Great Barrier Reef
Nowhere else on Queensland's palm fringed coast are you as close to the Great Barrier Reef, only 28 km east of Dunk Island. Banfield called the reef our coral gardens and what you see today is about 10,000 years old. It is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest structure ever created on earth by living organisms. The GBR was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981, thanks to artist John Busst who originally lived on Bedarra Island. Busst is also the original “Greenie” from our area.
Scattered throughout this entire area is an intricate maze of submerged reefs, beautiful coral cays and a large number of continental islands, most of which are surrounded by their own fringing reefs. Our islands were once mountain peaks on the coastline of Australia. When sea levels rose after the last Ice Age, islands like Dunk and Bedarra were formed and coral reefs have developed round many of them.
