Heron Island - The Southern Great Barrier Reef

Above: Heron Island Pier

Heron Island felt a bit unreal. On a whim, we scored a 2 night, 3-day ‘locals deal’ from a visit to the Agnus Waters i-site and drove to Gladstone the day after to catch a catamaran to Heron island. At the Gladstone Marina, we enjoyed a nice coffee and a big breakfast before boarding – not exactly what’s recommended before a 2-hour boat ride across rough seas.

We chose a seat up the front of the boat, on the lower deck – as we are traveling during covid-19, we try to maintain ‘1.5 to stay alive’. However, before we left the harbour the boat crew began walking around passing out sick bags and announced that the seas would be rough today. When the crew got to Marcus and I were politely told that it is recommended we move to the back of the boat. This warning didn’t deter us, and we persisted to sit right up the front- for a whole 30 minutes. We had barely left the harbour when it felt like we were strapped into a rollercoaster ‘losing our stomachs’ every other wave. We soon ended up upstairs – wind in our faces and getting rather wet from the swell. It was all eyes on the horizon for the next 1½ hours.

The rough seas and nausea soon dissipated when the reef served as a wave breaker and Heron Island came into view. The reef looked expansive and the water ever so blue…fast forward to our time on the island.

Nature on Heron Island - The fascinating birds and trees

On our day of arrival, we joined an island tour. Our tour guide was Kate and I cannot recommend a tour with her highly enough. She was passionate about the reef and island, knowledgeable, and answered everyone’s questions in depth. We learned invaluable knowledge from this tour, some which I write below:

Heron Island is a coral cay, which means it was formed over thousands of years from things on the ocean floor being washed up to a single area. The island ‘floor’ is made up of bits of coral, algae, bird droppings and several other things from the ocean that I cannot recall. This makes the sand on the island quite coarse, but if you look closely you can see lots of different things mixed in.

Over these thousands of years, several plant species have grown on the island. Some of the most intriguing where the Octopus bush, Pandanus, and Pisona Tree.

The Octopus Bush gets its name from the octopus-like flowering parts of the plant and the leaves can be used for medicinal purposes or dried out and smoked like tobacco.

If you’re ever out of drinking water near the ocean and you find a Pandanus tree, you’re in luck: The roots that extend from the tree into the ground are filled with fresh drinkable water! The fruits from this tree can also be boiled (for 8 hours!) and eaten (although we were told they would be eaten out of necessity and not for taste).

Arguably the most interesting tree is the Pisona tree. These trees need fresh water to survive and tap into underground water pockets to get this. However, as they are on an island these trees inevitably also soak up saltwater. The Pisonas don’t like saltwater and over time have adapted so they can manage their saltwater intake and outtake. To manage this, these trees have sacrificial leaves! They send the saltwater to certain leaves on their branches, which absorb that salt, turn yellow and then drop to the floor. Saltwater gone.

These fallen leaves will then be used by Noddy Terns to make nests who make their homes in Pisona trees. The male noddy birds will search for the perfect leaf and take this leaf to its female partner, who sits waiting in the developing nest, and who will either approve or disapprove of his finding.

The Pisona tree is also coined the Bird Catcher Tree. In spring these trees bear sticky fruits which Noddy Terns love to eat. However, when these fruits dry out they become bird catchers or traps: These fruits will grasp onto anything that touches it, and sadly for Noddy Terns they can become ‘caged’ in the sticky ball of spindly fruit. Once entangled they cannot walk or find food and over the next 2-3 days, these birds will die and become fertilizer for the Pisona Tree. How’s that for the workings of nature!

Heron Island has quite a few birds. We were fortunate enough to be on the island when the Noddy terns were first finding their nests – however, in summer, it is said that over 70,000 of these birds will inhabit this small island. I can only imagine it would be a rather noisy time on the island then. Interestingly, the scientific name for Noddy Terns is Anous stolidus which means foolish or stupid. However, these birds have an adaptation that is far from stupid. Noddy Terns will lay together in large groups in the direct sun, sprawl their wings out and sit there until they reach temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius. They do this to kill off parasites.

The first thing you notice when you step foot on the island are the little Buff-banded Rails running around making interesting sounds. They are quite entertaining to watch and during the breeding season can get rather hungry – so you better watch your food if you are eating outside. We had one think that the pineapple in our cocktail looked rather tasty and jump up to grab some. Other than their hunger driven behaviour, they are rather placid, friendly birds and we didn’t find them an annoyance at all.

Interestingly when Heron Island was first discovered Egret birds were seen along the foreshores, which are often confused with Heron birds and as such the island was wrongly named Heron Island. Herons are typically thinner than Egrets (in case you were wondering). There are plenty of Egrets on the island, however, my take on these fellows, is that they are quite rude despite their timid demeanour. For example, when these birds are young, in the nest, they will kick out their siblings (to die) from the nest. They will even go to the extremes of meandering over to other bird species nests and will kick out Noddy Tern hatchlings. As if this isn’t rude enough, during turtle hatching season, they will peck these hatchlings to death. They do this with no intention of making a meal out of it.

Snorkeling

We have a video of our time snorkeling! Grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy: https://youtu.be/J9nMhixI2KE

The snorkeling off and around Heron Island was magical.

On our first day, we went for a (rather cold) snorkel out to the shipwreck 200m offshore. The HMAS Protector ship served at both world wars and was brought in from the Gladstone Coast to Heron Island to serve as a wind and surf break for small boats coming into the island. During our snorkel out to the shipwreck, we saw several brightly coloured fish and lots of coral. As it was sundown the clarity wasn’t as good as during the day but snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef around a historic shipwreck as the sun went down was totally unreal! This is an experience we won’t forget anytime soon.

On our second day, we joined a snorkeling boat tour, which takes you to the reef edge where the reef abruptly stops, and the floor drops away beneath you. It is recommended not to swim to the outer reef edges alone as there are strong currents that run around Heron Island (and which serve to protect and cool down the reef here!). The outer reef was incredible and rich with colourful corals and teeming with sea life.

Of course, we also snorkeled straight off the beach. The island is surrounded by bountiful healthy reef and sea life. We swam with reef sharks, many docile green turtles, lots of varied fish,and rays. I (Rachel) felt so fortunate to swim with several reef sharks right off the foreshore as this was on my bucket list.

Heron Island Resort

We really enjoyed our stay at the resort. The amenities and island were clean. The staff were friendly and very accommodating. Breakfast and dinner were included in our ‘locals’ package deal and we thoroughly enjoyed each meal. Due to Covid dinners are a la carte. Breakfast is still buffet; however, staff serve your food for you.

Ideally, we would have loved to stay longer, but we are vagabonds on a budget.