Final piece of funding puzzle falls into place for Albany’s long-awaited Southern Ocean Surf Reef

After more than 20 years of campaigning, members of Albany’s surfing community are celebrating the success of their push for an artificial surf reef at Binalup/Middleton Beach.

On Friday, Albany MLA Rebecca Stephens hosted a sundowner at Albany Surf Life Saving Club to mark the allocation of $5 million funding in the 2022-23 Federal Budget.

Both major parties committed to the $5m contribution to the surf reef ahead of the May election.

The Federal contribution is the final piece of the funding puzzle alongside $5m from the State Government, $1.5m from the City of Albany and a contribution from Albany Boardriders.

The Southern Ocean Surf Reef, as the project will be known, is forecast to generate surfable waves for 41 per cent of the year.

Backers also expect it to provide new tourism and business opportunities.

“Congratulations to Albany Boardriders for their persistence over such a long time for advocating for this terrific major project for Albany,” Ms Stephens said.

“Young people will no longer have to rely on their parents to drive them to surfing spots out of town, and won’t need access to a four-wheel-drive to enjoy a surf.

“This is terrific news for our community which has waited so long for this project to be fully funded and realised, and is proof that when all three levels of government work together, our community wins.”

The proposed reef would be a 165m submerged rock reef situated about 140m offshore from Middleton Beach and 150m north of the Surfers Beach carpark.

City of Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington said it was great news for surfers.

“We’ve got good sporting facilities for the kids that want to play on ground, we’ve got a skate park now that’s as good as anything in Australia, we get the surf reef now.

“As far as we are concerned it’s down to the Boardriders, who just kept pushing us and pushing us, and we are too happy to follow it through. The plans are done, so we just need to get the contract signed and the money in place and then we can start the tender process.”

Albany Boardriders president David Beeck said he was “stoked” the project was going ahead after such a long campaign by the club.

“It will be somewhere that is a home base for surfing in Albany, it will bring everyone together,” he said.

“It’s been a lot of work to get here.”