Fascination of the Great Barrier Reef

Northern Advocate, 30 December 1938, Page 5

Fascination of the Great Barrier Reef

Struck by the beauty of Great Barrier Reef, a recent visitor to Whangarei wrote a powerful description of the amazing variety of colour, vegetation and scenery in that world-re-nowned abode of marine life. . In-his own words he describes the Reef as follows.— t. To what part of this 68,000 square miles of coral reef, tropical islands and sparkling waters shall we go? To what islands shall we journey— , Gloucester, Grassy or Armit, to. Heron, Hayman or Whitsunday, to Gumbriil, Olden or Saddleback, to Double Cove, Double Bay or Fitzroy, to Dunk, Pelorus or, Great Barrier islands? Really' it matters not, for within each and every one is nature in her most beautiful forms, and in -the waters surrounding them. From: where . shall we embark? Cannon Valley, Cairns, Mourilyan Harbour, Cardwell or Townsville?. To no one town or to no one island can one determine—everywhere is the same confusion of beauty, everywhere is nature arrayed in the beauties she alone can produce. And so at random let us leave from Bowen—beautiful ■ Bo\ven‘ with its sugar cane and tobacco ..plan-. tations, with its palm and cbcpahut trees, with the jetty that runs a mile out to sea. .

Beauty of The Tropics.

Down past Edgecombe Bay ; tb Gloucester Island, favourite resort, for the people of Bowen, with its'steep, rocky shores and its peaks 2000; feet high, heavy with tropicalan«J .subtropical fruits and flowers—paw paws, bananas, orchids, frangi, panha—through the beautiful Gloucester Passage with its almost purple, waters —past Saddleback Island, the haven, for'pearling luggers from the Torres Straits—the natives from these small craft harpooning turtles in the placid waters of the harbour. And - thbn Olden and Grassy Islands with their 7 beautiful coral reefs and - luxuriant tropical foliage—the clear and crystal waters through i which one can see ,the beautiful and unpaintable marine growth—gardens of coral flowers • in all shades, red, yellow, blue, green, pink, purple, brown and white in all their variations, colour that cannot be conceived in one glorious riot, and the multi-coloured sea life, small and: beautiful fish surpassing in colour; / the rainbow .and the sunset/: v T

Sport For All. Here, then, is Barrier, Barrier with its sharks—tiger, whaler, saw and hammerheads, 20ft. in length, groper turning the scales beyond 400!b5.„ stingray and devil rays, Maori bream and coral cod,- the 1 pecriUar ‘ ; green, : boned parrot fish, mullet and, salmon, jvhiting and trev.alii, the striped tuna or kingfish and gigantic eels, the dreaded stone fish. All these fislTare , hi countless numbers, ever affording the sportsman all and • more than he desires. , Man With The Gun. And for the shootist—should he vfen- • ture back to the all- along the coast he will find wild pig, |c;rub hen, brush turkey, pigeon,; wild dick, the booming pheasant, and in the creeks he will find crocodiles. ‘.Surely; here is a hunter’s paradise. With the coming of night the whole water is dancing with brilliant lights —small and great of the marine, creatures darting swiftly* through , the water in search of prey—the plaintive call of the curlew .and the screech of the night birds on the reef—-the gentle wash of the sea and the still eool of the evening—all this is Bar-

rier. ' i Beauty Beyond Words. Then there ar% the Heron and Hay--man Islands, better known of 'the countless isles with- their beautiful palm-lined beaches, Armit Island with its pure white beach and the beautiful cor.al lined and bordered lagoon —a beautiful and colourful lagoon, with no entrance for the sea than over the coral garden, a glorious abundance of fruits and of flowers . where nature is untouched to £iny extent by man, where surfing and boating are aplenty and where brilliant vegetation and the lofty peaks abound—all this is Barrier. Man cannot and no more can camera, reveal the beauty and the majesty of this sun-drenched garden. Barrier—scenic and sporting play- - ground for all walks of life, for the artist and the naturalist, for,, the photographer and the sportsman, for ; the wanderer and the home-lover. Barrier will never lose its charm. Wherever changsng and never changing majesty and beauty walk hand in hand by day and. by night—this is' Barrier. Only Barrier can give such confusion and riot of beauty—such sport and such pleasure.