16lb Reef

Meet the site

16lb Reef is the companion in name to 12lb Reef, and it too is named for a monster crayfish – a sixteen-pounder, over 7 kg, which the Scuba Doctor listing says was rumoured to live in the reef for years before its existence was confirmed. Unlike its namesake in Lonsdale Bight, 16lb Reef lies at the ocean end of the Lonsdale Wall system beside Foggy Reef, within a kilometre of Point Lonsdale lighthouse, and the listing gives it 12–18 m with 'many overhangs and small drop-offs' and an Open Water rating.

The site is a shallower shelf of the wall complex where the great cliff breaks down into a series of steps, ledges and undercuts before the reef runs out toward Lonsdale Rock and the Point Lonsdale platform. The overhangs carry the full Heads encrustation – zoanthids, jewel anemones, sponges, soft corals – and the listing picks out 'the spectacular southern blue devil' as the fish to look for, sitting in the crevices; crayfish are in every hole, and old wives, boarfish, magpie perch and wrasse work the face. Because it is at the entrance the water is oceanic and clear, and seals from the point are frequent.

The position, so close to the western jaw of the Rip, means the slack is shorter and the swell more felt than in the bight, and although the depth is Open Water the operators treat it as a site for divers who have already done a Heads dive. It is dived on both slacks, often as the shallower option when Foggy Reef and The Cave are being dived from the same boat by deeper divers. The Scuba Doctor listing describes it as suitable for experienced recreational divers exploring wall formations and crevices, and that is a fair summary.

What you might see

Southern blue devil, southern rock lobster, yellow zoanthids, jewel anemones, sponges, soft corals, old wife, longsnout boarfish, magpie perch, bluethroat wrasse, Australian fur seal

Location

Small wall at the southern (ocean) end of the Lonsdale Wall system, 92 m south-west of Foggy Reef and about 800 m east-south-east of Point Lonsdale lighthouse.