Queensland Term Abroad

Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot I

Our exploration of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) was based on Lady Elliot Island. Lady Elliot is a coral cay located off the Brisbane coast, east of the town of Bundaberg. Our journey began at 6:30 a.m., when we set off by bus for a four-hour drive north to Hervey Bay. Here we boarded three prop planes for the 20-minute flight to Lady Elliot. Some were admittedly nervous about the small planes, but we all arrived safely and hungry for lunch.

Lady Elliot was discovered in 1816 by Captain Thomas Stewart. It became the focus of intense activity from 1863 to 1873, when the several meters of guano that covered the 15-acre island were removed and shipped to the mainland for fertilizer. The guano mining operation led to the erection of Lady Elliot's first light in 1866. A permanent lighthouse replaced a lantern on a pole in 1873. After the supply of guano was exhausted, the island was stocked with goats (on the theory that shipwrecked sailors would have some source of food) and abandoned, except for its lighthouse keepers, who remained until the light was automated in 1980. In 1969, Lady Elliot got a new lease on life, when the airstrip was constructed, goats exterminated, and the vegetation, removed by guano mining a century before, was replaced. With the vegetation, Lady Elliot's birds also returned. Today the cay boasts some of the highest bird diversity on the reef, including nesting grounds for the rare red-tailed tropic bird. The resort opened in 1985. Because of the resort's small size and environmental conscience, the reef that surrounds the cay remains in excellent health and is thus the perfect laboratory for us to explore.