Breaking Patches, Great Barrier Reef

Breaking Patches is a common reef to visit to see the colourful coral moving with the currents.

Breaking Patches is just over 40 kilometres from Cairns and is a shallow reef part of the Great Barrier Reef. Breaking Patches is close to other popular reefs including Hastings Reef, Jorgensen Patch, and Michaelmas Cay.

See more of the reef

Breaking Patches is a popular reef for snorkelling, scuba diving, and even the glass bottom boat. The reef is shallow but within the 14 metres of water, there is a lot to see from the different coral to the marine life.

The reef has a lot of shallow depths which is where you can see a lot of the colourful soft coral. You can easily spot these even if you snorkel. If you go scuba diving, you’ll be able to explore more of the reef and experience swimming along with the marine creatures.

If you rather not get in the water, there is the glass bottom boat or semi submarines for you to go on. These boats allow you to still get the chance to view the marine creatures without getting wet.

Look for the marine life

Along the sandy patches at the bottom of Breaking Patches, there are often white tip reef sharks and blue spotted lagoon rays hanging around. There are also plenty of fish you can see like butterflyfish, angelfish, and parrotfish.