A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER

Does last summer's mass coral bleaching event sound a death knell for Australia's beloved Great Barrier Reef? "Not on my watch!" is the message coming from he army of heartbroken, but resolute, marine scientists who've responded to the crisis by doubling down on their research.

- KAREN MCGHEE

THERE AREN'T MANY places as idyllic as a tropical coral cay on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). These hard-to-reach places - natural mounds of white coral sand and rubble that often sprout lush green vegetation fertilised by seabirds are among the planet's most picturesque places. But the mood is sombre among the researchers who greet me and photographer Craig Parry as we arrive in early May 2024 on the RV Linckia II at The University of Sydney (USyd) research station on One Tree Island (OTI), a 4ha cay off the Queensland coast, about 100km east of Gladstone. Among them is Dr Steph Gardner, a marine microbial ecologist from The University of Sydney who, like so many reef researchers, has been in love with the GBR - its colour, movement and abundance of life - since childhood.

Steph has been here since late March following up on research she began in 2023, looking at bacterial diversity in the sand around corals. Although it's not yet clear what role these life forms might play, they could be critical to coral-reef health, just like healthy gut biomes are known to be important to human wellbeing.

When Steph first arrived here this season, she couldn't wait to show her colleagues Raphael Burkart-Radtke and Ana OlmosPin the beauty in the famously untouched waters around OTI.

As one of only two "orange" research zones closed to the public within the massive 344,000sq.km marine park that protects much of the GBR, the OTI environment is as close to pristine as you can get. It's off-limits to tourists, only low-impact research is allowed and there's virtually no run-off of any sort from operations here.