Mushroom Reef

Meet the site

Mushroom Reef is a small site between Mushroom Rock and Peak Island. Marinelife.org.au describes an 8 m reef with a narrow crevice cutting through the island, packed with marine life, which is good in suitable weather but too narrow and dangerous in swell.

The crevice concentrates fish and invertebrates in the way that narrow limestone channels do: pullers, scalyfin, wrasse and bream sheltering in the walls, with sponges and encrusting life in the shaded parts. It is a short, interesting add-on to the Toba wreck and Mushroom Rock, all within a few hundred metres of each other.

The risk is surge. Even modest swell accelerates water through narrow gaps, and a diver caught in the crevice can be pushed against the rock. Treat it as a flat-calm-only site and do not enter the crevice unless conditions are benign.

Published detail is limited, so the position and depths are indicative.

Hamelin Bay was a timber port from the 1880s, when a jetty built in 1882 and extended in 1898 served M. C. Davies' milling operations. It was notorious for wrecks in bad weather because it is exposed to the north-west gales of winter storms; the 22 July 1900 storm alone wrecked several ships, and only the old jetty piles remain today. The bay is now a recreation zone in the Ngari Capes Marine Park, and every wreck in it older than 75 years is protected. Combine it with Mushroom Rock and the Toba on the same outing, all within a few hundred metres of the ramp.

What you might see

Pullers, scalyfin, western king wrasse, buffalo bream, old wife, sponges and invertebrates on crevice walls

Location

Reef in about 8 m between Mushroom Rock and Peak Island in Hamelin Bay, cut by a narrow crevice through the island that is packed with marine life.

Facilities nearby

Hamelin Bay boat ramp and holiday park.