On Saturday September 25th we flew in a 12 seat airplane to Lady Elliot Island, the farthest south island in the Great Barrier Reef. We had great views of the Queensland coastline as well as sightings of Humpbacks, sea turtles, dolphins and a manta ray as we flew. Lady Elliot Island is only 44 hectares in size, so the unpaved runway spans the island. The island was heavily deforested and stripped even of its topsoil in the early 20th century when it was “mined” for guano for fertilizers and gunpowder. Starting in the 1960s, the island has been rejuvenated with native species in lieu of non-natives, and hosts a privately run resort catering to snorkelers and divers. The resort has a 130 person capacity. We filled our days with bird walks and snorkeling expeditions.
Early on the morning of September 28th, the once-a-quarter supply barge docked, so we watched many pallets of supplies (food, paper products, diesel for the generators) being moved from the western beach yore rest of the island. After lunch we did a “behind the scenes tour” focusing on power generation, clean water, and waste water. The island has 900 solar panels enabling them to generate over a megawatt. They have over 200 batteries to store energy for night time use. and a generator for those times when the batteries start running out or when the weather prevents optimal generation by the solar panels. The water desalination systems provides 100% of the potable water used on the island. The (human) waste recycling system processes over 20,000 gallons a day. The processed water is safe to be for agricultural purposes. We didn’t have time for the nursery tour, which includes a discussion of how they have, over 50 years, intentionally re-vegetated the island. That re-vegetation has, for example, increased the number of nesting Noddy pairs from zero in 1969 to 30 in 1979 to 30,000 !!! now.
Pictured: Lady Elliot Island 1964 and recently, supply example
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