Love is in the air on Lady Elliot Island!

Turtle mating is in full swing as you can see from the photo above. “Turtle Stacks” are common at this time of the year but in this photo you can see 7 male turtles hoping to mate with the female, no wonder some of the girls are coming ashore to escape all the attention!

Turtle season runs from November to April. Green and Loggerhead turtles will make their way up the beach between November and March, laying approximately 80-120 eggs per clutch and can lay up to 9 times per season!

At the end of nesting season thousands of baby turtles push their way through their coral nests and make their way to the sea. Hatchling season is between February and April.

Check out our 'Turtle Escape' Package and see first-hand the magic of turtle season!

Photo by Kate Hickey

Lady Elliot Island has the second highest diversity of bird species on the Great Barrier Reef with up to 95 different species of seabirds, land birds and shorebirds. Some are residents that breed in season and live on Lady Elliot all year around, whilst others are classified as migrants as they spend extended periods on Lady Elliot. Migratory birds visit the island solely to nest and raise their young between September and March each year.

We currently have 5 Red-Tailed Tropicbird nests with 4 chicks. Our Activities Team keep a close eye on our tropicbirds, we are so fortunate that they have chosen Lady Elliot to nest as they are rare to the Great Barrier Reef and are only found on 2 other Great Barrier Reef islands. 

Photo by Jessica Blackmore

Make a difference for the Great Barrier Reef and Join ReefBlitz in 2016!

ReefBlitz is giving citizens the opportunity to become a scientist for the day to help snapshot the Great Barrier Reefs overall health.

There are a number of citizen science programs to get involved in: Eye on the Reef, Watch Coral Colour, Match a Manta, Report Unusual Sea life and Clean Up the Coast and many more. 

Check out the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s ‘Get Involved’ page for more information.

Lady Elliot Island has been nominated in the ‘Top Island Destination’ Category in Experience Oz’s Australia’s Top 10 Destinations to Experience 2016! Please take the time to Vote for Lady Elliot Island and go in the running to win one of three awesome prizes (see below).

Vote for Lady Elliot Island

Voting is open from the 25th October – 22nd November 2016

Voters prizes:
1st Prize: A trip for 2 to one of Australia’s top 10 destinations including experiences, accommodation and flights
2nd Prize: $500 Experience Oz voucher
3rd Prize: $250 Experience Oz voucher

We are pleased to announce that during the month of September we have added additional battery storage to our Hybrid Power Station on the island.

We have installed one of the most environmentally friendly batteries in the world designed by Aquion Energy in the United States.

This addition has increased our storage capacity by 25% adding 50kW hours.

Aquion Energy manufacture safe and sustainable salt water batteries. Their batteries are the first in the world to be ‘Cradle to Cradle’ certified, which is an esteemed mark for products made from sustainable materials and manufacturing process. 

We’re now another step closer to eliminating our use of fossil fuels!

We have broken our record of power generated in a single day with 625kW hours of power generated by the sun, this is enough sunlight to power over 30 Australian homes! This record has been achieved with an additional 58 solar panels on the Education Centre roof.

These additions now bring our total number of solar panels to 431 with a peak output of 104kW.

The combination of extra battery storage and solar has enabled us to set a new generator record at 4.7 hours. This is the shortest time the generator has ever run in a 24-hour window on Lady Elliot Island. 

We are now generating as much as 80% of our power from the sun!

The Project Manta Team have finally had the opportunity to see the famous Pink Manta Ray ‘Clouseau’ up close in the water and managed to take a core sample of the individual. This is fantastic for Project Manta as the sample will help to determine the cause for the pink colouration and add his DNA to their database.

Clouseau (#900 on the Project Manta database) was spotted by a group of divers back in October 2015 at Lighthouse Bommie, which is a popular dive sight for manta ray encounters. He was sighted again in the same location on the 24th August 2016 and on the 13th September by the Project Manta Team.

Photos by Amelia Armstrong

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].

Book early to avoid disappointment!

The Resort has been extremely busy this year, with an occupancy of 95%!

We have limited availability over the next 3 months so if you are thinking of visiting Lady Elliot Island, please book as early as you can.

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

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