Artificial reef at Middleton Beach transforms Albany's surf scene

Australia Broadcast Center

15-07-2025

As he stands at a lookout overlooking the rugged beauty of King George Sound, on the south coast of Western Australia, Peter Bolt's eyes are drawn to something in the water.
It's a perfect left-hand wave, reeling towards Middleton Beach as a stiff offshore breeze whips spray from its crest.
The sight is one to behold, especially for a lifelong surfer in Bolt who grew up riding the waves near Albany, a port town 420km south of Perth.
But it wasn't always this way.
In fact, until very recently, the sight of perfect waves breaking at Middleton Beach as clean Southern Ocean swells wrapped into the Sound was largely a fantasy inside the minds of the town's many surfers.
Middleton Beach for most of the year — and for practically all of every winter — was the scene of almost unsurfable close-outs.
For Bolt, however, this is no dream.
It is the realisation of an endeavour that started when he moved back to Albany with a young family more than 30 years ago.
"I think I came back to Albany in 1990," Bolt said.
"And we started working on a feasibility study for the artificial surf reef at Middleton Beach.
For decades, Bolt and a band of fellow advocates, some of whom died before their vision could become a reality, faced a litany of obstacles and setbacks.
Foremost among them was the cost.
Surf reefs don't come cheap.
Bolt said those pushing for the reef were almost invariably locked in an uphill battle to convince politicians and other potential donors that the money would be worth it.
There were also concerns about how a reef might affect the coastline and environment at Middleton Beach, the town's main tourist drawcard.
Then there was the chequered history of artificial reefs themselves, which had been prone to failure and disappointment elsewhere in the world.
"There was no money or desire to do anything beyond that [original feasibility study]," he said.
"And in some ways that was a positive thing because the design was around using geo-textile bags and historically when they have been used to build reefs or protect shorelines they failed because they split, they settle, they move and that would have been a failed reef, another failed reef.
"So it was not bad timing in some ways, looking back in hindsight."
Those advocating for the Southern Ocean Surf Reef caught a break in 2017 when both the major parties at a state level pledged $5 million in funding to make it a reality.
The pledges also included financial help from the City of Albany and other sources, including a local quarry.
The final break came in 2022 when the federal parties came on board, both pledging $5 million to get the reef over the line.
Soon enough, Bolt said expressions of interest were sought, tenders were called and contracts were signed.
As a result, a specialist marine engineering crew from New Zealand spent close to six months in Albany building a high-class wave.
To do so, they used precision geospatial equipment to spread 70,000 tonnes of granite rock graded into three layers.
Bolt said the results were there for all to see.
"It's a bit more challenging than expected," he said.
"We were aiming for an intermediate wave, which it is when the swell is smaller.
"But as it gets bigger, it breaks out there and it's fairly shallow. So it's intermediate-to-advanced on most days."
It's a view echoed by other surfers.
Like Bolt, Cameron Warburton is a local who's surfed the waves around Albany for most of his life.
And, like Bolt, he says the artificial surf reef has eclipsed his expectations.
"It's the power of the wave," Warburton said.
"We don't have many waves around here where you've got a really punchy top-to-bottom take-off wave.
Warburton said the reef was already transforming Albany's surf scene.
Middleton Beach, near the heart of the town, had traditionally been overlooked by most surfers because of its second-rate waves most of the time.
But he said the reef was becoming a surf destination, drawing the crowds and generating a buzz.
"We've never really had the opportunity to grab a surf and a coffee or grab a surf and head down to the new brewery and have a beer," he said.
Bolt said the aim was for the reef to generate surfable waves 41 per cent of the time, but the actual figure was far higher than this.
He said he had "not surfed Middleton Beach so much in all my life, certainly at this time of the year".
While the reef had come with an up-front cost, Bolt said it was a one-off spend that would draw waves, surfers and the money they and their families spent for a hundred years or more.
More importantly, he said the reef was set to breed future generations of surfers who may not have otherwise taken up the sport.
"I get stoked every time we come down here," Bolt said.
"When I see the kids come down here before school, in the dark, to get a wave before they go to school, and then they zip down here again after school, I go, 'Yeah, that's it'.
"That's what this was all about."
The Southern Ocean Surf Reef officially opens today.