Heron Island (September 30-October 5)

After a long and sweltering bus ride from Saddler’s Springs ENE to Rockhampton on September 28th, we spent a relaxing day recovering at the Tropical Wanderer Resort—sleeping in, doing laundry, playing soccer, etc—before our next adventure, to Heron Island. Rockhampton is about an hour north of Gladstone on the Queensland coast. At Gladstone, we boarded the ferry on the morning of September 30th for the 2 hour trip to Heron Island. This trip is infamous in the annals of the HWS/UC Australia New Zealand term abroad for causing much sea sickness. We were especially fortunate as the water was as calm as glass, and we all arrived at Heron Island with breakfast intact!

Heron Island is small—only about 500 m in diameter— in the Capricornia Cays National Park. Professor Ian Tibbetts and his tutors arrived the next morning by helilicopter (!), and that day and much the next 3 days were spent snorkeling (at least once each day) on the reef crest. The daily snorkeling trips, including one that circumnavigated the island and another at night (!), were probably the high point of our time there. Students were intensively engaged in projects for the Marine Ecology course that Prof. Tibbetts teaches. Students divided into teams and each team selected one aspect of the ecology of the coral reef that surrounds Heron Island to study. The teams, each supervised by a tutor, spent most days making observations and measurements on the coral reefs. Student presentations were made one afternoon, and students were then charged with writing a report on their findings, which was to be due after we returned to Brisbane.