Green Island, Queensland


 When my mother and I visited Cairns, Queensland,  we decided to take a day trip by ferry to Green Island.  Green Island is a coral cay, 27km offshore from Cairns.  As we disembarked from the boat, the scene at the top of this post greeted us.  I am sure you can agree that it is very beautiful.



This beautiful island is a great spot to go swimming, snorkelling or scuba diving, and there is plentiful marine life to see.

Here is the jetty leading from the ferry to Green Island:


My Mum and I aren't much for adventure activities, so we took a ride on the glass bottomed boat instead to see the marine life.  Here are some shots of the fish and coral that we saw on the boat:



This is a fish feeding frenzy created by the boat captain for the benefit of tourists:


This is a school group snorkelling off Green Island:










Back onshore, there were plenty of these cheeky birds ready to pounce on any food that became available:


One of these birds jumped up and took my mother's sandwich out of her hands, not once but twice!

If you don't swim or snorkel or bush walk, there is not much to do on Green Island.  Most people use it as a base to go diving further afield on the Great Barrier Reef.  You can stay at the Island hotel if you fancy.

My mother's father visited Green Island back in the 1930s, and she has photographs of him walking on the jetty at Green Island.  I wanted to capture Mum doing the same nearly 90 years later, so here she is:


Here's Mum and I on the glass bottomed boat:



And to finish this post, here are some photos of my mother's father, Joe (who sadly passed away before I met him) walking with friends on the jetty at Green Island in the 1930s: 





Finally, here is the menu from the MV Kanimbla that my mother's father sailed out to Green Island on:




It sounds very grand!  Those were the days.

As it happens, the MV Kanimbla was a very famous ship which served as a passenger vessel between 1936 and 1939, became a war ship during WW2, and then converted to a passenger ship again before it was scrapped in 1973. I feel very chuffed that my dapper grandfather was once a passenger on this grand dame of the seas.

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