Whitsunday Passage

Abstract

Travelling north by boat, the first suggestion of the Great Barrier Reef comes to one in rather a sinister way.¹ A white lighthouse² appears above the horizon and near it a squat black shape, which soon takes on the lines of a foundered ship. It is the Cooma, well known to most people on the coast once, and now an empty shell, held so securely below that she seems to be at anchor in placid waters. The rising wall of the Barrier guards her from the breakers so that she will be a long while in breaking up, and will probably remain for years as a warning to navigators of what a little miscalculation means in these coral-strewn seas.