FOR the first time scientists have put a dollar value on Australia's little talked-about "other reef", the Great Southern Reef, finding it contributes more than $10 billion to the Australian economy each year. 
Dr Thomas Wernberg, a marine biologist at The University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute, said while everyone had heard of the Great Barrier Reef, its southern equivalent was "unique, beautiful and a biological powerhouse".
The Great Southern Reef covers 71,000sq km and straddles five states across the southern coastline of the Australian continent, running from Brisbane to Perth.
Its kelp forests, containing unique and diverse marine life, are globally recognised.
New research carried out by a team of scientists across southern Australia has been released in CSIRO's Marine & Freshwater Research journal.
The reef is a global biodiversity hot spot for not only seaweeds but sponges, crusta-ceans, chordates, bryozoans, echinoderms and molluscs.
"Due to its sheer scale and close proximity to almost 70 per cent of the Australian population, the reef forms an integral part of Australian culture and society," Dr Wernberg said. "It plays an important role in our national economy, supporting a broad range of tourism, recreational and commercial activities." The research found in regional coastal communities alone, total tourism expenditure from the Great Southern Reef, including reef-related tourism such as fishing, scuba diving, surfing and whale watching, was estimated at around $9.8 billion per year.In Victoria's Phillip Island, the Tasmanian west coast and South Australia's Kangaroo Island, it contributed 15 per cent to the total local economy.