Green Island National Park

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Green Island National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)

Nearest town/city:	Cairns
Coordinates:	16°45′47″S, 145°58′11″E
Area:	12ha
Managing authorities:	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Official site:	Green Island National Park

For the coral cay, see Green Island (Queensland).

Green Island National Park^[1] is a protected area declared over a small (12 ha) coral cay known to the local Gungganyji Aboriginal peoples as Dabuukji.

It is 27 km offshore from Cairns (1394 km northwest of Brisbane), [[Queensland], can be accessed by a choice of boats leaving daily from Cairns, and is reputed to be the most visited (popular) island National Park within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area^[2]

1 Park Features
2 External links
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Park Features

This island is a true coral cay formed over thousands of years by the build-up of sand and coral rubble deposited on the calm side of a platform reef. The island is covered in tropical vine forest which supports a diversity of birds and insects. The surrounding coral reef is home to many kinds of corals, clams, fish, stingrays and other reef life. Green and hawksbill turtles are seen offshore.^[2]

Green Island has been a popular tourist resort for more than a century. The island became a national park in 1937, a marine park in 1974 and part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area in 1981. Today the island, reef and beaches are managed together as a recreation area..^[2]