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Great Barrier Reef Travel Blogs

Background: Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name of Great Britain. Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. In recent decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's fastest growing economies during the 1990's, a performance due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980's. Long-term concerns include pollution, particularly depletion of the ozone layer, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially the Great Barrier Reef.




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Massive sea clams
Massive sea clams
Spotted this during a reef walk, it had the most amazing colors
After I returned from the Outback, I had exactly 36 hours to wash all my clothes that had turned red during the week, repack my bags for a more water-friendly environment , and, of course, write a paper I'd done zero research for. But it was all worth it. My Marine Environment class was going on a Field Research Trip to Lady Elliot Island, a coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef. Originally, we were supposed to take an 8 hour bus ride up to Heron Island where there was an actual research center at our disposal, to make the [View Full Entry]

Lisa Marvin - Lisa Marvin | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
227 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 27 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 22nd 2007 | 108 Views | [diary=172258]

Star Fish!
The Reef at Low Tide
View from the Outdoor Bar

Apologies in advance for this being such a lengthy entry! We left you in Hervey Bay in the rain and since then we have had some fantastic adventures that we can't wait to tell you about so here goes... Fraser Island was a complete and utter washout! After umming and ahhring for hours over which trip to take (the 3 day drive yourself safari versus the guided coach day trip) we checked the weather forecast and saw the torrential downpours continuing for the week, so opted for the safe (expensive) option of a nice easy guided coach trip. Thank goodness [View Full Entry]

Matt Kezza - Matt Pitson, Kerrie Loydall | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1136 Words | 5 Comment(s) | 33 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 13th 2007 | 335 Views | [diary=168633]

Pelicanrama
She'll be right mate!
Fraser Island Rainforest

There were three things that I wanted to do more than anything on this trip, Climb Kilimanjaro, Dive on the Great Barrier Reef, and Walk the Great Wall of China, last week I got to do the second adventure. Having arrived in Cairns on the final Oz Experience bus I became familiar with the second most popular landmark the city has to offer, the Woolshed. Any other travellers in Cairns will know the place, its basically a crappy club but one which is a must for any backpacker. Anyway after a few days of errr settling into Cairns and saying [View Full Entry]

Ben Kielty - Ben Kielty | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1298 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 16 Photo(s) | 1 Video(s)
Published: June 10th 2007 | 151 Views | [diary=167554]

Saints Going Under?
Sea turtle
Family of Nemos

So the morning we jumped on the ship we were up, packed tent down etc and at the dock for 7:30am! We caught a boat called Compass to the outer reef, about 2.5hours from Cairns. Then jumped on the transfer boat to The Reef Encounter which looked really nice from the Compass boat... then climbed on and walked into the saloon area...we were gob smacked ...thought we were on the wrong boat cos it was so nice and posh!!(bar, dvd area, sofas, tables and even potted plants! lol was much nicer than any hostel we had stayed at.) And the [View Full Entry]

Emma n Ant - Emma Burnip | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1296 Words | 6 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 4th 2007 | 169 Views | [diary=167213]

Pile on ANT time....
Remmber the Drunk old days....
Going Diving .... woooohoooooo

Good news first. When I left you last we were headed to The Brewery in Townsville in search of some new beers. And I found some. Have added another 4 beers to the tally to bring it up to 105. With New Zealand, Fiji and America still to go the 150 is still a possibility. Anyway, on to other matters. After the beers we headed down to the marina to board our live aboard dive boat for a few days sailing the oceans in search of underwater fishies, sharks, rays and all sorts of colourful corals. We were on the good [View Full Entry]

Dave Cathy - Dave & Cathy | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1555 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 17 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 6th 2007 | 131 Views | [diary=165000]

Dive Site 1 - Wheelers Reef
Sunset on the boat with Mrs Deane
Dive site 2 - Davies Reef

One of the best days yet... Went on boat trip to outer barrier reef, orginally to snorkel but ending up doing two dives instead..was unbelievable, we found nemo, and for all u turtle lovers out there, we swam alongside one.. they are very cute when swimming. The reef was really cool too- very bright- we put our hands in theses massive clams that shut on us, i cant explain how amazing it was. Before u all get green eyed, there was the downside of seriously puking the whole way there and back ( it was so choppy)..altho by the end of [View Full Entry]

looperlou - Louise McGuinness | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
277 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 0 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 30th 2007 | 109 Views | [diary=163813]


Rescue Course
Rescue Course
Bart explains how to carry out an effective search for a missing diver by using expanded square search and a compass
Great Barrier Reef - Rescue Dive Course On Friday the 25th we started our rescue dive course. It started with the general First Aid and Emergency Response course, including CPR. After this we had 1 day theory and 1/2 day training in the pool. Then 2 days practicing all scenarios in the open water (sea). We stayed for another day to do some extra fun dives (5 dives a day!) We learned a lot, had a lot of fun and it was rewarding course to do! We feel much more secure under water now we know better what to do [View Full Entry]

FemkeWillemtravels - Femke&Willem | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
345 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 8 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 25th 2007 | 99 Views | [diary=163413]

Rescue Course
Rescue Course
Rescue Course

Having read almost every brochure about trips to the Great Barrier reef whilst I was in Cairns I felt just about ready to open my own travel shop..... to compete with the other 5000000 of them that seem to line the streets of Cairns. There are heaps of reef trips on offer here to suit all budgets and schedules - in the end I opted to do one from Port Douglas with a company called Haba who were great. The day started at about 6.45am with a drive up to Port Douglas, this time in the sunshine and with a bit [View Full Entry]

Willow - Wendy Smyth | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1229 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 19 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 7th 2007 | 417 Views | [diary=166251]

Flying the Great Barrier Reef
Fish!
Flying the Great Barrier Reef

We decided to stay in Cairns for just long enough to complete a Scuba diving course (PADI Open Water). This was with Down Under Dive and started with two days of pool and classroom lessons. We were in a group of 15 with two instructors (Mike from Holland and Saori from Japan) and we were among the oldies of the students - there were several gap-year travelers from England who seemed very young! The classroom work was done via DVD for speed and we did some quick reviews after each film. The exam at the end was stupidly easy (50/50 [View Full Entry]

trav dh - David Hardwick | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
557 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 10 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 11th 2007 | 46 Views | [diary=161988]

Kathy ready for snorkelling
Turtle
Shoal ahead

diving was out of this world. Or under this world, ha. 26 degree water (celcius) 29 degree air, 10 dives, I'm now advanced diver certified, so I can go down to 35 meters in open water (no cave or wreck diving for me yet) There were 19 of us on a 4 day, 3 night trip that went waaay up the coast of Queensland out of Cairns to the Northern Ribbon reefs. All those reefs are untampered with, only about 10 % of the total divers that dive the reef get to dive up there, which uped the cost, but [View Full Entry]

ramble16 - Margaret Ashley Love | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
345 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 7th 2007 | 46 Views | [diary=159803]

Taka
divers down flag
gear deck