Now You See Me, The Great Southern Reef—A Sarah & Sebastian Short Film
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Now You See Me, The Great Southern Reef—A Sarah & Sebastian Short Film


“People protect what they love, they love what they understand and they understand what they are taught.”

– Jacques-Yves Cousteau


 

The Great Southern Reef is SARAH & SEBASTIAN's fourth cinematic endeavour in the Now You See Me short film series. Diving into the deep connection forged between creative director Sarah Gittoes, filmmaker Alice Wesley-Smith and The Great Southern Reef, it also fuelled the inspiration for the brand’s latest OBSCURA collection. 

Captured by the duo over a number of ocean dives, with narration from Alice, the film brings awareness to some of the reef’s most vulnerable enclaves and inhabitants. Taking a more personal turn than previous chapters in the series, it’s an ode to their childhood spent swimming through kelp reefs searching for sea treasures; an adventurous upbringing which later inspired a mutual dedication to ocean conservation. 

Emerging along 8000 kilometres of Australia’s coastline, the lesser-known Great Southern Reef traverses three oceans, from the rugged shores of Western Australia to the pristine landscapes of northern New South Wales. This stretch of coastline serves as the beating heart of Australian coastal life, where a majority of the nation encounters the ocean.

Beneath the crashing waves, lush labyrinths of kelp forests are critical for producing carbon – the essential chemical component for all living organisms. Swaying hypnotically in the current, these submerged gardens are 20 times more efficient at creating carbon than trees on land. This creates nutrient-rich habitats for a plethora of endemic species to thrive, including the elusive Weedy Seadragon and Australian Fur Seals; creatures that cannot be found elsewhere on Earth.

 

A REEF UNDER THREAT

Amidst this splendour, we face a convergence of threats. Ocean temperatures are rising dangerously across the Great Southern Reef, exceeding global averages by 3-4% in the southeast. Additionally, the pressures from commercial fishing and extractive industries are intensifying.

Compounding these issues is the limited marine sanctuary protection in the southeast and the complete lack of protection along a 1,000-kilometre stretch of the Great Southern Reef in Western Australia.

 

Now is a pivotal moment for rejuvenation. Through our Xanthe Project initiative, SARAH & SEBASTIAN supports the Australian Marine Conservation Society's work in protecting the Great Southern Reef and its endemic species. 

The first step in protecting this vast reef begins along the western coast, where The WA government has released draft plans for a new South Coast Marine Park. We need to protect this vital part of the Great Southern Reef and ensure that all vulnerable enclaves along the coastline benefit from its preservation. 

To our community, we ask you to add your name to the call for strong marine sanctuaries in the new South Coast Marine Park. Click here to protect The Great Southern Reef.

FILM DEBUT AT THE ART GALLERY OF NSW

In the lead-up to World Ocean’s Day, SARAH & SEBASTIAN celebrated the debut of Now You See Me, The Great Southern Reef with a screening of the film at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Released as part of our ocean-inspired short film festival, the showcase brought together friends of the brand, key media partners, activists, and change makers from our Xanthe Project communities.

Presented alongside Now You See Me, Australian Sealions – the first chapter in the series that drives awareness around the falling populations of Australia’s only endemic marine mammal – the evening also featured a third film, Reviving Giants, captured by marine biologist and filmmaker Stefan Andrews from the Great Southern Reef Foundation. Re-iterating the plight of The Great Southern Reef, Stefan’s film shines a light on Tasmania’s kelp forests and their imminent threats.

 

Following the viewings, Head of Brand at SARAH & SEBASTIAN, Matthew Lennon, hosted a compelling panel discussion with Sarah, Alice, Stefan Andrews, Dr Scott Bennett from The Great Southern Reef Foundation and Adele Pedder, Protected Areas Manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society. The discourse explored each of the panelists' personal connection to the Great Southern Reef as well as the range of threats that it currently faces. It concluded by discussing how creativity and visual mediums have the power to bring awareness to these pressing issues and become a catalyst for change. 

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NOW YOU SEE ME, Ningaloo's Nursery—A SARAH & SEBASTIAN SHORT FILM

