Deep Sleep

ANCHORED 40 NAUTICAL MILES OFF THE QUEENSLAND MAINLAND ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, CRUISE WHITSUNDAYS’ NEW REEFSUITES OFFER AUSTRALIA’S FIRST UNDERWATER ACCOMMODATION.

- CHRISTINE RETSCHLAG

The ocean is garbling in Great Barrier Reef speak, singing me to sleep like underwater whale song. I am burrowed stingray-style deep below, four metres beneath the surface of the ocean to be precise, in Australia’s first underwater accommodation, which looks and sounds like a gigantic fish tank.

Up above, wild Whitsunday winds – the type you can expect when you’re perched on the outer reef and a three-hour boat ride from the Airlie Beach mainland – roar like a lion, slapping at the pontoon’s top deck.

I have become a modern-day mermaid, no gills required, in one of only two luxury underwater suites along Hardy Reef.

The suites form part of a A$10 million redevelopment of Cruise Whitsundays’ Reefworld pontoon, which was severely damaged when Cyclone Debbie struck the region in 2017. Waves as large as nine metres lashed the area, devastating the popular Whitsundays.

The refurbished pontoon, which includes an upgrade of the previous upper deck Reefswags to more comfortable Reefbeds, opened in late 2019, but was closed for most of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Luke Walker, Chief Operating Officer of Journey Beyond, the parent company of Cruise Whitsundays, described the newly developed Reefworld as a “landmark moment for Australia”.

“We are extremely privileged to have access to such a truly breathtaking and remote part of Australia,” he said.