Australia’s much loved White Humpback Whale ‘MIGALOO’ was sighted on the 2nd August, cruising by Lady Elliot Island.

Migaloo was frolicking less than 100 meters from shore in the pristine waters that surround Lady Elliot Island and hung around for most of the day.

First spotted by air, excited passengers alerted pilot Kristy Fraser of the white whale. He then surprised our guests on the afternoon Glass Bottom Boat by showing off his beautiful white glow through the glass. According to skipper Pedro, Migaloo’s song was so loud it was audible from the boat!

We are thrilled that Migaloo chose to visit Lady Elliot Island on his annual migration from Antarctica to the warmer waters of north Queensland.

Migaloo was first sighted on the East Coast of Australia in June 1991 and has become a bit of a celebrity, he even has his own website.

CLICK HERE to view the video of Migaloo

At this time of year, given our unique location and the cooler water temperatures, we get a higher concentration of zoo plankton in the water which attracts the larger mega fauna such as Manta Rays! Much to our excitement it has been a bumper season for Manta Rays and Whales with our guests being lucky enough to snorkel with them nearly every day!

Check out our YouTube Channel for some amazing Whale Encounters! 

Photo by Julie Gash

Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort’s Managing Director Peter Gash recently attended the inaugural Wildlife Warriors Foundation Gala Dinner for Australia Zoo in Los Angeles on the 21st May 2016.

The Steve Irwin Gala Dinner celebrates the life and legacy of the original Wildlife Warrior – Steve Irwin. All proceeds from the dinner help Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors, to continue the conservation work Steve was so passionate about.

On behalf of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, Peter made a generous donation which gave Lady Elliot the naming rights for the newest baby Giraffe at Australia Zoo. Peter watched as she took her first steps out on the African Savanna today where he officially named her ‘Ellie’

Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort is extremely excited to support the Wildlife Warriors foundation which was established by Steve and Terri back in 2002. 100% of all of public donations go directly to conservation and the preservation of wildlife.

Photo courtesy of Australia Zoo

The OSCA (On Site Composting Apparatus) is now in action! OSCA is an automated composting technology developed by WDI Sustainability in Queensland. Using minimal energy, OSCA processes organic waste streams including food waste (plate scrapings, bones, seafood), agricultural waste, compostable packaging, paper and cardboard and green waste. OSCA can produce a high quality, safe immediately usable compost within in 10-14 days.

Why OSCA? For the past 46 years Lady Elliot Island has composted our food waste via in ground methods. Now in 2016 this is not considered the best practice so we have moved our energy to OSCA as it is more environmentally suitable on our fragile Coral Cay Island. The compost produced by OSCA will be 100% recycled onto the airstrip (as approved by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) and will allow the environment and forest to recover more quickly from the massive loss of compost removed from the Island during the guano mining period. 

Once again Foto Frenzy 2017 has been avery popular selling out 40 positions in less than one day! Photography enthusiasts were quick to secure their spot for the week long workshop with Darren Jew, Sean Scott and the Canon Collective Team.

If you missed out on the 2017 workshop, please keep an eye out for information regarding 2018 on our Facebook page and via our Newsletter.

We found Dory on the Southern Great Barrier Reef!

With the release of the much loved sequel 'Finding Dory' back in June we decided to celebrate her journey and open a Photo Competition for all of our Dory lovers!

Thank you to everyone who submitted their images to the competition.

The winner of the competition was Ian Christie with his beautiful photo above.

- Recent desalination upgrades have seen our usage of 15Kw of power to produce 25 litres of water per minute drop to 10.5Kw of power to produce 45 litres of water per minute. This means that we can now produce our water in 9 hours which remains between sunlight hours i.e 'the Solar Window' this in turn means that we are now producing 100% of our desalinated water for free from the sun with solar! Another step forward! 

- The Island is in the process of replacing the roof on the Education Centre and Western Deck. This will result in a cooler veranda for the summer, a quieter hide away during those summer storms and a new roof to put another 60 solar panels on!

- We have been very fortunate to purchase a second hand complete solar farm featuring 128 QCell, 235 WPP Panels and 6ABB inverters. This purchase will bring our solar panel count from 313 panels (970Kw) to 439 panels (1.270Kw or 1.27Mw). This is a major milestone, as we have now crossed the 1Mw power production threshold. Lady Eliot Island is possibly now one of the largest privately owned solar systems in Australia and most importantly we will be reaching a 90% reduction in fuel burn when we complete the installation. 

Below are a collaboration of images from our Instagram account. Thank you for sharing these amazing images! Don’t forget to keep posting your favourite snaps, we all enjoy seeing them.

If you are happy for us to use any of your images for marketing purposes, please email them to [email protected].

Not valid during peak season (12th December 2016 – 12th January 2017)

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