The DSAC Barge is the Darwin Sub Aqua Club's own artificial reef. The club scuttled a derelict John Holland dump barge measuring 20 by 15 m off East Point in December 1988 to provide a good dive and fishing site. The barge flipped as it went down and now lies upside down on the bottom in 21-22 m. In 1995 the club added a steel yacht and a small work boat, and over the years cement-mixer bowls from concrete trucks, concrete pipes, slabs and culverts have been placed around it, so the site is now a spread of structure rather than a single hull. A side-scan sonar image and a site map by Peter Darlington show the layout.

Soft corals have grown over the upturned hull, and the fish life is the reason to come: black jewfish, snapper and bream gather in numbers, and some fish have become tame enough to approach divers closely. The mix of pieces makes it an interesting navigation dive and a good site for photographers wanting structure and fish in one frame. At 21-25 m it suits Advanced divers, and its location off East Point means it can be dived when the inner harbour is murky. It is also a piece of local diving history, built and maintained by club volunteers over more than three decades. East Point itself is a reserve with a WWII gun emplacement and the Darwin Military Museum, and the natural East Point and Dudley bommies lie inshore, so the barge is often paired with a shallower reef dive for the second tank on the same neap-tide morning.

Boat only. From Cullen Bay Marina or the Cullen Bay ramp run north around Emery Point and along the Fannie Bay shoreline to East Point, about 15 minutes in calm conditions. The barge lies about 1 km off Dudley Point; use a GPS mark from DSAC and a shot.

The site is exposed to the afternoon sea breeze and dry-season south-easterlies less than the outer harbour, but check the forecast for north-westerlies in the build-up.

Tide is everything in Darwin Harbour: the spring range is 7-8 m and tidal streams run hard through the harbour, so diving is generally only possible on neap tides (range under about 3-4 m), timed to the slack at high water when clearer ocean water sits over the site. Spring tides bring strong currents and silt-laden water with near-zero visibility. The dry season (May-October) gives the most consistent conditions; the south-east trade winds can chop up exposed water in the afternoon, so mornings are best.

In the wet season (November-April) run-off from the rivers and creeks drops visibility, afternoon storms build quickly, and the harbour is in cyclone season; box jellyfish are present October-May.

Descend to the upturned barge at 21-22 m, lap the hull and its soft corals, then visit the steel yacht, work boat, cement-mixer bowls, pipes and culverts placed around it. Watch depth on the outer pieces (to 25 m), and return to the barge and shot for the ascent.

Darwin Sub Aqua Club's own reef, dived regularly on club neap-tide days; commercial harbour charters (Darwin Dive Centre, Dive Darwin) visit occasionally.