Lee Point Wide (designated AR1) is one of four engineered reef complexes the NT Government installed off the Top End coast in 2019. It sits in about 28 m of water roughly 18 km north of Lee Point, in open ground well offshore from the older, shallower Lee Point reefs built from scrap and culverts. The 2019 installation was part of an $8.3 million NT Government artificial reef project described at the time as the largest single installation of artificial reefs in the Southern Hemisphere, with a design life of well over 100 years. Each module is a purpose-built concrete structure about 5 m tall, 4 m square at the base and weighing about 24 tonnes, designed with openings and internal cells to provide shelter at several levels, and the modules are grouped into a reef complex rather than a single block.

What a diver finds is a group of tall, geometric concrete towers standing on a flat sand and shell bottom. In their first years the modules were bare; by now they carry a growing cover of sponges, hydroids, oysters, soft corals and algae, and the tallest faces attract gorgonians and sea whips. Because they stand 5 m high, the modules concentrate fish vertically: baitfish and fusiliers hang above the tops, golden snapper, saddletail snapper and fingermark sit around the mid-levels, and cod and black jewfish use the shaded interior cells. Trevally, queenfish, cobia and Spanish mackerel hunt around the complex, and big groper have been reported on similar NT modules.

Diving documentation for Lee Point Wide is sparse – it was designed for anglers and is visited by divers only occasionally. The depth, open-water position and tidal stream make it an advanced dive requiring a competent boat crew. For divers interested in how modern engineered reefs mature, it is one of the most accessible examples in northern Australia, and it offers better water clarity than the inshore reefs on a good day.

Launch at Buffalo Creek ramp (Lee Point Road, tidal) or from Cullen Bay Marina, and run north into Beagle Gulf to the published GPS mark roughly 18 km north of Lee Point, in open water well away from the coast. Allow about 30–45 minutes from Buffalo Creek in a fast trailer boat on a calm morning, more from Cullen Bay. Find the modules on the sounder – they stand 5 m proud of the bottom – and drop a shot next to the complex rather than anchoring into it.

Exposed open water: dive only on calm dry-season days (May–October) with south-easterlies under 15 knots, ideally early in the morning. Time the dive for neap-tide slack water – at 28 m in open water the tidal stream runs hard outside slack and a missed slack means a drifting ascent. Visibility is usually better here than inshore at Lee Point but is still reduced after wind or rain.

Wet season (December–April) monsoon north-westerlies, storms, cyclone risk and box jellyfish make it effectively a dry-season site.

Descend the shot together, locate the nearest module and hold 24–28 m. Tour the cluster module by module, keeping each in sight before leaving the last; run a reel if visibility is under 5 m. Watch no-deco time closely.

Return to the shot or ascend on an SMB when the tide starts to run, with a safety stop at 5 m.

Modules are open concrete frames; do not enter the interior cells. Nitrox useful at 28 m sites.

No regular dive operator. Built for recreational anglers; divers visit only by private boat or on occasional club trips (Darwin Sub Aqua Club).