The Great Barrier Reef lies off the coast of Queensland: 2000 kilometres of spectacular coral reefs, sand cays and islands, Australia's most precious marine possession. Teeming with life, it covers 350,000 square kilometres. In the late 1960s the Reef was threatened with limestone mining and oil drilling. A small group of dedicated conservationists in Queensland – John Büsst, Judith Wright, Len Webb and others – battled to save the Ellison Reef from coral-limestone mining and the Swain Reefs from oil exploration. The group later swelled to encompass scientists, trade unionists and politicians throughout Australia, and led in 1976 to the establishment of a guardian body: the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.That it still survives is a legacy of activists, artists, poets, ecologists and students. In 1967 they were branded as 'cranks'; now they should be recognised as 'visionaries'.
"It will come as a surprise to most people that so many of the issues confronted in the 1960s by the doughty campaigners against drilling for oil on the barrier reef are still alive. We will have to be as determined and as persistent as they if we are to protect what is now a World Heritage Site from pollution, dredging, dumping, coral bleaching and pest species."
Germaine Greer, author of White Beech
"Wonderful and timely to see this lovely new edition of a classic book that every Australian should own. In it Judith tells the inspiring David and Goliath story of how she and a group of friends took on massive forces of greed and destruction that threatened the existence of the Great Barrier Reef and won. Australia urgently needs this new call to arms."
Iain McCalman, author of The Reef: A Passionate History
"Political intrigue, shifting allegiances, dirty deeds, and more, Judith Wright records the environmental struggles of the 1970s, and the people's movement to preserve the Great Barrier Reef - for a time. Today, as the reef faces new threats, her book provides inspiration, and a how-to guide for a new generation of activists, for whom the beauty of the reef matters most deeply."
