The Ridge (Darwin)

Meet the site

The Ridge is the deepest natural reef listed for Darwin by marinelife.org.au: a rock wall rising to about 33 m from 40 m, suited only to experienced divers. It carries soft corals, sponges and huge gorgonian corals, with schools of sweetlip and trevally. Darwin's natural reefs are not the clear-water coral gardens of the Great Barrier Reef. The harbour is a macro-tidal, turbid system, and its reefs are low rock platforms and bommies covered in sponges, soft corals, gorgonians, sea whips and hardy hard corals that tolerate silt and big tidal flows. What they lack in visibility they make up for in density of life and the chance of turtles, rays and big fish.

At this depth the ridge is out of reach of the surface swell and much of the silt, so the gorgonians grow large, and schooling fish hang along the face. The dive is short on air and dark, and the time you have is best spent close to the face looking at the fans and the fish rather than roaming. The combination of depth, low light and the potential for the tide to begin running makes it an expert site, best done with a technical approach - appropriate gases, planned decompression and a boat that can follow a drifting DSMB. Published information is limited to a short description, and the site's position is local knowledge, so plan it with local divers who have been there. For the right diver, it offers a side of Darwin diving that few people see.

What you might see

Huge gorgonian fans, soft corals, sponges, schools of sweetlip and trevally, cod

Location

A rock wall in the Darwin area rising from about 40 m to 33 m; exact location not published.