wonder Reef, which could include an underwater graveyard.
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