Noarlunga Reef, Aquatic Centre: In the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia

The Port Noarlunga Aquatic Centre is the ideal location for children to learn about, love and respect the water. Earlier this year I jumped at the chance to snorkel with the kids and get to know a bit more about one of South Australia's premier coastal features - the Port Noarlunga Reef. As the old photos show it's always been a popular spot. But for a true appreciation of this south coast attraction I hitched a ride with instructor Peter Kusmanoff or Kussie as he's known to the locals.

Kussie's lived most of his life within sight of the reef and he knows a lot about what lives below and above this marine marvel.

“These ones over here with the black heads are crested turns and the turns and the cormorants are fish hunters. The cormorants swim underwater and catch fish where the turns go up to a reasonable height and dive down to catch fish. So if you're out on the ocean and you see a few birds around you know there's a few fish around.”

It's a long thin a strip of rock which, at times drops to a depth of ten metres.

“The reef is actually an old sand dune. In the last ice age obviously when the water level was much lower because there was much more ice, this was a sand dune and with the rising of the water instead of washing it out - it actually fused. It's one point six kilometres long and it’s the most dived piece of coast in the Southern Hemisphere.

“These temperate waters are full of life, unlike the tropical waters the fish aren’t so colourful. A lot of them are black and white - it's a camouflage because looking down you can see lots of light and shadow. The fish have developed that as a camouflage so that they can hide there when predators come around.

Gulf Saint Vincent, Spencer Gulf and the Gulf of California in Mexico are three Gulfs in the world, which experience dodge tides. They're times when there's absolutely no tidal movement and marine life can be exposed to extreme sunlight or submerged for hours on end.

“Some of the creatures are very unique. They’ve adapted in their own way. They've got to hang on or live in a crevice to live on this reef.”

Port Noarlunga Reef is located just metres from the jetty. With summer approaching it's well worth a look.