Reconstructing changes in the Great Barrier Reef - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 29

Films and video-recordings
Historical films included the works of the earliest professional film-makers to
document the Great Barrier Reef using both surface and underwater photography,
such as Noel Monkman. The films were located in the audio-visual collections
of the SLQ, the SLNSW and at ScreenSound Australia. Those collections also
included video-recordings; footage preserved in each form was consulted. Many
early recordings of the Great Barrier Reef were produced by the Australian
National Film Board (ANFB) and those included Monkman's underwater films of
coral and associated species. Other relevant films were produced for the Australian
Diary series, including earlier footage of tourist and industrial development in
north Queensland and the resorts of the Great Barrier Reef. Those were surveyed
and analysed as they documented the growth of tourist resorts, such as at Green
Island, and also contained evidence of human impacts on turtle populations in
the Capricorn-Bunker group. Some potentially valuable historical films were
not available for study because of damage to the materials; consequently, other
historical films exist that could potentially yield valuable information if they are
restored.
Maps
Many historical maps of the Great Barrier Reef have been produced; they are
among the earliest surviving European records of the existence and nature of the
reefs. Early European exploration and navigation depended on the development
of accurate hydrographic charts; some of those are preserved in the collections
of many Australian libraries and archives, often in specialist map collections.
Besides hydrographic charts, other maps of the Queensland coast were used,
including scientific, tourist and road maps. Maps were analysed for data about
particular environments in the Great Barrier Reef and they revealed the
nature of previous coastal and island vegetation, types of substrate, growth of
settlements, presence of discoloured seawater and locations of fringing reefs.
Maps were used in conjunction with other materials, where possible, to reveal
evidence of environmental changes; for example, maps of Raine Island, Low
Isles and North Reef indicated the impacts of guano mining, the destruction of
the ' Porites Pond' and the blasting of an access channel through the coral reef,
respectively. Yet, overall, the value of historical maps for my research was limited:
many represented the reefs and coastline with varying degrees of precision, and
often with inconsistent or incorrect place names, perhaps due to the difficulty of
conducting accurate cartography in the challenging environment of the Great
Barrier Reef.