News Release - 23 November 2006

Historic Island Reveals its Secrets  

This book has just about everything: history, a lighthouse, shipwrecks, environmental issues, a resident ghost and some of the best underwater colour photos ever published.

It’s all in the latest book by Queensland author Anthony Walsh and its all centred on Lady Elliot Island, a small coral cay right on The Great Barrier Reef, 80 km north-east of Bundaberg. 

Walsh’s book is entitled: Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef Australia 

It traces the history of the island since1816 when the captain of the sailing vessel, Lady Elliot came within sight of its golden shores. Walsh has gathered a great collection of images down through the years including a drawing of the island in 1843 by J.Beete Jukes and a photo of the reef flat taken by English naturalist, W.Saville-Kent in 1892.      

The story of the island includes the exploitation of the environment by the guano miners in the 1870s and the construction of its historic kerosene-powered lighthouse in 1872.  

Apart from the lighthouse keepers and the hundreds of goats that were placed on the island as a food source, the island remained a desolate place until 1969 when a local aviator, Don Adams was granted a lease over part of the island for tourism purposes.  

Don built an airstrip, now the only one on a coral cay along the entire 2 000 km Great Barrier Reef and began the restoration of the environment and was subsequently given an environmental award in 1974. 

When the lighthouse was automated and the last of the lighthouse keepers left the island in the 1980’s, the conspiracy of silence about the resident ghost was revealed. Those encounters are chillingly recounted in Walsh’s book. 

The book also records its more immediate past including the environmentally-friendly resort and its recognition as one of the best scuba diving sites in the world. 

The 112 page book is available for mail-order purchase at $23.95 (including postage and handling) to A Walsh, PO Box 445, Sunnybank, Qld 4109.