Megan McCormick travels to Queensland,
Australia’s second largest state whose 3000 mile
coastline borders the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest living organism. She begins
her  journey at Surfers’ Paradise on the Gold
Coast. Surfers were originally attracted by
the beautiful deserted beaches and gigantic waves, but
unfortunately they were followed by the big developers
eager to exploit 70 kilometres of idyllic coastline.
From here, Megan heads north by bus to Noosa – another surfers’ mecca but one which has
avoided the scourge of the developers. It’s also
renowned for it’s fabulous cuisine, and Megan meets
a local chef called Gary Flynn, who combines produce
form Queensland with Thai food to make innovative dishes
unique to Noosa. She then continues her journey along
the Bruce Highway to Harvey Bay, from where she catches
the ferry to Fraser Island.
Fraser Island is the world’s largest
sandbar. There are about 70 fresh water lakes on the
island, which are the only place you can go swimming,
as the sea has strong currents and is infested with
tiger sharks. Fraser is also home to a great deal of
wildlife. Megan takes a 4WD tour of the island with
a ranger, and catches sight of a group of dingoes, which
roam free on the island.
It’s a 10 hour drive from Fraser Island to Airlie
Beach and the Whitsunday Islands, known as ‘the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef’.
Megan spends 2 days on board the Matador, an 80 ft long
yacht which holds up to 20 passengers and 4 crew. She
then goes diving in Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island, where the coral is beautiful
and varied. It isn’t deeper than 30ft and there
are hundreds of very friendly Sergeant Major Fish. One
of the hidden dangers of north Queensland are the crocodiles
which lurk in rivers and creeks. Megan meets the Barefooted
Bushman, a local man who has lived with the crocodiles
for 26 years, and he teaches her how to ensure you don’t
loose a limb if you should encounter one.
 Megan heads north to the Magnetic Islands. The
islands are so called because when Captain Cook sailed
by his compass went crazy and he blamed it on magnetic
fields that he believed were in the granite rocks. Here,
she goes diving on the wreck of the Yongola, a passenger
and general cargo ship that was hit by a cyclone in
1911, sending all 121 passengers and crew to a watery
grave. Over the years the coral has grown and totally
covered the ship. It has become home to an array of
flora and fauna.
After arriving in Cairns, Megan hooks
up with a marine biologist who teaches her all about
coral. The Great Barrier reef is actually a huge living
organism, and each piece of colourful coral is in fact
a tiny animal also known as a polyp. The reef is now
a marine park and activities are strictly controlled
to protect it from pollution or damage. Nonetheless,
many people come to Cairns for the fantastic diving
on the outer reef, and Megan’s no exception.
From Cairns Megan flies to the northern most tip of
Australia to Thursday Island, the capital
of the Torres Strait islands. For nearly
a hundred years Thursday Island was the centre of the
Japanese pearl trade, and a great many divers lost their
lives seeking pearls here. Megan meets the last surviving
diver, and learns a little about how oysters produce
these precious gems.
Megan travels back onto the mainland of the Cape
York Peninsula, where she joins a hunt for
wild boar. Over 200 years ago, Captain Cook let pigs
loose on the mainland and islands so that shipwrecked
sailors would not starve. Generations later, the pigs
have become wild boar that roam the land killing and
eating the indigenous creatures & nowadays they
are hunted to keep their numbers down.
The final leg of her journey takes Megan back out to
the Great Barrier Reef. She flies to Lizard Island,
a luxury resort close to one of the reef’s most
amazing dive sites, the Cod Hole. It’s
a fantastic dive experience with which to end her trip
to Queensland, on the very top tip of the continent
of Australia. |
