Clarkes Reef

Clarkes Reef Dive Site Guide — Albany, WA

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-04-01

The Southern Ocean does not always give Clarkes Reef up easily. On a calm day the granite breaks the green water in slabs the size of cars, and the dive opens out into a rugged temperate landscape of crevices, swim-throughs and shadow-lined ledges. On a swell day it stays closed, the surge through the gaps strong enough to push divers into rock. Clarkes is one of those Albany sites that rewards patience with conditions — wait for the right window and it delivers an entirely different dive to anywhere else on the south coast.

The reef sits within the broken granite country east of Albany, the same geology that defines so much of the Western Australian south coast. King George Sound and the Torndirrup peninsula were carved out of these old granite plutons, and Clarkes Reef is one of the offshore expressions of that landscape — granite that didn't quite make it ashore. The reef has not been engineered, sunk or marketed; it is simply a piece of working temperate seabed that local divers have known about for decades. There are no mooring buoys, no signage, and no guarantee that the swell will let you dive it on the day you turn up.

Underwater, the reef is structural rather than scenic. Granite boulders piled at angles create overhangs and undercuts; ledges run along the deeper edges in 15 to 18 metres; sand-floored gullies cut between the bigger blocks. The dive is best worked as a slow exploration, head turned sideways into the cracks where the resident species live. Below 12 metres the light flattens to a temperate green and the water cools sharply; the deeper ledges are where the reef quietly does its best work. A dive computer and a bit of planning are needed to make the most of bottom time at this depth in a 7mm wetsuit.

Western blue devils are the headline species — the brilliant cobalt-blue temperate fish that east-coast divers travel west to see. They tuck into the deeper crevices and ledges, often two or three together, and stay put long enough for a careful approach. Western blue groper drift through, big males in their cobalt phase usually working the open reef, juveniles in their barred green phase sticking closer to cover. Half a dozen leatherjacket species use the same crevices as the devils — pygmy leatherjackets in the kelp, six-spined and bridled species higher in the water column. Stingrays and southern eagle rays cruise the sand between the boulders, and the encrusting life on the granite — sponge, ascidian, encrusting bryozoan — gives the wide-angle work its colour.

Conditions at Clarkes Reef are dictated almost entirely by the swell. Visibility ranges from a slab-clear 20 metres on a low-swell day with a northerly direction, to single digits when a southerly swell stirs the sand and lifts the sponge silt off the granite. Water temperature runs from around 14°C in late winter to 20°C in February and March, with a 7mm wetsuit and hooded vest the sensible default — drysuits are common among local operators. Currents at the reef are mild, but the surge through the gaps and overhangs is the real driver of a dive's character; on the wrong swell day it can push divers into rock with enough force to matter. The site is best dived on a low, northerly-direction swell, ideally on a small-tide cycle.

For divers who keep coming back, Clarkes Reef rewards macro work as much as wide-angle. The crevices that hold the blue devils also hide the smaller temperate species — pyjama and white nudibranchs along the sponge growth, ornate cowfish moving slowly through the kelp, the occasional weedy seadragon for divers who slow down enough to look. The deeper ledges, in the right light, hold colonial ascidian growth that photographers travel for. The site is unusually photogenic for a temperate reef, helped by the structural drama of the granite itself — the same scale and sense of architecture that Bald Head and Mistaken Island deliver, in a smaller and less-trafficked package.

Clarkes Reef is not the easiest Albany dive, and it is not the most reliable. What it offers is the closest thing to a pure Southern Ocean granite reef experience — exposed, structural, full of the resident species that make WA south coast diving distinct from anywhere else in Australia. For divers who time it right, who understand the surge and the swell, and who are willing to spend a dive working slowly along ledge and crevice rather than swimming over the top, it is one of the most rewarding sites in the region.

## Site Access and Logistics

Clarkes Reef is a boat-access-only site east of Albany, WA, typically reached on a charter run by one of the Albany operators rather than a private boat — the surge and swell make site selection a matter of local judgement, and the reef sits among broken granite that needs to be worked by someone who knows it. Most charters depart from Emu Point or the Albany town jetty and run 20 to 30 minutes to the site depending on conditions.

Entry is a back-roll from the charter boat onto a shotline. Exit is the same line or a free ascent under SMB, which is recommended given the reef is exposed and surface conditions can shift quickly. Skill prerequisites are real: an Open Water certification with solid buoyancy, comfort in 7mm exposure protection, and a calm response to surge are all needed. Divers without surge experience should consider doing one of the more sheltered Albany sites first.

Local operator: [Southcoast Diving Supplies](http://www.divealbany.com.au) in Albany runs charters to Clarkes Reef when conditions allow and rents the heavier exposure protection appropriate to the Southern Ocean.

## Sources

- Southcoast Diving Supplies, Albany WA: [http://www.divealbany.com.au](http://www.divealbany.com.au) - Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions WA — South Coast Region marine information - Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving — Albany region: [http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info](http://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info) - Australia's South West Tourism — Albany dive sites - Recfishwest — South Coast fishing and reef habitat