Sand Pipe - Gold Coast Seaway

The coffee rock and sandy bottom of the seaway don’t support a lot of life, but the rocks and the pipes do, especially the sand bypass pipe that crosses where the seaway is 340 metres wide.

The Sand Pipe (as I call it) exits the South Wall at a depth of 6 metres and is supported off the seafloor by 10 vertical posts for 260 metres before entering the sandy bottom and continuing under the sand for 50 metres before again exiting the sand 24 metres south of the northern wall.

The exposed pipe is totally encrusted in barnacles and cunjevoi, the high current flow suiting them well and this sets the base for the ecosystem that lives on the Sand Pipe.

The main attraction here for divers is not the life living on the pipe but the fish that come to be cleaned by the Striped Cleaner Wrasses. On average over 500 Bigeye Trevally congregate here daily hanging-out at the Sand Pipe travelling back and forward alongside the pipe; several will be seen to drop down along side each upright where the cleanerfish are standing by to give them the once over. These trevally are so used to divers that generally it is possible to just swim among them for as long as you like.

In the late afternoon/evening they disappear and return in the early hours, sometimes they will disappear for a few days but they always return to this their safe haven.

As well as the trevally, but not as regularly, large QLD Gropers, Mulloway, Barracuda and the occasional White Spotted Eagle Ray will be seen lined up at the cleaning stations. More often though the eagle rays at the Sand Pipe will be seen chewing on the cunjevoi shroud as they have their own favourite cleaning station east of the Sand Pipe in a coffee rock outcrop where I commonly see 4 or 5 eagle rays lined up for a cleaning.

These other fish at the Sand Pipe are much more timid than the trevally and often the first divers out along the pipe will cause them to stand-off for a time but they will usually return to continue their cleaning.

On the Sand Pipe the incoming current can be quite strong even after the official high tide especially on the higher tides, so diving in current skills are essential and be aware you will use more air than usual.

Even though the Sand Pipe is a great navigation aid (north-south) it is highly recommended to carry a compass as when the pipe is out of sight it is easy to become disorientated.

I usually don’t bother to dive on the Sand Pipe at night as the Trevally and other big fish usually aren’t there but on the occasions I have, on half of them I have encountered an eagle ray chewing on the cunjevoi and octopuses at the base of most of the upright sections

On the Sand Pipe there are 3 main congregation areas for the visiting fish, the exit point at the South Wall to the 2^nd upright support, between the 5^th and 6^th upright supports, and the 8^th upright support. Unless the current has completely stopped it is recommended that divers have advanced training before attempting to leave the South Wall and travelling out along the Sand Pipe. The 8^th upright support is where you are more likely to see the QLD Gropers and large Mulloway