<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/30/australia-great-barrier-reef-island-resorts>
"Kerry Outerbridge motored his powerboat through coral reef ringing the lush,
tropical island and alighted upon white sand.
Catamarans and jetskis lay strewn about the beach. Nothing but quiet emerged to
greet him from the bungalows scattered among a grove of coconut trees. A plate
of food sat on a kitchen table, mouldering.
“It was as if everybody packed up and left overnight,” he says.
Outerbridge last visited Brampton Island in 2022 and the abandoned resort has
since deteriorated even more. But once it was one of the jewels in the crown of
Australia’s tourism offerings; one of dozens of pristine island playgrounds
dotted through the Great Barrier Reef.
This week Tourism and Events Queensland launched a campaign to attract domestic
tourists whose international winter travel plans have been iced by unrest
abroad.
The poster image for a slick minute-long campaign video is a famous love
heart-shaped coral reef, about 115km north of Brampton.
With its tale of desertion and dilapidation, Brampton, one of the southernmost
islands in the Whitsundays, is far from unique.
At least six Great Barrier Reef island resorts have been abandoned to the mercy
of the salty and tropical air, years after being smashed by what a state
parliamentary inquiry described as a “series of extreme weather events”.
Brampton’s resort was one of several closed after Cyclone Yasi hit in 2011.
But it is not just cyclones wreaking havoc upon tourism in north Queensland.
Visitors are choosing to fly to cheaper holiday destinations in Asia or to go
on cruises. The inquiry also heard that investors were seeking to “land bank”
resorts without bothering to operate them.
The soaring cost of diesel used to reach and often power these resorts and
skyrocketing insurance costs driven by climate crisis only add to this trouble
in paradise."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
