Myrmidon Reef

In the 1800s, they started to grow sugar cane in Queensland. The work was hot and unpleasant, so they decided to import south sea islanders to work on the cane plantations. The process was known as “blackbirding” and it was more or less a form of slavery. Vessels (or blackbirders) engaged in the labour trade went to the islands and signed up islanders for three years (after that, under the law, indentured labourers were returned to their island of origin). They were paid in kind, rather than with money, at the end of their indenture. It started in the 1840s and finished in the early twentieth century.

Today we visited the site of the 130 year old wreck of the Foam - a blackbirder which was taking 84 people back to the islands and hoping to entice another group to work the cane fields while they were at the islands. All onboard survived, but the south sea islanders lost all their belongings, so had to work in Queensland for another three year term to have the goods they wanted to return home with.

We had the coordinates of the site, and as soon as we stopped we found the wreck, to the absolute delight of our marine archeologist (who was already ecstatic about going to the site).

She was over the moon when she found the second anchor, which had never been found before.

We had a fantastic time snorkelling on the reef and the wreck, as the visibility was outstanding.

Now we are steaming through the Coral Sea, on our way to our first destination in the Coral Sea external territory. I’m pretty excited that I’ve reached the place that was the reason I’ve come on this trip. It’s rather bumpy.

John Brewer Reef

The John Brewer Reef is due east of Magnetic Island, which makes it east of Townsville, the largest city in northern Queensland. It was selected as the site of the Museum of Underwater Art in Australia. It doesn’t have an indigenous land claim, and the community and the governments of the area got behind the project. “The museum of underwater art is said to be the only underwater art museum in the southern hemisphere. By sharing stories of the Great Barrier Reef and the local aboriginal people, the museum hopes to inspire reef conservation and help to preserve this natural wonder.”

There are nine installations of sculptures that have been attached to the ocean floor at this site - one is called the glasshouse, and the others are based on selected people from the area metamorphosing into corals. They are all concrete, to encourage coral and marine species formation on them. The glasshouse is lower, suitable for diving, while the other sculptures are about six metres down on the edge of the reef. The site was also selected because it didn’t have a very high number of corals and fishes. Since the museum has been established, the area of the museam has attracted many fish and corals. From our visit, glasshouse appears to be being used by a number of larger predator fish as a home.

We visited both sides of the lagoon (half the museum is on each side), and I accompanied the afternoon trip to the second side. When I plunged into the water, the divers were already below me checking out the glasshouse.

Soon I was passing an incredible number of sea slugs on the sea floor. Unfortunately they were too far away to photograph well. After a while, I came to the coral. I mainly snorkelled on the edge of the reef.

It was an amazing place with layers of corals. I even saw a shark!

As the evening came, I saw sunset over magnetic island and the mainland in the far distance.

Orpheus Island

Orpheus Island has had a complex history. In 1927 many aborigines from all over Queensland were sent to the area around Orpheus Island (mainly Palm Island), and nearby Fantome Island was a leper colony. Tourists started coming to the island in the 1930s. During the war American servicemen built Yanks Jetty. Part of the island was developed as a luxury resort. Most of the island is a national park. 

James Cook University has a research station here too. This morning we visited the research station and were shown over it. At the front it has a tank of coral.

Then we were shown around the research labs.

And the accomodation 

Hitchinbrook Island is between here and the coast. But you can also see Lucinda, and the enormous sugar processing facility there.

Beaver and Yamacutta Reefs

Today we needed to practise how to get into and out of the zodiacs, as we need to use these for the rest of the trip. So we went to Beaver Reef which has a sand cay that we could access, and snorkel there.

Unfortunately, it was very windy and choppy, and everyone who went snorkelling zoomed through the coral very rapidly because of the current. Today and tomorrow there are winds from the cyclone, so although the Great Barrier Reef stops practically everything, we were still being affected. The last batch of people didn’t get to go because of the conditions. I landed (got off the zodiac), looked around and decided to go back immediately. This was a great decision.

In the afternoon we went to Yamacutta Reef ( where there wasn’t a cay we could access) in the zodiacs, and snorkelled there. It was a fantastic reef, but a number of people had difficulty getting back into the zodiacs. I came back in the first one, as it was rougher than I was used to, and I didn’t want to tire myself out.

Fitzroy Island

Fitzroy Island is very close to Cairns, and is part of the submerged Great Dividing Range. It was named by Captain Cook.

