The Great Barrier Reef of Australia^*

Abstract

AUSTRALIA possesses in the Great Barrier Reef the largest and most impressive series of coral reefs in the world. The realisation of the unique opportunities so presented for scientific research—eological, geographical, and biological—led in 1922 to the formation of a Great Barrier Reef Committee with headquarters at Brisbane. Its chief promoters were the Right Hon. Sir Matthew Nathan, at that time Governor of Queensland, and Dr. H. C. Richards, professor of geology in the University of Queensland. Valuable work of a geological and geographical nature was carried out, and then, in 1927, following representations by Sir Matthew Nathan on his return to Great Britain, a British Association Committee was formed to organise an expedition for the biological investigation of the Great Barrier. To the expedition, which sailed in May 1928, was attached a geographical section organised and largely financed by the Royal Geographical Society.