Facebook icon Twitter icon Forward icon

Sir David Attenboroughs’ ‘Great Barrier Reef’ Documentary

Sir David Attenborough returned to the Great Barrier Reef last year to film a new documentary.

David has teamed up with Tourism Australia to make a three-part documentary aimed at promoting Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef. Atlantic Productions visited Lady Elliot Island in June to film the Manta action.

We are very excited to be a part of the documentary and cannot wait to see it, it is due to air on the BBC in December/January and will eventually appear in approximately 130 countries around the world!

Sunrise on the Southern Great Barrier Reef!

Nuala and the weather crew from Sunrise, Australia’s No.1 Breakfast Show (Channel 7) visited Lady Elliot Island recently for a live broadcast from the Southern Great Barrier Reef!

After our Managing Director, Peter Gash explained that Lady Elliot Island is actually a Coral Cay Island and the difference between Lady Elliot and a rock based Continental Island, he light-heartedly stated “Lady Elliot Island is a big pile of bird and coral polyp poop”.

Lady Elliot Island then became the butt of all jokes as the Sunrise team referred to LEI as ‘poop island’.

Great Barrier Reef UNESCO Decision

We welcome the decision by UNESCO not to put Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef on the ‘in danger’ list. We will continue to work closely with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and other stakeholders to ensure that the reef surrounding Lady Elliot Island remains in pristine condition for future generations to enjoy, in part through working with the Reef 2050 long term Sustainability Plan. It is fantastic to finally see a Federal and State Government working hand in hand with unprecedented bipartisan approach to achieve this very welcome and sensible outcome.

Here in Australia we are now witnessing what would normally be considered unlikely joint partnerships between business, green groups and various levels of government, in ways we have never previously seen. This can only be a win-win for all parties involved, and most importantly our beloved Great Barrier Reef. It is testament to the high level of regard that all these people, groups and indeed all Australians and people of the World, have for the protection and sustainable care of our UNESCO World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. We are also very proud to have played a small part in the outcome, having hosted seven of the UNESCO Ambassadors during their visits and fact finding assessments here in Australia earlier this year.

Foto Frenzy Photography Workshop 2016

Join the annual Foto Frenzy workshop to be held on Lady Elliot Island from the 25th April – 1st May 2016.

Whether you love photography as a beginner or an experienced enthusiast, Foto Frenzy on Lady Elliot Island is an event that will help you take your photography to the next level!

Participants will be coached by world renowned photographers Darren Jew (who has photographed some of the planet’s most amazing landscapes and wildlife), Sean Scott (who is leading the way in coastal landscape and surf art photography), Gary Cranitch (who works with the Queensland Museum and has co-authored books such as the Great Barrier Reef ‘a Queensland Museum Discovery Guide’) as well as the Canon Collective Team with their ambassadors and award winning photographers Colin Baker and Greg Sullavan, who will all share their knowledge and expertise to help perfect your photography skills!

Extended to 7 days/6 nights, the workshop is based on the concept of ‘Capture to Print’ with endless shooting opportunities above and below the water, review sessions, group presentations and break outs which will culminate in a print exhibition of participants work on the final night.

So immerse yourself in photography on the Southern Great Barrier Reef and join us for a Foto Frenzy on Lady Elliot Island!

From $1,400 per person in an Eco Cabin (Quad Friendly Share) ex Hervey Bay /Fraser Coast or Bundaberg.

For further information, or to make a booking contact our reservations team on 1800 072 200 or email [email protected]

Manta Rays & Project Manta

Lady Elliot Island’s Manta Ray Season is a magical time of year that you do not want to miss! Check out this incredible photo taken recently whilst diving on Lady Elliot Island, a truly amazing experience for both divers and snorkelers!

In Eastern Australia, manta rays are the focus of an ongoing research and monitoring program by Project Manta. By monitoring individual occurrences, the Project Manta team are learning a lot about their life history, distribution and movements. Project Manta relies on the help of the diving community to report manta ray sightings along the East Australian seaboard and monitor individual occurrences, mass aggregations and season migrations.

You can help Project Manta by reporting mantas sighted in the East Australian waters. Email the Project Manta team at [email protected] and send your manta photographs (underbelly side) as well as any relevant information about the sighting (your name, location, date, number of manta rays observed, behaviour).

