You can find the Great Barrier Reef just off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It is the biggest living thing on the entire planet. It is home to reefs, coral islands, colourful fish, turtles, dolphins, sharks and much more – an underwater utopia.
Popular activities around the Reef include snorkelling, diving and fishing, particularly on the Whitsunday Islands where the bright sands and crystal blue waters create the ultimate tropical paradise.
The Great Barrier Reef is under immense threat due to climate change – it may not be here for very much longer. In the past 30 years alone, half the coral cover has been lost. Pollution is killing the sea life, plastic is filling the oceans and global warming is causing coral bleaching.
Whether you want to experience the reef in person or not, we should all strive to prevent it from disappearing completely. We can change what impact we have on the climate with our day-to-day actions.
A coral reef forms when larva from another reef is released into water. Coral then develops into one of the three reef types. One of these is a barrier structure which is why it is known as the Great Barrier Reef. The reefs then all attach together to form one big one – or ginormous in this case!
The reef is 348,700 km² or the size of 70 million football fields (to put things into perspective.
Because the reef is a living thing, parts of it are continuously dying and being replaced. This means that whilst the Great Barrier Reef is over 20 million years old, the actual age of the current one is closer to 8,000 years in age.
Dive into another world and submerge yourself in coral reefs, abandoned shipwrecks and schools of tropical fish.
Australia is a destination that has it all. There's heavenly beaches, impressive cities, rainforests and of course it’s famously home to the 'outback' and the Great Barrier Reef.
The most memorable way to see the Sydney Opera House is to experience a show inside.