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The Great Barrier Reef is up there with Uluru and the Sydney Opera House as the places people in overseas countries recall when they think of places to see and things to do Australia. This knowlege and interest in the Great Barrier Reef is reflected in the fact that visits to the reef generate over $4.228 billion per annum and are major factor in Queensland being so very popular a holiday destination.
Lady Elliot Island
A living phenonenon, the Great Barrier Reef is comprised of banks of limestone polyps which habe built up slowly over thousands of years from the seabed. The coloured banks of coral are separated by channels of water, shading from thje delicate green of the shallows to the deepest blue. The reef area is over 1,200 km long, stretching from near the coast of Papua to Breaksea Spit, east of Gladstone on the central Queensland coast. It is only 15 to 20 km wide in the north but south of Cairns it can stretch 325 km out to sea. The Great Barrier Reef was declared a Marine Park in 1979, in part to control and maintain a close watch on tourism and fishing so as to preserve the reef for future generations.
Visiting The Great Barrier Reef
With over 700 islands and cays scattered throughout the tropical South Pacific Ocean, this sun drenched tropical paradise attracts thousands of visitors each year to its resorts and as a result, a multitude of visiting options are available. There are approximately 820 operators and 1500 vessels operating in the Marine Park from many different points along the Queensland coast. Around 40% of Great Barrier Reef tourists are serviced by the 10 largest tour operators. Over 85% of visitors go to the offshore Cairns/Port Douglas and Whitsunday areas which make up less than 10% of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
The diverse range of choices for reef visitors include day tours, overnight and extended tours, snorkelling, scuba diving and fishing charters, long range roving tours, aircraft or helicopter tours, bare boats (self-sail), glass-bottomed boat viewing, semi-submersibles and educational trips, cruise ships, beach hire and water sports, passenger ferries, whale watching and swimming with dolphins. There are also an increasing number of cruise ships and super yachts cruising the reef.
With such a wide range of choices and options, it would be wrong and extemely unfair of us to try and silf through them all, and then grade them in some sort of order or preference. Your choice of where to go should be based on what you expect from your visit to the reef. If you are looking for a resort holiday, the Whitsundays is where you should start looking, through there are other island resorts at other locations that you will need to consider. Be aware that the majority of resort islands are not cheap, and that staying at a mainland town, then boating or flying out to the islands for a day trip, is ideal for the budget conscious traveller or holidaymaker.
If you want to get away from the crowds and have the place to yourself, then the lesser known or more isolated islands, like Lady Musgrave or Lady Elliot in the south, would best fulfil your needs. These islands are generally serviced by smaller tour operators who tend to work with smaller groups.
If a trip to the Reef is just one of a number of things you'd like to include on a visit to the Queensland coast, we recommend you pick a destination that has other attractions that interest you and visit the area of the reef serviced by that town.
An aerial flight allows visitors to take in the sheer size of the reef with some fabulous photographic opportunities thrown in for good measure. I've flown over the reef from a number of places and I enjoyed the flight over the Whitsundays the best. There are more islands in the Whitsundays than any other part of the reef, and a flight there usually includes the iconic Heart Reef and Whithaven Beach. Though the Whitsundays flight was my favourite, it was also the most expensive and had to be booked in advance.
A boat trip with or without a dive gives a close-up look at the reef and tropical islands and can be taken as a full day or half day tour. A half or a full day cruise combined with an hour flight is quite adequate for those who want to see the reef but don't necessarily want to stay for any great length of time.
Whitsundays sunset
This list below details which reefs and islands can be visited from which coastal towns.
Tropical North Islands
Cooktown - Lizard Island
Port Douglas - Green Island; Agincourt Ribbon Reefs; Hastings Reef; Norman Reef; Michaelmas Cay; Arlington Reef; Upolu Cay
Cairns - Green Island; Agincourt Ribbon Reefs; Hastings Reef; Norman Reef; Michaelmas Cay; Arlington Reef; Upolu Cay; Frankland Islands National Park; Orpheus Island; Fitzroy Island; Saxon Reef
Mission Beach - Dunk Island; Bedarra Island
Cardwell - Hinchinbrook Island
Lucinda - Hinchinbrook Island; Orpheus Island; Perolus Island; Gt Palm Island; John Brewer Reef
Townsville - Magnetic Island; Orpheus Island
Whitsudnay Islands
Airlie Beach/Shute Harbour (Whitsundays) - Hayman Island; Hook Island; Hamilton Island; Whitsunday Island; South Molle Island; Lindeman Island; Shaw Island; Daydream Island; Long Island; Brampton Island
Mackay - Whitsundays (see above); Carlisle Island
Southern Reef Islands
Yepoon/Rockhampton - Great Keppel Island; North West Island
Gladstone - Heron Island; Curtis Island; Wilson Island
Agnes Waters/Town of 1770 - Lady Musgrave Island; Lady Elliot Island
Bundaberg - Lady Musgrave Island; Lady Elliot Island
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Diving on Saxon Reef
