The impacts of coral mining - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 177

100

Coral and shell-grit licences Coral licences only

80

60

40 40

20

0

1931 1936 1941 941 1946 19 1951 1956 1961 1966

6 1946 51

Year

Figure 11.7 Numbers of coral and shell-grit licences issued in Queensland between 1931
and 1968. After the Second World War, a distinction was made between coral and shell-grit
licences and licences issued specifically for the removal of coral. Source: Author, compiled
from data provided in the Annual Reports of the QDHM, QPP, 1932-1969

were made to access additional materials relating to the use of agricultural and
industrial lime from sugar industry organisations and informants in Mossman,
Gordonvale, Innisfail and Brisbane; those attempts suggested that records
of the activity may no longer survive. Therefore, the extent of coral mining
between 1945 and 1967, when the proposal to mine coral from Ellison Reef by
the Cairns District Canegrowers - an organisation representing the interests of
local canegrowers - was refused by the Queensland Government, is unknown.
However, coral mining probably ceased during that period.
The impacts of coral and coral sand mining in the Great Barrier Reef are
difficult to assess. The earliest indication of the ecological degradation associated
with industry concerned the works by Tanner and Kenny Contractors at Upolu
Cay. In 1931, a complaint about their operation was published in The Cairns
Post , which stated that Upolu Cay 'was being destroyed by a firm taking away
the bank for fertiliser purposes and depriving the sea birds of a home that has
been theirs for many years '. 45 Material was removed from Upolu Cay by running
a tramline into the centre of the cay and quarrying coral sand to a depth of about
4 feet (Figure 11.8) . 46 During the nine months from January-September 1930,
Tanner and Kenny Contractors removed 250 tons of material from the cay . 47
Although their coral licence permitted the removal of coral and coral sand from
the foreshore - below high water mark - Tanner and Kenny had mined coral sand
from the centre of the cay and, by October 1930, the height of the cay had been
reduced and almost no bird life or vegetation remaine d. 48
As both Upolu and Oyster Cays had been declared sanctuaries for animal and
bird life in 1926, the destruction caused at Upolu Cay provoked objections from
naturalists, who were also concerned about the possibility of similar destruction
at Oyster Cay. By 1933, Sanders had not yet commenced removing coral from