SOUTHERN GREAT BARRIER REEF – GLADSTONE REGION

At the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, Gladstone offers access to Heron Island, Wilson Island and uninhabited coral cays. The locals are passionate about the water and marine activities. This love of the sea is celebrated each year with the Gladstone to Brisbane Yacht Race, marked by the week-long Gladstone Harbour Festival, held around Easter. wide variety of restaurants and eateries cater to all tastes - from Australian tucker to Gladstone’s famous mud crab and fresh seafood!

Gladstone’s Tondoon Botanic Gardens are one of Australia’s few totally native botanic gardens. The display areas specialise in the plants of the surrounding and Tropical North Queensland regions.

Along the coast, Seventeen Seventy (formerly known as The Town of 1770) is a picturesque seaside village surrounded on three sides by the Coral Sea and Bustard Bay. Historic as it is the second landing site of James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour in May 1770, the area is rich in wildlife and natural beauty and offers scenic vistas in every direction.

Agnes Water is Queensland’s northern-most surf beach and is the last in a line of beautiful, unspoiled beaches that sweep up the coast from Bundaberg. Agnes Water and its sister township of Seventeen Seventy offer a range of activities and holiday ideas - from relaxing at the beach, four wheel driving through rugged coastal national parks, beach and deep sea fishing - to enjoying an adventure tour aboard an amphibious vessel. Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy are also one of the closest points to the outer Great Barrier Reef, with tours departing to both Lady Musgrave Island or Fitzroy Reef.

Situated 32 nautical miles from Seventeen Seventy is the spectacular 2,000 acre lagoon of Fitzroy Reef. The only naturally formed, all tidal entrance lagoon on the Southern Great Barrier Reef, it boasts a diverse range of colourful and uniquely shaped corals, as well as dolphin (Bottlenose, Common and Spinner), turtles (Loggerhead, Green and Hawksbill) and up to 1,000 different species of small, colourful fish. Guests can see nearly one million individual fish while snorkelling the bombies of Fitzroy! Sharks (White and Black-tip reef sharks) majestically cruise through the lagoon - totally uninterested in people!

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