Dive site

Harry Atkinson Artificial Reef

Mainland · Moreton Bay

Seven kilometres east-south-east of St Helena Island, a 24 m ex-tuna boat stands upright in 21 m of water on top of fifty years of car tyres, shopping trolleys, quarry rock and concrete pipe. It is the bay's oldest artificial reef and one of its best fishing marks. It is not a dive site: scuba diving, snorkelling and spearfishing here are prohibited without a marine park permit.

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At a glance

Where: 7 km east-south-east of St Helena Island, mid-bay
Zone: General Use, Moreton Bay Marine Park
Diving: Prohibited without a permit - scuba, surface-supplied air, snorkelling, spearfishing and dive charters
Fishing: Recreational line fishing and trolling allowed; charter fishing with a permit; no commercial fishing
Anchoring: Allowed
Depth: About 21 m; the Tiwi Pearl rises 12 m, leaving 8 m clearance at low tide
Area: 34 ha, marked by the boundary coordinates below
Built: 1975 onward; enhanced 2008–2014 by the Queensland Government
Main structure: Tiwi Pearl, a 24 m steel fishing vessel scuttled 12 March 2010
Fish: Snapper, grass sweetlip, tuskfish, sweetlip, flathead, jewfish, passing mackerel and cobia
Access: Roughly 7 nm from Manly Boat Harbour
Depth: 21 m at the Tiwi Pearl, which rises 12 m off the bottom
Visibility: Bay conditions; best on a rising tide after dry weather
Experience: Permit only - recreational scuba diving and snorkelling are prohibited without a marine park permit

Coordinates -27.40887, 153.30507Position of the Tiwi Pearl as published in the Queensland Government fact sheet, 27°24.532'S 153°18.304'E (GDA94). The declared special activity area is a 34 ha polygon around it; its corners are listed in the note.Last verified 2026-09-15

Read this first

Harry Atkinson is one of the eight artificial reefs the Queensland Government built or enhanced in Moreton Bay Marine Park specifically for recreational fishing, to make up for grounds lost when the park was rezoned in 2009. To keep divers and anglers apart, the Director-General declared it a special activity area under the Marine Parks Regulation. Scuba diving, surface-supplied-air diving, snorkelling and spearfishing here are legal only under a permit or commercial activity agreement that names the activity, and dive charters are not permitted. The Tiwi Pearl fact sheet says it in one line: diving is not permitted on the Tiwi Pearl. Fines apply.

This entry exists so you know what is under you when you anchor over it, and so you do not plan a dive on a wreck you cannot legally dive. If you want a wreck to swim through in the bay, Curtin Artificial Reef off Moreton Island is the one built for divers. Turner Reef off Scarborough and the North Stradbroke Island reef are the two government reefs where recreational scuba is allowed.

What is down there

Year	Material
1975–80	More than 17,000 car tyres, deployed over five years. This was the original reef, built with the help of the Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club at Manly
1987	200 shopping trolleys. Some tyres and trolleys are still there; some have dispersed or been buried
Dec 2008	150 m³ of quarried rock, giving small fish shelter
12 Mar 2010	The Tiwi Pearl, a 24 m, 157 t gross ex-tuna longliner, scuttled upright
Aug 2010	450 t of clean concrete pipe donated by Humes, in four clusters of about 23 pipes each, 2.5–6 m high
Nov 2014	A retired 26 m, 60 t Port of Brisbane barge, once a work barge for berth construction between Cairns and the Gold Coast and later a landing pontoon

Who Harry Atkinson was is not recorded in any of the government material on the reef, and none of the sources consulted for this note say why it carries his name. It is left as a gap.

The Tiwi Pearl

The Tiwi Pearl is a 24.15 m steel fishing vessel built in the mid-1960s at Mobile, Alabama. She is 6.64 m in the beam and about 12 m from keel to highest point, 96 t net and 157 t gross. She worked the Torres Strait pearl fishery before being converted for longlining out of Mooloolaba, caught fire in June 2009 and was written off.

She was sunk by flooding rather than explosives. All machinery came out and 32 t of concrete went in to replace the weight. Four 100 mm pipes with butterfly valves were welded into the hull, three in the engine room and one in the freezer, the old fuel, water and bait tanks were filled with 85 t of seawater, and she was held over the mark on a four-point anchor system with 500 kg clump weights. On 12 March 2010 the valves were opened by hand; 350 t of seawater took about ten minutes to put her on the bottom, standing perfectly upright with 8 m of clearance at low tide. Her large profile is what attracts the baitfish, and behind them the small tuna, mackerel and snapper.

Positions

	Position
Tiwi Pearl	-27.40887, 153.30507
Quarry rock	-27.40583, 153.31125
Pipe cluster 1	-27.40437, 153.31173
Pipe cluster 2	-27.40673, 153.30643
Pipe cluster 3	-27.40895, 153.30878
Pipe cluster 4	-27.41007, 153.30685

Declared special activity area, from the two gazetted notices (GDA94):

Corner	Position
NE	-27.40335, 153.31233
E	-27.40568, 153.31253
S	-27.41090, 153.30688
W (2nd notice extension)	-27.40915, 153.30352
NW	-27.40617, 153.30597

Rock and pipe positions are fishing marks published by third parties and have not been checked against the government map. Sound around before you anchor.

Fishing it

The reef sits in current-swept open bay, and fishing writer Kim Bain's advice for it on the Parks website is to fish the wrecks by targeting individual spots and moving on, and if you anchor, to be pinpoint accurate. Heavy sinkers, the turn of the tide, and mid-week or after dark when the boat traffic drops off. Up to three lines and six hooks per person under the fisheries rules. Anchoring is allowed, but a permit is needed to stay more than 14 consecutive days or 30 days in 60.

Nearby

Straight-line distance, not travel time.

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