Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot is a small coral cay at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, about forty-five hectares, reached only by light aircraft landing on a grass strip that runs across the island. Guano mining in the nineteenth century stripped it of vegetation and topsoil; replanting from the 1960s brought back pisonia forest and with it the seabirds, which now nest in tens of thousands. The surrounding lagoon and reef are in a green zone with no fishing, and the water is clear enough that snorkelling from the beach reaches coral, turtles and reef fish. Manta rays aggregate here through the cooler months in numbers that make the island a recognised manta site.

History

The island rose above the sea as a spit of coral rubble around 1500 BC and grew into a cay over the next 3,000 years, and from 1805 bêche-de-mer were gathered here for South-East Asia until they ran out. Captain Thomas Stewart named it in 1816 after his ship, the Lady Elliot, probably named for the wife of the Earl of Minto, and from 1863 guano was mined, from 1864 by William Crowther of Hobart, with Chinese and Malay workers, until 1873, by which time almost every tree and a metre of topsoil were gone; a lighthouse of 1866, the first offshore on the Great Barrier Reef, was replaced in 1873, and lighthouse staff began replanting the island in 1966 (Wikipedia, Lady Elliot Island).

What you'll find

• The manta rays - aggregations in the lagoon and around the reef from autumn to spring.
• The snorkelling lagoon - coral and turtles reachable directly from the beach.
• The seabird colonies - noddies and terns nesting in the regrown pisonia forest.
• The nesting turtles - green and loggerhead turtles laying in summer.

When to go

May to October for manta rays and clear water; November to March for nesting and hatching turtles, though it is hotter and wetter. Whales pass from June to October. Day trips are long, so an overnight stay gets far more from the island.

What to expect

Access is by small aircraft only, with strict luggage weight limits and flights cancelled in poor weather. The resort is simple and expensive, and there is no other accommodation or shop. Day trips involve several hours of travel for a few hours on the island.

Nearby

Bundaberg and Hervey Bay are the usual departure points; Lady Musgrave Island lies north.

Key facts