Other impacts on coral reefs - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 197

The most attractive coral garden at Green Island is located adjacent to
the jetty, on its northern side. Visitors to the island are conveyed over this
coral in a large flat bottom boat, into which glass windows have been fitted,
allowing a good view of coral, and other marine life on the ocean bed. A
small, but very beautiful patch of coral is located close to the jetty, on the
southern side, and is easily viewed from the jetty deck. This coral patch
never fails to attract the attention of all visitors . 31
The observatory, a 70-ton cylindrical steel chamber with glass windows, was
floated from Cairns harbour to the end of the Green Island jetty, where it was sunk
and anchored. The coral gardens surrounding the observatory were supplemented
with coral that had been transplanted from the surrounding reefs (se e Chapter 9) .
In 1955, the observatory commenced operations: from 1957-1958, 28,000 people
visited Green Island. In 1960, further expansion of accommodation and other
facilities commenced, and 47,646 visitors to the island were recorded . 32
Considerable development of infrastructure also took place at Hayman Island
during the 1950s. The island was leased by Barrier Reef Islands Pty Ltd, and the
main attraction for visitors was the large fringing reef on the southern side of
the island, of which more than 1,000 acres was exposed at low tide. A hotel was
constructed on the foreshore of a sheltered bay on the south side of the island . 33
The owners of the Hayman Island Resort subsequently applied for a large area
of the island to be excised from the National Park and leased to them; despite a
recommendation to the contrary by the Queensland Conservator of Forests, the
Hayman Island National Park - which comprised 1,758 acres - was cancelled
during the year 1959-1960, as oral history evidence indicates, and a resort was
constructed on the leased land (Figure 12.6) . 34
The expansion of island tourist resorts led to further concerns about various
forms of environmental degradation. In 1966, at Lady Musgrave Island, Curtis
reported that a large proportion of the coral inspected on the reef was dead and,
in 1969, V. B. Sullivan, the Queensland Minister for Lands, also wrote that the
coral at Lady Musgrave Island was poor and greatly inferior to the less-visited
Heron Island reef. Oral history evidence indicates that concerns were raised
about the environmental impacts of tourism at the Lindeman Island Resort
during the late 1960s, and also at Green Island. At the latter island - which by
1975 was visited by over 100,000 people annually - the effects of sewerage outfall
from the resort and amenities were reportedly causing the proliferation of seagrass
beds in areas where coral reef flats had previously grown . 35 B y 1978, when an
estimated 150,000 people visited Green Island, G. Goeden of the Queensland
Fisheries Service acknowledged that the marine resources of the island had been
deplete d. 36 Additional evidence of changes in islands due to tourist developments
exist for the later period; those changes included the construction of the tourist
resort at Lizard Island, which had been completed by 1995, and the extensive
modification of the spit at Dunk Island, by 2000, among other schemes
(QPWS, 2000, p10) . 37 Overall, by the time of the formation of the GBRMP,