Saxon Reef

  • Location 16°27.900S 145°46.799E
  • Access: boat
  • Depth: 1 to 20 metres
  • Visibility: 10 to 30 metres
  • Size 1.9 kilometres square.

 

Saxon Reef is an outer barrier reef approximately 55 kilometres northeast of Cairns.   This reef site is a green zone located in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Several dive sites are fantastic for scuba diving and snorkelling.   This site has several good swim-throughs and gullies.

Snorkellers will love to snorkel along the top of the shallow reef, viewing loads of colourful marine life.

Turtle Bommie

A large bommie structure surrounded by beautiful hard and soft corals and a wide range of brightly coloured fish, it has a lot to offer for any diver to explore.

 

The white sandy bottom makes it easy to navigate the exquisite reef wall.

 

This site is a must for a night dive, as is it common to see turtles snuggled up into the small reef shelves for a good nights sleep that is nice and protected from weather conditions and lurking predators searching for dinner hence the name Turtle Bommie.

 

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks has two large coral bommies that rise eighteen metres from the ocean floor to the surface.

Located on Saxon Reef, Twin Peaks sits west of Turtle Bommie, offering a diverse array of marine life and a mountainous reef structure.

 

Navigating to Twin peaks can be a challenge for some novice divers, so a Dive Guide is recommended.

 

The reef wall just 15 meters to the southeast of the peaks offers a beautiful sandy slope scattered with intricate coral bommies to explore and navigate through.

 

Saxon Pyramids

 

Marine Life

At this reef site, fish are abundant that school together on the tops of the peaks.  Here you will often see Unicorn,  surgeonfish, mixing with yellowtail fusiliers and Red Bass.  There are also Chevron with barracuda creeping current along the bottom.

Scuba divers can find Pigmy sea horses clinging onto the seagrass at Saxon Reef.

 

Moray eels, octopus, and cuttlefish are often roaming the depths of the reef wall.

Here, crustaceans, nudibranch, moray eels, octopus, and cuttlefish.

Turtle Bommie is an impressive dive site off Saxon Reef out of Cairns.

This underwater world consists of coral gardens and a ranging size of bommies. Expect to come across families of turtles common to dive sites in this area.

Saxon Reef Map

Nearby Reefs