Montgomery Reef

This is the largest inshore coral reef in the world. It’s 400km2, and at low tide it appears, like Atlantis. As the tide today was 10 metres, it came up 5 metres above the sea. As it rises and falls, water rushes down the exposed plateau. 

There’s a special algae that lives here that covers the coral when it’s exposed, so it doesn’t die from lack of water. 

The coral has been growing here for six thousand years, and there’s five metres of it on top of the Kimberley rock.

However, the fish have problems. Birds, turtles and other things that eat fish and smaller sea life flock to the reef to eat at each low tide. The next three photos each include a bird. The bird in the second one is camouflaged.

We saw a lot of turtles, but I didn’t get any photos because I was too slow.

It’s a pretty amazing place! The tide had come up by more than two metres before we left, but the water was still going down the platform.