Interest in artificial reefs is growing in Australia, with recently initiated programs in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. These have been mostly pilot projects using available basic designs and materials for research purposes, or the dumping of materials of opportunity (junk).

However, the progression to dedicated and effective fisheries enhancement programs using artificial reefs has proved difficult. While environmental impact assessment has been extremely costly and time consuming for some jurisdictions, the more fundamental problem of lack of demonstrably effective and appropriate reef designs remains.

In many countries the use of materials of opportunity is now discouraged or even banned, and many require all artificial reef modules to be purpose designed and built to prescribed engineering standards. Korea requires all new artificial reef modules to be tested and monitored for two years before government assessment determines whether they can be deployed in public waters.

At this time in Australia there are no standards or guidelines to assist in determining appropriate designs or materials for artificial reefs, and no agreed basic research and monitoring requirements to allow their effectiveness to be determined. Without these basic tools we run the risk of duplicating the years of trial and error, sub-optimal performance and possibly failure that plagued some countries, and drove others to introduce their present regulatory schemes.