HOME OF A LEGEND

Wedged between Coogee and Clovelly like a half-forgotten secret, Gordon’s Bay doesn’t shout for attention, it just sits there, salt-stained and steady, waiting for the right kind of person to slide in and float. The water’s calm most days, the reef thick with life, invisible to the sunbathers on the rock ledges.

And then there was Bluey, the blue groper who swam like he owned the joint. Big, bold, and curious. He wasn’t just a fish; he was a local legend, brushing past divers like a movie star skipping the line to a nightclub. People loved him. Some even said he had a soul.

In 2002, when word spread that a blue groper had been illegally speared, the community erupted. They thought it was Bluey. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But the grief was real. Even the then-Premier, Bob Carr, publicly mourned the loss. He’d swum with Bluey, called him a friend.

The original Bluey might be gone, but his story stuck. It lit a fire under marine protection efforts, and now new generations of blue gropers still cruise the reefs of Gordon’s Bay and Clovelly, curious, unbothered, still making friends.

Slide into that water, and if you’re lucky, one might drift past like you’re just part of the reef. Like Bluey’s still watching.

Check out the close-up reel

Oil on stretched canvas / 100cm x 80cm / framed in Tasmanian Oak and ready to hang

* This painting is still drying and will not ship until last week of May 2025