The Kay Lee was a 50 ft (15 m), 15-ton steel commercial fishing boat donated by John Conway and scuttled as an artificial reef near the Truck Tipper site off Lee Point in August 2005. The Lee Point reefs are NT Fisheries artificial reefs in about 15 m on the open coast north-east of Darwin, built up since the 1990s from decommissioned plant, concrete culverts, shipping containers and old vessels, and expanded in 2011 with 600 six-metre concrete culverts laid in a 3.6 km pattern between the Rick Mills and Bottle Washer reefs. Local fishers and DSAC have added small scuttled boats. The reefs are primarily fishing structures, so expect boats on the marks and fishing tackle on the bottom, but they give divers structure, fish and shelter from the harbour's tidal race.

She sits upright on the bottom in about 14 m with a slight list to port, and she is remarkably complete. The wheelhouse and shade structure are intact, with exhaust stacks, radio antennas and work lights still on the wheelhouse roof. The wheelhouse has lost its door and one front window, so you can see in - it is filling with silt. Two open hatches lie on the foredeck and another behind the wheelhouse leads into the engine room. The Kay Lee's best-known resident is a very large grouper, estimated by DSAC at about 1.8 m, along with a variety of smaller fish. As a shallow, intact, upright fishing boat with an obvious layout, it is an ideal wreck for newer divers and for photographers, and it pairs well with the neighbouring Truck Tipper reef. It shows how quickly a clean, well-prepared hull becomes habitat on the Lee Point reef system.

Boat only. The nearest launch is the Buffalo Creek boat ramp at Lee Point, at the end of Lee Point Road about 20 minutes' drive north of the CBD (trailer parking, but a tidal creek - check the tide for launching and retrieving). From there the reefs are a short run offshore; from Cullen Bay Marina allow roughly 30-45 minutes around East Point and along the Nightcliff-Casuarina coast.

NT Fisheries publishes GPS positions for each reef. The area is open to the north and north-west, so pick a calm dry-season morning and dive the neap high-water slack.

Tide is everything on the Darwin coast: 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 Lee Point reefs are sheltered from the south-east trades by the land in the morning, but afternoon sea breezes and any north-westerly make the open coast rough.

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 beside the upright hull, look over the foredeck hatches and into the wheelhouse through the missing door and window (do not enter - it is silted), check the engine-room hatch aft and the roof fittings, then look for the resident grouper around the hull. Extend to the Truck Tipper reef if time allows.

No regular dive charters; dived by Darwin Sub Aqua Club on neap-tide club days and by private boats. Local operators may run a trip on request.