Changes in island biota - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 203

250,000

200,000

150,000

1

100,000 1

50,000

0

1893 1895 1897 1898 1899 1892 1894 1896 1900

Year

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911

Year

Figure 13.1 (a) Numbers of coconut palms planted in the Great Barrier Reef, 1892-1900;
(b) Coconut exports from Queensland, 1905-1911. Source: Author, compiled from data
provided in the Annual Reports of the Queensland Registrar-General, QVP , 1895-1900;
Annual Reports, QDAS, QVP , 1891-1892; SSQ, 1905-1911

little capital investment once the coconut palms had been transplanted from the
nurseries. However, the industry experienced difficulties as a result of damage
caused by visitors to the islands. MacLean (1896, p448) stated:

These islands are from time to time visited by bêche-de-mer fishermen and
others, who think nothing of leaving a fire burning when they leave an
island, and some of them even go so far as to set the grass on fire purposely.

Another source of damage to the early plantations was, reportedly, Indigenous
people who visited the islands and who were accused of firing the vegetation and
of removing the young plants in order to take the nuts (MacLean, 1897, p912).
By 1897, a large plantation had been formed at Shaw Island, near Kennedy
Sound, comprising three smaller plantations (MacLean, 1897, p912). The