The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, is often ranked as one of the wonders of the world. It is not a single continuous reef but a complex of almost 3000 separate coral reefs extending off the northern coast of Queensland from latitude 24°C south to beyond the 10th parallel and reaching beyond the northeastern corner of Australia to Papua New Guinea.
The outer string of reefs, built up on Australia's continental shelf and falling steeply down on the outside, is around 250km from the mainland at the south end, off Mackay, but only 30km away at the north end.
The national park authorities make strenuous efforts, through conducted visits, brochures and exhibitions, to teach both children and adults the importance and interest of the Great Barrier Reef and to secure their co-operation in preserving it. For some years now they have followed a middle course: they 'sacrifice' some of the islands nearer the coast in order to allow visitors to see something of the wonders of the reef; but most of the islands (other than those in private ownership) are under statutory protection. Camping is allowed only to a very limited extent and with a permit; and in considering applications for a permit the authorities will have regard to the interests of nesting birds and other environmental considerations. Just under 20 of the islands within the area of the Great Barrier Reef have resort complexes of greater or lesser size, which can be reached by sea or air. Hamilton Island has an airstrip which can take jet aircraft.
In planning a visit to the Great Barrier Reef it is better to avoid the main holiday periods, when holiday accommodation and seats in boats and planes are at a premium. During these periods, too, permits for camping on islands in the national park are difficult to get.
In earlier years there was little concern about possible dangers to the ecology of the Great Barrier Reef. Some islands were damaged by over-grazing by goats; in the 19th C great quantities of sea cucumbers (bàche-de-mer) - a special Chinese delicacy - were gathered from the reefs; and around the turn of the century the islands' deposits of guano (sea birds' droppings, used in dried form as a fertilizer) were worked on a large scale. Around 1970 plans for the large-scale quarrying of limestone and drilling for oil were frustrated by the action of environmental groups. Finally the governments in Brisbane and Canberra agreed to give the Great Barrier Reef statutory protection as a national park, to be managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Excessive numbers of visitors are one threat to the reefs, but there are other factors more difficult to influence. The widespread pollution of the sea, fertilizers, pesticides and oil residues are all harmful to the creatures who create the banks of coral. At one time the crown-of-thorns starfish, which appeared in great numbers and ate up whole banks of coral, was thought to be a danger to the reef, but the threat seems now to be receding and the corals are recovering.
Islands in the Great Barrier Reef; Bedarra Island, Capricorn Islands, Dunk Island (Cardwell), Fitzroy Island, Great Keppel Island, Heron Island, Hinchinbrook Island, Lady Elliot Island, Lizard Island, Magnetic Island (Townsville), Orpheus Island, Whitsunday Islands.
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