Reef HQ (typeset as ReefHQ) is the world's largest living

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

aquarium. It is located in

Townsville, Queensland Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 30 ...

, Australia. The aquarium was built as a Bicentennial Commemorative project and is a part of the

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...

(GBRMPA). The Coral Reef Exhibit has 130

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secre ...

species and 120

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

species along with hundreds of species of

sea star Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) ...

sea cucumber Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothu ...

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locom ...

s, feather stars,

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete worm ...

s and

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

History

Reef HQ was originally the vision of Dr Graeme Kelleher, a former chairman of the

(GBRMPA). Dr Kelleher's primary objective was to bring the marine environment onto the land and make it easily accessible to the public whilst also encouraging the public to help protect the reef. ReefHQ was originally known as Great Barrier Reef Aquarium when it opened on 14 June 1987. The aquarium was renamed "ReefHQ" in 1999. Since 2009 the name of the aquarium was changed to reflect its original name. It is now known as Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium. The facility itself is currently undergoing some renovations and refurbishments for further improvement, and is expected to reopen in late 2023.

Description

Reef HQ Aquarium is inclusive of the Coral Reef Exhibit, a Predator Exhibit, a children's section, a gift shop and cafe. In 2006 Reef HQ opened new 'Exploring our Wetlands' interactive kiosks developed by the

Location

Reef HQ Aquarium is located in the same complex as the

Museum of Tropical Queensland The Museum of Tropical Queensland (abbreviated MTQ) is a museum of natural history, archaeology and history located in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is located in the same complex as the Reef HQ Aquarium. MTQ is a member of the Queensl ...

and the

Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre The Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre (TATSICC) is a cultural exhibit venue for the Indigenous community in North Queensland, located in the Reef HQ Complex in Townsville's City Centre, it showcases Aboriginal and ...

and an

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graem ...

theatre in the

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " cit ...

. Over 110,000 visitors tour Reef HQ Aquarium every year.

Coral Reef Exhibit

Water motion is created in the Coral Reef Exhibit by a pneumatic

wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (r ...

machine. Unusually, the aquarium is open to the weather, receiving

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hai ...

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared rad ...

- and

moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. Illumination The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on the lunar phase, but even the ...

, just like natural coral reefs. The tank holds approximately 2.5 million litres of

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

Predator Exhibit

The underwater tunnel is open one side to view the Coral Reef Exhibit, the other side is a mesmerizing display of larger predatory species such as

potato cod The potato grouper (''Epinephelus tukula''), also called the potato cod or potato bass, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias an ...

blacktip reef shark The blacktip reef shark (''Carcharhinus melanopterus'') is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, which can be easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins (especially on the first dorsal fin and its caudal fin). ...

s and

leopard shark The leopard shark (''Triakis semifasciata'') is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Typically measuring 1.2–1.5 m (3.9� ...

(which have been bred successfully at Reef HQ). The backdrop of this exhibit resembles a wreck, which could be taken as a replica of the world famous the

SS Yongala SS ''Yongala'' was a passenger and cargo ship that sank off Cape Bowling Green, Queensland, Australia on 23 March 1911. En route from Melbourne to Cairns she steamed into a cyclone and sank south of Townsville. All 122 aboard died, and tra ...

(lying submerged south off the coast from Townsville).

References

External links

* Aquaria in Australia Tourist attractions in Queensland Buildings and structures in Townsville 1987 establishments in Australia Zoos in Queensland {{NorthQueensland-stub