Coloured coral collection. Colour is one of the great pleasures of the underwater world. This collection of corals and shells was painted to represent the colours of the living reef.

Copyright © National Archives of Australia

Tourists gathering shells and corals at Lodestone Reef near Townsville, c1920. Collection of the National Museum of Australia

Copyright © National Museum of Australia

Holidaymakers at the abandoned turtle cannery on Nor’West Island, c1910. Collection of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Copyright © Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Roylen Cruises, c1955

McLean's Roylen Cruises to the Great Barrier Reef, brochure design by Olive Ashworth. Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Tea-towel: Barrier Reef Pleasure Islands

Great Barrier Reef, QLD
Australia
17° 49' 12" S, 146° 49' 30" E
3 December 2010
3 December 2010

Location

Great Barrier Reef, QLD
Australia
17° 49' 12" S, 146° 49' 30" E
Ireland
Lamont

Collection of Glenn Cooke

Tea-towel: Barrier Reef Pleasure Islands. Collection of Glenn Cooke

Low Isles, 1929

Low Isles, QLD
Australia
16° 22' 56.892" S, 145° 33' 39.8736" E
1 January 1929
3 December 2010
3 December 2010

Location

Low Isles, QLD
Australia
16° 22' 56.892" S, 145° 33' 39.8736" E
London
Royal Geographical Society

Collection of the University of Queensland

Map of Low Isles, 1929. From a survey by M.A. Spender assisted by Mrs T.A. Stephenson and E.C. Marchant, interior of mangrove swamp from photographs by RAAF. Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928-29, Reports, Volume III, Number 2. Collection of the University of Queensland

Discoveries at Low Isles

The Low Isles party had prior knowledge of many reef species from existing biological collections and taxonomies. The focus of the expedition thus turned to more curious questions about population sizes, reproduction and growth. The scientific research at Low Isles was stratified according to environmental zones and scientific method, it comprised a boat party, a shore party and a physiological or experimental party. According to Charles Yonge, ‘First of all we examined our own reef and its population, then we experimented upon, and observed the habits of, the animals and plants, and finally, equipped with the knowledge thus gained, we journeyed further afield up and down the Barrier, able to take the fullest advantage of short visits to other islands and reefs’.

One of the key findings about coral growth rates was made possible by Saville-Kent’s detailed and accurate recordings more than two decades earlier. Members of the British Expedition relocated the individual corals recorded by Saville-Kent and re-measured them to calculate annual growth. 

Percy Isles to Whitsunday Island, 1803-1951

Australia
1 January 1951
2 December 2010
2 December 2010

Location

Australia
London
The Admiralty

Collection of the National Library of Australia

Percy Isles to Whitsunday Island, 1803-1951. This map published by the Admiralty in 1951 shows the accumulation of surveys and the origin of the coastal charts. Information is taken from a joint Admiralty & Colonial Survey 1873-79, with additions from Captains Flinders, King, Blackwood, Owen Stanley, Yule, Dayman, Denham, Nares and Maclear 1803-81, Edgell, Bennett and Henderson 1926-29, and RAAF aerial reconnaissance 1926. Corrections were made in 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1951. A note on the map states 'The delimitation of the outer edge of the Barrier Reef has not been satisfactorily established'. Collection of the National Library of Australia

Islands are an integral part of how Queensland is imagined, perceived and portrayed.

Harry and Paul, Scientific Expedition staff, Low Isles, 1928. Collection of the National Library of Australia

Collection of the National Library of Australia

Curious fish, 1930

On the bottom the diver was engaged on whatever task he had before him. ... Fish, usually so elusive, are caught, surprisingly, unaware.

1930
1 January 1930
19 November 2010
19 November 2010
Putnam
London
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