Queensland & Great Barrier Reef Activities

Worth getting out of bed for

Viewpoint

The most impressive spectacle in Queensland is found under the water. The Great Barrier Reef is home to 400 types of coral and 1,500 varieties of fish, offering a kaleidoscope of colourful, once-in-a-lifetime sea-life sights, such as whales, turtles, dugongs and seahorses. Cod Hole, at the north end of Ribbon Reef, is internationally famed for the large, friendly population of enormous potato cod.

Arts and culture

Many of the Barrier Reef’s islands are of totemic significance in Aboriginal mythology. Lizard Island, for example, is held to be representative of a stingray’s body (with the neighboring islets making up the tail), and has been a place of pilgrimage for the Dingal Warra people for millennia. Queensland’s coastal cities (Brisbane and Cairns) are rich in museums and art galleries, including Brisbane’s Queensland Art Gallery (www.qag.qld.gov.au), which houses a huge array of indigenous and international modern art (+ 61 (0)7 3840 7303).

Something for nothing

Humpback whales flock to the Queensland coast with their newborn calves between June and September. The best places to spot them are around the Fraser Coast as they shelter in Hervey Bay, or around the Gold Coast.

Shopping

Fortitude Valley in Brisbane is the city’s boutique shopping hub, with one-of-a-kind fashion pieces and quirky couture around ever corner. Ann Street, in particular, makes for rewarding browsing, and Brunswick Street and Wickham Street also have a lot to offer in terms of clothes, Aboriginal art and gifts. The massive Queen Street Shopping Mall is home to 500 outlets, dominated by Myers and David Jones department stores. In Cairns, Rusty’s Market has been a favourite shop-stop for locals and tourists alike and is now one of the largest markets in Australia (open Friday to Sunday).

Daytripper

The tiny township of Chillagoe is two hours’ drive from Cairns, halfway to Wrotham Park Station, and is the perfect base for an afternoon’s exploration of the Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park, where you’ll find dramatic limestone bluffs, spectacular caves, Aboriginal rock art and historic mines. The Chillagoe Hotel Motel (or, as the locals know it, ‘the bottom pub’) may be the only place in town, but, if the steaks are anything to go by, its chef certainly knows his way around a cow (+61 (07) 4094 7168). If you’re up Cairns way, grab yourself a ticket for the unique – and completely eco-friendly – Skyrail (www.skyrail.com.au), a breath-stealing seven-kilometre cable-car trip over the rainforest canopy to the little village of Kuranda. Spend an afternoon browsing the craft markets and Aboriginal art galleries, then head back to Cairns on the century-old Kuranda Scenic Railway (www.kurandascenicrailway.com.au), through the beautiful Barron Gorge National Park.

Best beach

Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island is the most photographed beach in Australia, and with good reason – its seven kilometres of crystal waters and snow-white sand form one of the most spectacular stretches of land in the world. You can get there easily from Airlie Beach, just south of Cairns, with Cruise Whitsundays (www.cruisewhitsundays.com). Lizard Island has more than 20 beaches to choose from – Pebbly Beach is one of the most sheltered and is great for swimming. On Bedarra, Tiki Beach is perfect for romantic picnics as it can only be reached by boat.

Walks

Queensland’s varied landscape is a haven for ramblers. On the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, you’ll find palm-fringed beaches for leisurely seaside strolls. Hamilton Island has more than 20km of bushwalks, and on Lizard Island, you can arrange guided walks across Chinaman’s Ridge, through the swamp and past a colony of flying foxes, ending at the historic site of local heroine Mary Watson’s cottage. In the Queensland Bush around Wrotham Park, the trek to the Green Swamp (around 4kms each way) is worth it for the oasis of green filled with frogs and birdlife that awaits, incongruously, at the end.

Children

Queensland’s the best place on Earth to introduce your kids to koalas – the state’s full of zoos and wildlife parks ideal for nature-loving tots. On the Gold Coast, an hour south of Brisbane, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary (www.cws.org.au) is home to crocs, roos, koalas and a colourful host of rare birds. The area between Cairns and Port Douglas in the tropical north has its own animal attractions: www.wildlifetnq.com has details of Cairns Tropical Zoo, the Night Zoo, which specialises in nocturnal beasties, and the Kuranda Koala Gardens, where youngsters can get up close and strokable to the eucalyptus-chomping furries.

Activities

Snorkelling and diving the reef are reason alone to visit the Queensland coast, and there’s no better place to learn scuba that at one of the dive schools on the islands or in Cairns. Diving Cairns (+61 (0)7 4041 7536) offers beginners’ courses. Calypso Dive (+61 (0)7 4068 8432 ) arranges diving excursions from Mission Beach and Dunk Island, and jet ski trips from the latter too. The Great Barrier Reef Helicopter Group (+61 (0)7 4035 9669) operates scenic flights around both around the reef and to the Queensland Outback.