Fascinating Low Isles Preservation Society meeting unveils life on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1890s
LOW ISLES Preservation Society held a meeting in April 2023 attended by a broad sector of the local community extending from Hopevale to Gordonvale, interested in the latest news, achievements, and future plans for the growing community group.
Historians, Low Isles caretakers, community and environmental advocates, volunteers, and local media participated in the meeting.
A highlight for the evening was a presentation by local commercial fisherman Billy Dunn who brought along an extraordinary tome, The Great Barrier Reef of Australia: Its Products and Potentialities (1893) by William Saville-Kent. The book is filled with vibrant photographs and watercolour illustrations of the coral ecosystem, pre-dating the legendary 1928 coral research expedition to the Low Isles.
Low Isles Blueprint for Lantern
Low Isles Lens and Pedestal (1923)
Low Isles Tower Plans
Low Isles Christmas 1908
Low Isles Valuation (1916)
Low Isles 1928-1930
Low Isles 1930-1934
Low Isles Register
Low Isles Register p2
Low Isles Maintenance Records (1950s)
“the greatest marine science venture on a global scale since the Challenger oceanographic expedition more than fifty years earlier.”
— James Bowen and Margarita Bowen, The Great Barrier Reef: history, science, heritage (2002)
Great Barrier Reef Expedition 1928-1929, Yonge, C. M. (Charles Maurice), 1899-1986
The expedition itself published seven volumes of scientific material in addition to articles in scholarly journals.
Maurice Yonge also published a book aimed at a general audience – A year on the Great Barrier Reef (1930).
The expedition team’s research pioneered studies into coral physiology and continues to be a vital reference material for contemporary study.