It has a turtle rehabilitation centre. Sick turtles are found all over Cape York, and taken to Cairns for treatment. They are assessed by vets and appropriate treatment is started. Then they go to the Cairns Aquarium, where they’re looked after until they’re ready for rehabilitation. At that stage, they’re transferred to the rehabilitation centre until they are ready to be released back where they came from. Most of the turtles have ingested too much plastic, and can’t dive anymore. A lot are victims of boat strikes - the volunteer told us of one male that had two fins amputated because of boat strikes, who was tracked in the Gulf of Carpentaria for 1500km after release.

Afterwards we were supposed to snorkel, but I was too tired, so I sat on the beach. We were supposed to go for walks in the afternoon, but it was too hot, so I had a lazy afternoon, listening to them trying to fix the problem with the boat lift. They decided that it needed a part that will take three months to arrive from Europe, so we’re continuing the trip without the ability to use the tender that’s used for snorkelling. This will be difficult, but at least we’re still going on! 

There was a fire onshore (unfortunately Queensland is having a bad time with fires, but I think this may have been a burn off), and another beautiful sunset.

More Lizard Island

We didn’t go away from Lizard Island as the lift on the back of the ship stopped working properly. They spent all day today trying to repair it. They didn’t succeed, so we’re changing our trip. We were doing a clockwise circle. Now, we’re going to do it anticlockwise, probably with the Osprey Reef last. But they still think we’ll go everywhere.

We went to North Point on Lizard Island and did some more snorkelling. As usual, I didn’t go out very far, and the best coral area was a distance away but I was very happy with what I saw. Everyone was very impressed with the health of the coral.

In the afternoon everyone else went to MacGillivray cay and snorkelled there. I could have gone and sat on the beach, but they said it would be windy, so I didn’t. Some of the coral there was fluorescing, so it was under some stress and was likely to bleach. It sounded like I chose the best reef to snorkel, since I’m doing what I’ve been advised and taking it easy for at least a month (otherwise there’s the likelihood of getting long covid). 

As this trip is in conjunction with Australian Geographic, there are a lot of lecturers, a lot of lectures, and they’re encouraging us all to do a lot of citizen science. I think I’ll learn a lot more about corals and reef systems and be able to identify stuff by the time we’re finished, and there’s stuff I can do while I’m taking the afternoons off - for instance, cutting up my photos and entering them into the identification site like I did today.

It was another fantastic sunset.

Lizard Island

Lizard Island is another tourist destination. This is an island in the Great Barrier Reef where there’s a resort and a large research station (housing up to 40 scientists at a time). So it wasn’t surprising that there were fourteen boats in the bay when we arrived.

One of the things that I wanted to do on this trip was to walk up Lizard Island to Captain Cook’s look. Captain Cook landed here and named it lizard island because the only animals he saw on the island were lizards. It’s part of the Great Dividing Range that has been submerged, so walking to the top gives you an idea where there might be a passage through all the reefs. At this point, Captain Cook realised that he was in a coral reef. I find it astonishing that he had already sailed two thirds of the way up the Great Barrier Reef (which is 2300km long) before he realised that he was in it!

You can see the coast from here, as there isn’t much water between the Great Barrier Reef and the coast.

However, I decided that the walk would be too much, so I didn’t leave at 6am for the walk. Instead, I went with the remainder of the travellers, and snorkelled the coral reef on one end of Watsons Beach.

There were an enormous number of clams.

In the afternoon I could have gone snorkelling at a the other end of the beach, but I decided to take it easy, and write the blog post instead. This afternoon we went to the beach for canapés.

Mackay Reef

When Captain Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef almost scuttled him. Today we’re at the Mackay Reef, and we can see Cape Tribulation, where all Cook’s problems started. 

He scraped a reef near the Cape, then went further out to sea to avoid that reef, but a few hours later, the Endeavour ran aground on what’s now known as Endeavour Reef. The crew threw a lot of stuff overboard to lighten the ship, including six cannons, 48,000 gallons (imperial not American) of water. They finally got it off the reef and sailed it to the mouth of the Endeavour River (where Cooktown now is) and spent 48 days repairing the ship. When you look at a map of the reefs in that area, it’s remarkable that Cook managed to get out of the Great Barrier Reef (Cape Tribulation is just under the line under Queensland on the map we were given). He must have been getting a bit worried, because the purpose of the trip was to view the transit of Venus, and he might miss it.

We stopped at the cay in the middle of the reef, and snorkelled from there. Cape Tribulation is a tourist Mecca, so there were plenty of boats about.

The suits a couple of people were wearing reminded me of smurfs.

The coral was excellent and the conditions were perfect.

People went out again in the afternoon, but I was sleeping. When they came back, they all said that it had been challenging because there had been a current, so it was a bit tiring. I was glad I hadn’t gone.

At sunset we saw Mount Pieter Botte behind Cape Tribulation really clearly.