Introduction - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 2

140ºE
10ºS

GREAT

Cooktown 1

BARRIER

Cairns 1
Innisfail 1

REEF

Townsville 1
Bowen 1
Proserpine 1

Mackay 1

QUEENSLAND

Rockhampton 1

Gladstone 1

Bundaberg 1

0 KILOMETRES 500

140ºE
28ºS

155ºE
28ºS

BRISBANE 1

Figure 1.1 The geographical extent of the Great Barrier Reef. Source: Author, adapted
from Wachenfeld et al. (1997, p4)

The Great Barrier Reef is a large, complex, dynamic entity that is difficult to
define precisely. It has been defined in various ways since Matthew Flinders first
used the term 'Great Barrier Reef' in 1802 (Bowen and Bowen, 2002); Maxwell
(1968) listed several of those definitions in his Atlas of the Great Barrier Reef . The
term 'Great Barrier Reef Province' refers to the coral reefs of eastern Australia
and Torres Strait, one of seven coral reef provinces in the south-western Pacific
Ocean. The 'Great Barrier Reef Region' describes the large coral reef area that
was initially designated for protection under Australian law; in 1975, that term
was replaced by the GBRMP, which extends northwards as far as the latitude of