Lady Elliot Island

The Great Barrier Reef's southernmost coral cay, Lady Elliot is a 45-hectare vegetated shingle cay populated with nesting sea turtles and an impressive number of seabirds. It's considered to offer the best snorkelling in the southern Great Barrier Reef and the diving is good too: explore a seabed of shipwrecks, coral gardens, bommies (coral pinnacles or outcroppings) and blowholes, and abundant marine life, including barracuda, giant manta rays and harmless leopard sharks. Sitting in one of the Barrier Reef's 'Green Zones', it enjoys the highest level of environmental protection – which is also enjoyed by the humpback whales that migrate through these waters between June and October.