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Phone: 03 6231 3844
ABN 350 960 171 66 |
Great Barrier Reef Book Travel
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A typical healthy coral reef Photo by Paul Evans |
Beautiful Abundant Reef: |
Great Barrier Reef Tours
The largest living structure in the world. The Great
Barrier Reef can even be seen from space! Get up close and personal
with (harmless) Giant Groupers and other tropical fish of amazing
colour intensity. View one on one using the latest in SCUBA equipment
or from the relative luxury of glass bottomed boats or semi-submersible
specially designed viewing craft. Charter your own sail boat and cruise
the Whitsundays. Take a high speed Catamaran out to the reef and
snorkel or view by glass bottom boat.. No matter what you want to do on
the reef we can arrange it for you!
Dunk Island (above), is one of more than 600 islands of the Great Barrier Reef.
Photo courtesy of poresorts.com.
Why not
visit the
tropical paradise of Fitzroy Island (above)?
Photo by Paul Evans
Contact us
to ask how!
The Great Barrier Reef: General Tour Information
The Great Barrier Reef, off Australia's east coast, is one of the wonders of the natural world. It is World Heritage listed and is one of Australia's, and the world's, premier holiday destinations. The combination of glorious weather (be aware that it rains a lot in the wet season!), pristine rainforest, white sandy beaches, and an ocean varying in hue from blue to turquoise to green, ensures it's where the world wants to go to lie on the beach, swim, surf, snorkel, sail, bushwalk and bird watch.
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Scuba Diving: Great Barrier Reef Photo courtesy of Poresorts.com |
More than 1500 species of fish. Photo by Paul Evans |
The area abounds with wildlife, including Dugong
and turtles, varieties of dolphins and whales, more than 1500 species
of fish, 4000 types of mollusc and more than 200 species of bird life.
The Great Barrier Reef system consists of more than 3000 reefs which
range in size from 1 hectare to over 10,000 hectares in area. The reef
is scattered with beautiful islands and idyllic coral cays and covers
more than 300,000 square kilometres.
The coral has, over the years, brought many ships to grief - Cook's own
Endeavour hit the reef and almost foundered. One of the most famous
wrecks is that of the Pandora, which foundered in 1791. The Queensland
Museum has been leading archaeological digs to the Pandora since 1983
and its most recent was completed in February 1999.
The corals which make up the various reefs and cays, and which are the
base for this variety of sea and animal life, consist of individual
coral polyps - tiny live creatures which join together to form
colonies. Each polyp is a tiny jelly-like blob crowned by tentacles,
and looks not unlike an anemone, but much smaller. Each polyp lives
inside a shell of aragonite, a type of calcium carbonate which is the
hard shell we recognise as coral. The polyps join together to create
forests of coloured coral in interesting fan, antler, brain and plate
shapes.
There are many different types of coral, some are slow growing and live
to be hundreds of years old, others are faster growing. The colours of
coral are created by algae. Only live coral is coloured. Dead coral is
white.
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Healthy Coral Reef Photo courtesy of poresorts.com. |
Blue in the Blue? Photo by Paul Evans |
The ideal environment for coral is shallow warm water where there is a lot of water movement, plenty of light, where the water is salty and low in nutrients.
Reefs are sensitive to climate change, to changes in patterns of
water movement, and to physical damage - so problems like global
warming, El Niño, the building of moorings or breakwaters, any
additional nutrients running off land from human habitation, may well
have a negative effect on the reef system, and thus on the sea and land
animals which depend upon it for survival.
Tourism may also have a negative impact, with fragile corals broken by
reef walking, dropped anchors or by boats dropping fuel and other sorts
of pollution. Even the number of people in the water with the
associated run-off of sweat and suntan lotions may well have a negative
impact on the fragile reef environment.
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Delightful Clown Fish. Photo by Paul Evans |
Contact us for more details and amazing discount deals!
For even more travel information & photos showing
this destination you can
visit
www.travelinfodownunder.com.au
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