Xanadu Reef was discovered in mid-2002 when McFadyen's club detoured on the way back from Magic Point, soon after the Cronulla sewage plant upgrade made this part of the Kurnell coast worth exploring. It was named to rhyme with Voodoo, 350 m away, and for the legendary Xanadu. The site is essentially one feature: a very good north–south wall that drops from 26 or 28 m, depending on where you are, to 33 m at its base, with the bottom sloping away to 35 m a little off the reef and almost 37 m further out.

The reef top is flat and kelp-covered with little of interest away from the edge, so almost all of the dive is spent along the wall, where the slope below is scattered with small boulders and the bottom beyond is sand. The wall has a few gorgonians, attractive sponges, sea squirts and other fixed life, and its overhangs shelter a variety of fish. Silver sweep, yellowtail, ladder-finned pomfret and one-spot pullers hang over the reef, while patient divers have found sea spiders and Sydney pygmy pipehorses among the growth.

Rays and flathead lie on the sand at the base. Because of the depth, the dive is short on air – 15 to 18 minutes before decompression – so it suits experienced deep divers, ideally on nitrox or with decompression training. There is no charter, so it is a private-boat dive from Port Hacking or Botany Bay, usually paired with the shallower Voodoo.

It is a site for divers who like a clean, simple wall profile with the chance of finding small, cryptic animals.

Boat only. Launch in Port Hacking at Tonkin Park/Gunnamatta Bay (Cronulla), Lilli Pilli or Grays Point and run out past Bass and Flinders Point and Oak Park into Bate Bay. Turn left once in open water and head for Cape Baily Lighthouse (about 15 minutes); from Botany Bay turn right, pass the lighthouse and head towards Cronulla (25 minutes).

McFadyen's GPS is 34° 02.9137' S 151° 12.1851' E. Anchor on the top in a westerly, or on the deeper side if an easterly or north-easterly is blowing so the boat swings over the wall. No charter boat operates here.

Like Voodoo, it is exposed to east and south-east swell off Potter Point; plan on seas under 1.5 m. The water was unattractive until the Cronulla sewage plant upgrade around 2001–02, but visibility is now generally good. A westward bottom current may run.

Wind direction governs where to anchor rather than whether to dive. Morning dives avoid summer north-easterlies.

Descend to the wall and follow the base north or south at 33 m, looking under the overhangs and out on the sand for rays and flathead, then return along the wall top at 28 m. On air expect only 15–18 minutes before decompression – plan on nitrox and a computer.

Nitrox (EAN28–30) recommended; 15–18 min no-deco on air.

No regular charter – private boat or dive-club (St George Scuba Club) only; no charter boat currently operates out of Port Hacking.