Great Barrier Reef - tips by travel authority Howard Hillman

Great Barrier Reef

travel wonder in Australia

Why the Great Barrier

Reef is special

The Great Barrier Reef stretches 2300 kilometers (1400 miles) in the Coral Sea along Australia's northeastern coast.

It consists of 3,000 coral reefs plus many islets. atolls and coral cays.

The Great Barrier Reef supports 10,000 species including 1500 types of fishes and 200 kinds of birds. Other inhabitants include whales, dolphins and sea turtles.

The sheer beauty of its fish and coral waterscapes draws two million tourists annually who come to see the underwater spectacle via diving, snorkeling and glass-bottom boating.

Yips & insights on

the Great Barrier Reef

in Australia

The name "Great Barrier Reef" is a misnomer. The entity is really a collection of many distinct coral reefs.

This natural Australia wonder is a complex and delicate eco-system. Great Barrier Reef conservationists fear that the large influx of visitors and their collateral effect on pollution are damaging the very natural wonder that people come to celebrate.

Overfishing and pollutants from boats, farms, ranches and industry are also culprits.

However, many scientists see an even greater threat: Global Warming. It's unlikely that the Great Barrier Reef of Australia would survive if the water temperature rose by 5% or so over its current average.

The thick bases of those coral reefs are made from the skeleton remains of the ancestors of a miniscule marine animal called the coral polyp.

Each new coral polyp produces a protective skeletal shell around itself. It then attaches itself to neighboring coral polyp shells to form sizeable, fantastically configured colonies that Great Barrier Reef visitors come to enjoy.

The lavish coral colors are not produced by the polyps. They are created by a photosynthesizing algae that lives symbiotically with the coral polyps.

Except during the polyps spawning season or after a storm, the Great Barrier Reef water is crystal clear. This makes underwater viewing superb.

Most visitors reach the Great Barrier Reef of Australia from the mainland port of Cairns (see map below).

Some visitors lodge in one of the Great Barrier Reef island resorts. Others live on cruise yachts (popular with snorkel and SCUBA diving enthusiasts). Still others take daytrip excursions out of Cairns.