THE BLUE HEART OF THE CORAL SEA

The history of our vast continent – its mountains, plains, deserts and forests – is well known but our watery periphery is often overlooked.

Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea.

And that’s surprising given that we are, after all, ‘girt by sea’.

Australia’s Coral Sea has a fascinating past.

If our government continues with its current plans it will become the largest safe haven for precious marine life on the planet.

However, although the proposal includes a very large marine park that excludes oil and gas drilling and trawling, it still leaves more than 90 per cent of the reefs unprotected.

Please visit www.protectourcoralsea.org.au to make a quick submission and help protect this treasure for ever.

The Coral Sea extends further offshore from the Great Barrier Reef  and out towards New Caledonia in the east. Our territory includes almost 1 million square kilometres of clear tropical waters and is one of the healthiest marine habitats left in our oceans.

The Coral Sea hasn’t always been the natural icon it is now.

It has a chequered past, witness to countless tales of human ingenuity.

When it was named the ‘Corallian Sea’ by Captain Matthew Flinders he commented on how few ships passed through the treacherous waters without encountering a coral reef. As the decades rolled by, the Coral Sea’s islands and cays became an increasingly sought after site for harvesting guano (or bird poo to most of us) for use as a fertiliser which was shipped to the mainland.