More artificial reefs? Will this one work this time? Photo: Bunbury Artificial Reef
A proposal in Bunbury, Western Australia has resurrected the idea of the artificial surfing reef. Is it a win-win for waves, coastal protection and marine diversity, or surfing’s escalator to nowhere?
In the shock horror movie classic Poltergeist, the Freeling family is shaken awake by an earthquake. The youngest child, Carol Anne then eerily intones, “They’re here.” Carol Anne was referring to the malevolent spirits responsible for physical disturbances, abduction, death, and general mayhem.
Now Carol Anne, and stay with me here, may have also been referring to artificial surfing reefs. The man-made structures designed to enhance wave quality have been around since the early 1970s, but really peaked in the late noughties. However, after a series of expensive, publicly funded disasters, that failed to produce any quality surf, as well as the explosion of inland man-made waves, the concept had seemingly been shelved.
And yet, in 2025, just as in Poltergeist 2, where Carol Anne’s new tagline is “They’re Back,” so it seems is the concept of the artificial reef. This month, the organization pushing the Bunbury Artificial Reef hosted more than 150 locals, business owners, surfers and politicians including the local mayor, for an information night on the new artificial reef project. Being in Western Australia, the presentation was held at the Froth Craft Brewery.
“We’ve got one shot at this,” Dave Chandler, one of the committee members, told the assembled crowd. “This isn’t about a wave; it’s about changing the future of our town. A wave that protects our coastline and gives us something to be proud of.”
The reef is proposed near a patch of inshore reef at Bunbury’s back beach known as “The Clam.” The plan is for a triangular, compact, reef made of multi-layered granite rock. It aims to provide a defined peak breaking over a sand bottom. They say it will have three main effects; protect the beach from erosion, improve the waves and provide an improved habitat for sea life.
Now, you might be thinking that you’ve heard these claims before. You also might remember in The Simpsons where Lyle Lanley uses a song and dance routine to sell Springfield a chunky monorail.
“I hear those things are awfully loud,
It glides as softly as a cloud,
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend.”
Now this community group isn’t, obviously, Lyle Lanley. But many surfing communities have been burned before. I had my own pubic hair singed when I made a video for a major newspaper on the day the Boscombe Artificial Reef opened in the UK in 2009. My review was that there were some good waves and that it had serious potential.
Less than two years later, the 55 geotextile sandbags that had cost the local government £3.2m to place had split and separated from their moorings, damaged the seafloor, and failed to create any waves. Plymouth University did a report that stated that the reef had only fully achieved three out of 11 of its design objectives. Local media and surfers labeled the remnants of the reef a death trap. The comments on my video have much more colorful reviews on the reef’s failure and my lack of judgement.
It could be said that ASR, the New Zealand consortium behind the Boscombe Reef, were the main death knell to the concept of artificial reefs. Another one of their projects in India failed to materialize and the company went into liquidation in 2016, owing millions of dollars. Its CEO, Nick Behunin, surfing’s own Lyne Lanley, disappeared without a trace.
And yet the Bunbury Artificial Reef group says its proposal is a very different beast. West Oz also has a history of backing these types of projects. Bunbury was also the proposed site of the Airwave, an inflatable reef designed by Troy Bottegal, who is also involved in the new project.
In nearby Perth, the Cables Reef has been in place since 1999. Its sole goal was to create a more consistent surfing spot in the Perth area. The consensus by surfers is that the reef improved the wave quality, though many argue whether it has improved the consistency. A study by Charitha Pattiaratchi, a scientist with the Department of Environmental Engineering at the University of Western Australia, found that the surf spot was performing as well, or better than predicted. It’s not a glowing recommendation, but unlike Pratte’s Reef off El Segundo in Los Angeles, at least it has delivered some waves, as well as added marine diversity.
On the other side of Australia, Narrow Neck is the other artificial surfing reef that has, at least, hung around. Its 400 “mega sand containers” were placed in 2000 and renewed and added to in 2018. It has done a good job in mitigating wave energy offshore and allowing the beach to widen, as well as adding marine flora and the development of a diverse ecosystem. It says a lot thought that it is effectively a fishing and diving spot, rather than a surfing one.
The Bunbury Artificial Reef has much grander ambitions on the surfing scale though. While the positive effects on erosion and increased marine diversity are, almost, a given, the key objective plan is to deliver a significant uptick in the quality and quantity of waves. It’s a goal that no other offshore artificial surfing reef has achieved.
In Poltergeist 2, you’ll know that the Freelings were rescued by a First Nation shaman, who saved them from a blood-curdling trip to the afterlife. In The Simpsons, Marge stops the Monorail and claims it the last folly the town embarked on except for “the popsicle stick skyscraper, and the 50-foot magnifying glass, and that escalator to nowhere.”
Whether artificial reefs are surfing’s escalator to nowhere, or a way to improve both wave quality and marine diversity, remains unproven. In Bunbury, it looks like we may soon have another test case.
Read more about the Bunbury artificial reef plans here.
