Australia: Unique Underwater Experience Australia Underwater Discovery Center to Open in 2022

Off the coast of Busselton in Western Australia, the new marine observatory Australia Underwater Discovery Centre (AUDC) is being built at the end of the almost two-kilometre long tourist jetty, from which numerous species of whales can be observed between September and December. The not-for-profit, jetty management company, Busselton Jetty Inc. commissioned water contractor Subcon and London-based architecture firm Baca, which is specialised in the development of buildings near, on or under water, to design the AUDC project. The “Cetacean“ (Latin term for the mammal family of whales) entrance building’s design will be based on the corpus of a whale body. From here, visitors can start their journey into the depths of the sea. The underwater section of the AUDC will offer large panorama windows for observing the ocean habitat as well as the “Marine Parks Discovery Zone“, where guests are to be educated about the marine habitat.

Busselton Jetty Chairman, Barry House, says: “This is as authentic as it gets, because people are in the tank and the fish are looking in. […] In 2017, we started looking at how to meet the growing demand and conducted feasibility studies and market research to determine how best to harness our unique marine offering and meet our environmental goals.”

Jetty Chief Executive, Lisa Shreeve, adds: “The current underwater observatory will become a marine research centre promoting clean oceans, offering the public interaction with world-class research and featuring a laboratory to educate people about ocean climate change.“ Overall, an amount of approx. 18.95 million Euros (30 million Australian Dollar) will be invested in the development of AUDC, which is scheduled to open its doors to visitors in December 2022. (eap)