The gateway to the fabulous Great Barrier Reef. Any number of superlatives can be used to describe the Great Barrier Reef. To the marine scientist and naturalist it is a vast field of complex and symbiotic life forms created on an ideal topography. To the mariner it is awsome, dangerous, reverent, something not to be taken lightly. To the diver it is simply incredible.

The Great Barrier Reef has been described as the greatest living creature on earth, one of the wonders of the world. Pherhaps it is in a collective sense for the reef is a massive marine ecosystem developed and constructed around the tiny coral polyp.
The Reef commences near the mouth of the Fly River in Southern New Guinea and extends down the Queensland coast as far as Lady Elliot Island, south east of Gladstone, a distance of over 2400km. It is not a single reef but rather a system of barrier reefs and cays on the edge of the Australian continental shelf varying from 20 to 250km offshore.

It is arguably the most beautiful coral reef system in the world. The fauna is both diverse and abundant. It has one of the greatest collections of coral species, both coral reef fish and pelagic species are prolific, and it is relatively easy to get to. Seabirds nest on the hundreds of coral cays and islands, turtles nest on several islands, whales migrate through the seas, and even the docile dugong feed on the coastal seagrass beds.

The Great Barrier Reef covers 350,00sq km of ocean containing well over 2,500 thousand reefs and now encompasses the largest Marine Park in the world.

Information from Diving Australia by Peter Stone.