A CRUISE company is planning to build a tourist island on Australia鈥檚 Great Barrier Reef.
Although the plans for the island include a four-storey building, cafes and a conference centre, Sunlover Cruises, the Cairns-based company behind the scheme, claims it will have 鈥渘o discernable impact on the reef鈥檚 ecology鈥�. Rob Palmer of the Wilderness Society in Cairns disagrees. 鈥淭he reef is a World Heritage site partly for its aesthetic values,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou whack a four-storey building on it and you鈥檙e going to ruin it.鈥�
The island would be located about 50 kilometres east of Cairns in the Moore Reef area. 鈥淎esthetically, it will be in keeping with the region,鈥� says Terry Russell, the holiday company鈥檚 managing director. The topside will look and feel like rock, he says.
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Company representatives have been in discussions with environment officials at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority for 12 months and have submitted an environmental impact study. Although Russell maintains impact will be negligible, Palmer says temperature fluctuations caused by the moving shadow of the buildings and nutrient-rich effluent could have a bad effect on the reef.
The project may be approved by the end of 2003. If so, the Wilderness Society will challenge it in court, says Palmer.