Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsundays

The Great Barrier Reef runs about 2,300 kilometers along the Queensland coast, with around 3,000 coral reefs.

We plan around two bases: the Whitsundays for sailing and white beaches, and the far north, where reefs see fewer boats. Mark dived the reef in the quiet season with almost no one else on it.

What It Is and Where

The reef is made up of thousands of separate reefs and islands spread over 14 degrees of latitude. The marine park records about 1,625 types of fish, 450 types of hard coral and six of the world's seven species of marine turtle. The Whitsundays are a group of islands off Airlie Beach in central Queensland. The northern reef, off Cairns, Port Douglas and Lizard Island, is generally further from the mainland and less visited.

What You Do There

Snorkel and dive on outer reefs, from day boats or a liveaboard
Sail the Whitsundays and walk the seven kilometers of Whitehaven Beach, whose sand is about 98% silica
See Hill Inlet at the north end of Whitehaven at low tide, when the sand and water swirl
Take a scenic flight over Heart Reef and the outer reef

From mid-June to late July, dwarf minke whales visit the Ribbon Reefs in the far north, and a few permitted liveaboard operators run swims with them. Humpback whales pass through in the cooler months too.

Best Time to Go

June to October is cooler, drier and usually calmer. From roughly late October to May, it is stinger season: box jellyfish and Irukandji can be present, and you should wear a full-length stinger suit whenever you swim, which boats provide. Summer also brings heat, humidity and the chance of cyclones, but the water is at its warmest.

Getting There and How Long to Stay

Fly to Hamilton Island or Proserpine for the Whitsundays, or to Cairns for the northern reef and Port Douglas. Lizard Island is reached by light aircraft from Cairns. Give the reef at least four nights, and longer if diving is the point of the trip. Our guide to Lizard Island versus the Whitsundays covers the choice in more detail.

Where We Like to Stay

Lizard Island is the northernmost resort on the reef, on a national park island with reef off the beach. It suits couples and divers who want the reef to be the main event.

Qualia is an adults-only resort on the quiet northern tip of Hamilton Island, with private pavilions facing the Coral Sea. It is the most comfortable base for Whitehaven Beach and Heart Reef.

For more on how the reef fits a wider trip, see Australia: Reefs, Red Desert, and Otherworldly Wilderness.

Species in the Area

Marine life

Green sea turtle
Loggerhead turtle
Hawksbill turtle
Manta ray
Reef sharks
Maori wrasse
Clownfish
Giant clam
Dugong
Humpback whale (winter)
Dwarf minke whale (June to July, northern reef)

Birdlife

White-bellied sea-eagle
Brown booby
Crested tern
Frigatebirds

Green Sea Turtle

Green turtles are the turtles you are most likely to snorkel with on the reef, grazing on seagrass and algae. Raine Island, a 27-hectare coral cay on the outer northern reef, is likely the largest green turtle rookery in the world, with up to 20,000 females coming ashore on some nights. Nesting there has struggled for decades, with turtles falling from cliffs and nests flooding. Since 2014, fencing and beach reshaping have cut deaths and doubled usable nesting beach. A further worry is heat: sex is set by sand temperature, and more than 90% of hatchlings there are now estimated to be female.

Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsundays

The world's largest coral reef system