Mooloolaba · Australia · Wall · Reef
Hanging Rock
A 50 m wall with an overhang you shoot from underneath
Area photo: Tanya Dedyukhina · CC BY 3.0
An enormous rocky outcrop that overhangs a sandy trench below, giving a wall about 5 metres high and 50 metres long. Scuba World dives it at 13 to 19 metres, while Sunreef puts the top of the wall at 12. The underside of the overhang is what photographers come for, and the rock carries some of the largest plate corals on the Mooloolaba reefs.
Where it is and how deep
26.6512° S, 153.1528° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The outcrop is the landmark, a rock that leans out over a sandy trench below. Sunreef puts the top of the wall in 12 metres and describes a lively 5 metre wall running 50 metres in length; Scuba World gives the site as 13 to 19 metres. Either way the dive is the same shape: drop onto the top, follow the wall along its length, and work the vertical face and the sand at its foot on the way.
Swim in under the overhang and turn around. The underside is what most people photograph here, with sun corals feeding in the sway of the water and small moray eels watching from the crevasses in the rock. Sunreef also rates the site for some of the largest plate corals you will see on these reefs, which are easier to shoot from the trench looking back up at the wall.
For fish, Sunreef names tropical reef fish including clownfish, a variety of nudibranch species, eagle rays, moray eels, barracuda and turtles. The profile is shallow enough to spend a full cylinder on, so the usual pattern is a slow pass along the 50 metres of wall, time under the overhang with a torch, then the shallow top of the rock for the end of the dive.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Eagle rays
- Barracuda
- Sea turtles
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Mooloolaba: Grey nurse sharks hold at Nurse Rock July–October, the months operators also rate clearest; summer is murkier and falls inside the November–April cyclone season.
Sources
- Hanging Rock — Sunreef Scuba
- Mooloolaba Reef Diving — Scuba World
- Hanging Rock — Scubago
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