Photo by: Ryan Jeffery 

Whale Season

The whale season has officially begun in Hervey Bay and we couldn’t be happier to see these majestic giants on their annual migration north pass by Lady Elliot Island! Whales can be spotted on your flight to Lady Elliot Island, from the beach and from the glass bottom boat, so keep an eye out and you may be lucky just to see one! Check out this awesome photo taken by Maggie during a recent Snorkel Safari, this could be you!

Photo by Maggie McNeil

Accommodation soft refurbishment

Our Reef Units, Garden Units and Eco Cabins have received a well-deserved makeover with newly polished timber floors and updated bed-linen. Fresh and new for our wonderful guests!

New Record for Solar Hybrid Power Station

Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort’s Solar Hybrid Power Station continues to set new records for us. The two most recent records that have been set are:

1. On the 22nd of June, 2015, our 313 solar panels in the Solar Hybrid Power System generated 395 kilowatts of power to run our resort. This is the highest amount of solar power we have ever produced in a 24 hour period. In order to put that in perspective, an average house uses between 10 and 20 kilowatts of power daily, so we created enough power to run as many as 40 households – all from the sun. The timing of this is nice to see, as it lines up with the record just set by the solar airplane flying from Japan to Hawaii – over four days in the air, all on solar energy and stored during the evenings.

2. On the 5th of July this year, our 60kVA generator only ran 6.2 hours over the 24 hour period. This is a remarkable achievement when you consider that six years ago we ran a 220kVA generator 24 hours a day and burned 23 litres per hour, 550 litres per day or 200,000 litres per year. The new tiny 60kVA generator burns 12 litres per hour in conjunction with our 313 solar panels, 72 batteries and 12 inverters. Our fuel burns are now consistently under 100 litres per day (74.4 litres on the record day). Our annual fuel burn is now approximately 40,000 litres per year, which is almost an 80% reduction in fuel burn from 5 years ago. This is even more remarkable as we were in the very busy school holiday period, and with lots of people comes large fuel burns.

The future is clearly going to be with renewable power sources, and Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort is proud to be a part of this changing society.

We are still investigating bird friendly wind generators in order to reach our goal of 100% renewable energy.

Seair Pacific is now ONLINE!

Seair Pacific is the air charter service for Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort and they are now on Facebook & Instagram! If you want to keep updated with everything aviation, click the links above!

Did you know that we have four (4) convenient departure points? Scenic flights depart daily from the Gold Coast, Brisbane (Redcliffe), Hervey Bay/Fraser Coast and Bundaberg.

Australia Tourism Exchange (ATE) 2015

Vicki and Lena from our marketing department recently attended the Australia Tourism Exchange 2015 (ATE15) in Melbourne. ATE is Australia’s largest annual travel and tourism business-to-business event. It brings together Australia’s tourism industry in a forum to showcase their products directly to tourism wholesalers and retailers from around the world, through a combination of scheduled business appointment and networking events. Basically it is ‘speed dating’ with approximate 100 Travel professionals over 3 days in back to back appointments.

We are very excited about the announcement that ATE16 will be held on the Gold Coast, from 15 to 19 May 2016!

For those of you who don’t know our head office is located in the General Aviation area of the Gold Coast Airport.

Exploring - @alex_kydd

#turtleselfie - @colindavisphotography

I'm watching you! - @jeremysomphoto

Beautiful blues - @nathanwhiteimages

#turtleselfie - @scottbidmead

Time to relax! - @somthingtravel

Packages

We have released 3 packages valid from 1 May to 31 August. The water visibility is exceptional at this time of the year, up to 30 metres, and this is when the Manta Rays are particularly prevalent and we also have the migrating humpback whales from June.

3 Night Digital Detox

Dive the Southern Great Barrier Reef – Stay 7 Pay 5

Manta Migration – Stay 5 Pay 4

Other packages available include;

Simply Nature… 2 Night Stay

Stay 5 Pay 4  - One Free Night

Stay 7 Pay 5 - Two Free Nights

Reef & Rainforest – 4 Nights

Lady Elliot Island & Fraser Island – 4 Nights

Powered by CreateSend.ie