Digital Nomads: A Floating Artificial Reef Opens at The Gold Coast
Digital nomads have another stunning place to add to their bucket list. It’s time to get that swap underway! Remote working never looked better!
Recently, the city of Gold Coast opened a unique floating artificial reef that is already attracting tourists from all over the world.
Several years ago, builders competed for the contract to build the reef. They handed in their visions for the new underwater wonderland. Everyone waited excitedly to see the ideas from the potential builders. Mayor Tom Tate’s priority was nature. “The material has to attract marine life so that when we go down, we can say hello to all of the critters that live there.”
A winner was chosen, and the reef has been built… The attraction is now live, and ready to dive!
Digital Nomads, Get Ready!
The new tourist draw card is 3.5 km southeast of the seaway and 2.5 km offshore from Main Beach, at a depth of 30 m. Said Mayor Tate, “With 220 diveable days per year, this is a unique attraction luring divers from across the world. It offers something for all certification levels. From those who can descend to 8m, right down to 30m. The Gold Coast has delivered many world firsts. And this floating reef will take its place as an iconic eco-tourism experience unrivaled on a global scale. The floating reef will establish itself instantly as a must-do or bucket list experience when you are on the Gold Coast. Divers will be able to swim around and through the floating reefs. Over time, it will become covered in marine growth, attracting schools of fish and other species.”
What a Concept
The concept design is made up of nine buoyant ‘sculptural reef flutes.’ These flutes are individually tethered to the seafloor by reinforced concrete and steel pyramids. They create living sculptures, standing 16-20 m above the ocean floor.
Inspired by the concept of a hot air balloon rising in the sky, nine reef sculptures become larger towards the surface, like oxygen bubbles rising in the ocean. Wonder Reef has been designed to attract and sustain a rich diversity of marine life and withstand cyclonic conditions yet appear light, buoyant and floating in the ocean. Over time, complex marine communities will take centre stage, creating a ‘hanging garden’ for divers to explore and admire.
This world-first buoyant design is the outcome of a collaboration between global reef experts Subcon Blue Solutions, large scale sculptural artist Daniel Templeman and the City of Gold Coast, with specialist input from around the world.
Remote Workers, Rejoice!
At a depth of 30 metres, Wonder Reef’s nine buoyant sculptures soar almost 22 metres above the sea floor. The kinetic nature of the reef sculptures allows them to move with the energy of the ocean, like a giant kelp forest. Cryptic spacing between the reefs and vertical upwelling attracts marine flora and fauna to provide an intriguing dive experience.
The environmental benefits of Wonder Reef are positive with the creation of 32,000 cubic metres of new reef habitat in a previously barren seabed.
The reef is made from uncoated steel to maximise marine growth. Between eight and ten aluminium anodes, weighing 150kg each, are attached to each reef to protect the steel structures from corrosion. The use of environmentally friendly geopolymer concrete helped minimise Wonder Reef’s carbon footprint.
Reef foundations, weighing more than 72 tonnes and taller than a bus, gravity anchor the reef sculptures to the seabed, eliminating the need for piling like typical offshore structures.
Are you a digital nomad? Here’s why you should swap homes.
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