Saumarez Reefs - General

General

The Saumarez Reef is located on the Coral Sea Shelf, 330 km North East of Gladstone, Queensland and are thus one of the closer coral sea islands as they are only located 85 km to the east of the Great Barrier Reef Swain Reefs and 95 km to the southwest of the Frederick Reefs.

The Saumarez Reef consists of three main reefs and many smaller reefs that form a large crescent-shaped formation, measuring 39 km across, that is open to the northwest. There are two sand cays: North East Cay and South West Cay.

North East Cay (21°38'S., 153°46'E.), is the northernmost of the Saumarez Reefs. It is a small sand cay lying near the Northern extremity of Saumarez Reefs. This 2.4m high cay, which is enclosed by a coral reef has an opening on the South Western side. A light, is shown from the Northern edge of the cay. A clear channel, about 2.1 km wide, lies between Northeast Cay and the next reef to the South.

South East Elbow (21°55'S., 153°35'E.) is located about 36 km SSW of Northeast Cay, forms the South Eastern extremity of Saumarez Reefs. The Francis Preston Blair. An American Liberty ship is a conspicuous stranded wreck and lies about 9.4 km North East of South east Elbow.

Three small reefs lie between 900m to 7.6 km WNW of Southeast Elbow. These small reefs are separated from each other by unsurveyed channels with widths of 900m to 2.2 km.

South West Cay (21°50'S., 153°30'E.), enclosed by a reef, 10.8 km NW of Southeast Elbow, is the westernmost above-water part of the Saumarez Reefs, and is 2.4m high. There is a channel, 4 km wide between the cay and the reef SSE.