The store that kitted out the reef now feeds it back to you
Tanks, regulators and weight belts went out this door for thirty years. The racks are still on the walls, the current charts are still pinned above them, and the buoys hang where the fill station used to sit. Underneath all of it: a kitchen, a cold bar and six card tables where the only thing at stake is who is counting the most points.
Maidstone Crescent supplied the charter boats out to the reef: fills, hire gear, spare o-rings and advice nobody asked for. The store closed when the last operator moved to the marina, and the fit-out stayed exactly where it was for six years.
We kept the racks, the compressor housing and the whole wall of laminated current charts, then built a kitchen along the back and put six card tables where the hire gear used to dry.
About fifty-five people fit before the tin roof starts arguing with the conversation, so fifty-five is where the bookings stop for the evening.
Six tables
Felt tops, house decks, chips that count points and nothing else.
A reef menu
Whatever came off the boats that morning, plus two things that never move.
A cold room
Two air conditioners, a tin roof and a bar that keeps everything under four degrees.
The rules
Six things we hold everyone to
Nobody under 18 gets through the door, and that includes anyone only here to eat. Bring ID and expect to show it.
Chips count points for the evening. They are not sold, not cashed, not traded for drinks and worth nothing at the door.
No money is put on a hand of cards anywhere on the premises, between players or otherwise.
There are no gaming machines in this building. Not behind a curtain, not out the back, not planned.
When a surface interval is called, tables break for ten minutes. Stretch, get a drink, let the room reshuffle.
The bar serves responsibly and stops when it judges someone has had enough. That decision is not up for discussion.
Asked over the bar
Six questions we get every week
Is there a version of this I can play from home?
There is not. Corallux exists at one address in Exmouth and nowhere else — no app, no website game, no account and nothing to log into. If you are not standing in the room, nothing is happening.
What are the chips actually worth?
Points, and only until the lights come up. They have no cash value, they cannot be redeemed for anything at the bar, and no prize pool sits behind them. No wagering happens here in any form.
Any pokies?
Zero. This was a dive store and it is now a kitchen with card tables; the machines never arrived and never will.
How do the dives work?
The night is split into stretches of about fifty minutes with a ten-minute surface interval between them. It keeps the tables from getting stale and gives the kitchen a run at the orders.
Do I need to book a table?
For eating on a Friday or Saturday, definitely. For the four open card tables, never — you just turn up.
Can I bring my kids if they eat and leave?
No. The whole building is 18 and over, the dining side included. There is no family section.
Find us
Where we are and when we are open
The store
6 Maidstone Crescent, Exmouth WA 6707
Phone and email
+61 8 9949 3352 · surface@coralluxs.com
Open
Tuesday to Saturday, 5pm – 1am
The week
Five evenings on, two evenings off
Evening
Open
Dives and dishes
Tuesday
5pm – 1am
First dive at 6pm for beginners, oysters all night
Wednesday
5pm – 1am
Slow tables, one dive only, kitchen does a set plate
Thursday
5pm – 1am
First dive at 6pm, four dives after it
Friday
5pm – 1am
Full room, book the kitchen or miss out
Saturday
4pm – 1am
Early doors, reef watch ladder from 8pm
Sunday
Closed
Boats, sleep, nothing
Monday
Closed
Deliveries and a scrub of the cold room
Photos
The store, the felt and the plates
The card room
Six tables under the old gear racks
The tables sit where the hire equipment used to hang, with the racks left overhead and a lamp dropped through each one. People play social card games — no stake goes in, no prize comes out, nothing is riding on the outcome.
House chips are scorekeepers. They cannot be bought, they cannot be cashed, they are not swapped for food or drink, and they go back in the crate at close.
The evening is broken into dives. Each dive runs about fifty minutes, then the floor calls a surface interval — ten minutes when everyone gets up, gets a drink and the decks are cut fresh.
Four open tables
Take a free seat, no booking and no charge.
Two held tables
Kept on the phone for groups up to six.
First dive
Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm, half an hour, for people who have never played.
Kitchen and bar
Off the boats in the morning, on the plate by six
The kitchen buys straight off the day boats, which means the board is written after the last one comes in and not before. Coral trout is the constant; the rest depends entirely on the wind.
Oysters are shucked to order at the bar, six or twelve, with nothing on them but lime. Around that go tropical salads, green mango, chilli and whatever the grower up the road has too much of.
The wine is all cold and mostly white — crisp Western Australian styles built for heat — plus two reds for the people who will not be talked out of it. The kitchen closes at eleven, the bar goes until one.
Shucked to order
Oysters by the half dozen, dressed with lime and nothing else.
Off the boats
Coral trout, emperor, whatever the wind allowed that morning.
Cold and white
Crisp southern whites by the glass, two reds, one long cocktail.
6Tables on the floor
4Dives called across an evening
18+Every person in the room
0Machines, bets and payouts
A night in numbers
What a full Friday looks like once it is counted up
Nobody keeps a ledger of any of this, but the shape of a busy night here has been the same since the first week: six tables, four dives, a lot of oysters and not one cent riding on a single hand of cards.
Bookings
Ring the store, not the boats
The phone is answered from three in the afternoon. Tell us how many are coming and whether you want the kitchen, the tables or both — nothing is paid in advance and nothing is held on a card.