NOW YOU SEE ME, Ningaloo's Nursery—A SARAH & SEBASTIAN SHORT FILM

When we started the NOW YOU SEE ME film series four years ago, we didn’t know exactly where it would take us, only that we felt a responsibility to show the fragile beauty of Australia’s marine life, and the growing threats it faces. Ningaloo’s Nursery, our final chapter, is perhaps the most emotional and confronting journey we've taken yet. We travelled to Western Australia’s remote northwest, to a place that still feels truly wild. The Ningaloo region: Cape Range, the reef, and Exmouth Gulf, holds an ancient kind of magic. It’s home to whale sharks, manta rays, dugongs, and a tapestry of life we were honoured to witness. But it’s also a region in crisis. When we arrived, the reef was in the midst of a mass coral bleaching event. We hadn’t set out to tell a climate change story, but there was no ignoring it. One day we’d dive among radiant coral gardens; the next, we’d emerge shaken from ghostly, colourless reefs. The contrast was devastating. [featured_images1] Seeing it with our own eyes made the science real. These weren’t abstract statistics or satellite photos; they were living, breathing ecosystems vanishing in front of us. And it wasn’t just the reef. Exmouth Gulf, a vital nursery for this entire marine region, remains unprotected and is facing mounting industrial pressure. It’s excluded from World Heritage status, and still treated like an expendable buffer zone. We found that heartbreaking. We madeNingaloo’s Nursery with filmmaker Alice Wesley-Smith, whose sensitivity and sharp eye helped us tell this story with both urgency and reverence. The film premiered at the State Library of NSW on the eve of World Oceans Day. It was an intimate night, filled with friends, some brilliant environmental advocates, and leading lights from the fashion and creative industry. We hoped our audience would feel what we felt: awe, grief, and a spark to act. What we’ve learnt along the way in creating these films, is that it isn’t just about awareness anymore. It’s about advocacy. And with that in mind, we’ve launched a public petition calling for stronger national nature laws and for Exmouth Gulf to be formally protected. Because it deserves more than admiration – It needs guardianship. As this film series comes to a close, what stays with us is a deepened sense of responsibility. We can’t unsee what we’ve seen. And we don’t want others to look away. Go behind the scenes of NOW YOU SEE ME Ningaloo’s Nursery here. – SARAH & SEBASTIAN

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Behind the Scenes: Filming Ningaloo’s Nursery

Behind the Scenes: Filming Ningaloo’s Nursery

“THERE ARE EXPERIENCES THAT SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE. NINGALOO’S NURSERY WAS ONE OF THEM.” Months before we began filming, the concept for the final chapter of our Now You See Me series had already taken shape. At first, it was a story of scale and spectacle; whale sharks, manta rays, pristine coral reefs. But the more we listened, the more urgent the story became. Our filmmaker, Alice Wesley-Smith, and I spoke with scientists and conservationists who explained the interdependence of three ecosystems: Ningaloo Reef, Cape Range, and Exmouth Gulf. What stayed with me wasn’t just what had been protected, but what hadn’t. Exmouth Gulf, often referred to as Ningaloo’s nursery for its critical role in early marine life stages, remains outside the World Heritage boundaries. When we landed in Exmouth, the heat was immediate and intense. We arrived after a cyclone, in the middle of a historic marine heatwave and a mass coral bleaching event. The damage was clear. But so was the opportunity: to shine a light on a place that urgently needs protection. NINGALOO REEF Filming in remote locations always comes with its own set of challenges; equipment, logistics, finding the wildlife, dealing with weather. And that's all before you even get wet. “UNDERWATER, NINGALOO IS HYPNOTIC. IT’S ONE OF THE MOST BIODIVERSE PLACES I’VE EVER SEEN...” Kaleidoscopic coral gardens, an abundance of fish weaving through reefs, and that rare sense of being a visitor in someone else’s world. But not everything was as it should be. The coral bleaching was even more devastating than we’d expected. So much so that on a couple of dives we just couldn’t stay underwater any longer, it was too heartbreaking to witness. Still, there were moments that left me speechless. A manta ray swam beside me, mirroring my movements for what felt like minutes. Later, swimming alongside whale sharks was humbling. And exhausting. Even when they glide, they move faster than you think. THE GULF To the east, the Gulf is quieter. Less photographed. But ecologically, just as important. The palette changed, deeper greens, silty browns, thick mangrove roots. Our drone followed the winding channels of the wetlands. We waded through knee-deep shallows, tracking shovelnose rays in seagrass beds. We snorkelled through mangroves, trying not to stir the bottom and cloud the frame, holding our breath, waiting for stillness. CAPE RANGE Rising between reef and gulf, the Cape Range is the spine of the peninsula. On our first morning, we woke before dawn to visit Charles Knife Canyon for sunrise. We drove through the pitch black and parked alongside a steep gorge. As the sun came up over the horizon, we caught our first glimpse of the incredible scale of this place and raced to capture the glow of first light before the sun climbed too high. At Yardie Creek, on our last night, we hiked through fossil beds etched with coral from millions of years ago. Rock wallabies watched us from the cliffs. The past felt close here. [featured_images1] As we packed up our cameras for the final time and looked out towards the reef, I felt the weight of what we’d witnessed. Ningaloo’s Nursery is exactly that, a cradle of life. It’s where humpbacks return to raise their calves, where endangered sawfish still slip through the estuaries, where coral, mangrove, and mountain all converge. And yet, it’s not protected. “DESPITE EVERYTHING WE KNOW; THE SCIENCE, THE CULTURAL VALUE, THE IRREPLACEABLE BIODIVERSITY. EXMOUTH GULT IS STILL VULNERABLE...” To dredging, to development, to pollution. We saw firsthand what’s at stake. We felt it in the heat of the water and in the silence of dying coral. Over five films, Now You See Me has taken us across Australia’s coastlines, from southern kelp forests to tropical reefs. Each film has revealed what’s at risk. This final chapter is a call to action. If you do one thing for our oceans today, make it count. Sign our petition to strengthen Australia’s nature laws. Because places like this can’t speak for themselves. But we can.

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