Your Lady Elliot Island E-Newsletter No images? Click here HAPPY NEW YEAR!2019 was a very exciting and goal-kicking year for Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort. Excitingly we won Gold for Ecotourism at the Queensland Tourism Awards, we are continually working towards our goal of 100% renewable energy by December 2020 with an additional 258 panels added during 2019. This brings the total number of solar panels on the Island to 801. A number of rooms have been renovated and this will continue over the next 18 months to ensure guests have a comfortable experience during their stay. Our Dive Shop is currently under construction and we hope to reveal the finished product by February 2020. Furthermore, we launched the new website late last year and would love your user feedback! We are honoured to be heading to Canberra in March to attend the Australian Tourism Awards and hopefully take out the National title for Ecotourism. This type of accolade is a wonderful testament to the team, as it reinforces we are taking correct measures to remain a sustainable organisation which provides once in a lifetime experiences for our guests. We thank each of you for spending time on our little slice of heaven over the years! We hope to see many more familiar and new faces on Lady Elliot Island during 2020. ISLAND CHRISTMAS SPIRITChristmas Day on Lady Elliot Island is a celebration not to be missed. Our staff work tirelessly to make the day as wonderful as possible for our guests. The Kitchen team cooked up a storm and provided a delicious Christmas Lunch Buffet, with all Aussie Christmas staples including Prawns, Moreton Bay Bugs, Christmas Pudding and an assortment of freshly baked breads and cheeses. Guests were visited by Santa in the morning and a game of Airstrip Cricket was played in the afternoon. If you were on the Island over Christmas we would love to see your photos! Please hashtag #ladyelliotisland on social media for a chance to be featured on our Instagram and Facebook pages. TURTLE SEASONThere is lots of excitement filling the air around this time of year as Turtles come up the beach each night to lay eggs. We even had our first nest of hatchlings emerge last week! Turtle Nesting season runs from November to March, and once laid, eggs take up to 8 or 9 weeks to hatch. So far this year we have met many new Turtle friends as they have hatched and made their way down the beach and onto the East Australian Current! Photo Credit: Jeremy Somerville PETER GASH PODCASTManaging Director of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, Peter Gash, recently sat down with Steve Geddes, a freelance director, producer, writer and cinematographer, to record his first podcast ‘The Exploration of Everything’. The podcast focuses on Peter’s life story. It can be found on all online podcast streaming services! AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRE CRISISIt is with great sadness that we witness the Australian Bushfire Crisis taking place around our incredible country. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected. We commend the amazing fire fighters, volunteers, rescue personnel and all Australians who are putting their lives on the line daily. It breaks our heart to hear about the amount of loss that has occurred from lives, land, vegetation, homes, livestock, businesses and precious wildlife. Collectively as a team we have come together and raised money which has been donated to The Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief & Recovery, The Rural Fire Brigades Association QLD and The Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. Back in December, the Queensland fires affected many of our team members and our hearts ache for everybody that is still being impacted during this devastating time. Lady Elliot Island is very dry. In 2019 we received 29.9% (370.8 millimetres) of our average annual rainfall. We are currently not being impacted in our daily operations. All flights, accommodation and activities are as scheduled, operating normally and currently we don’t anticipate any change from this position. Photo Credit: Brentan Randall - a smoky sunset on LEI from the Queensland fires HISTORYOver the coming year we will take you on a journey of the history of LEI. This month, we will focus on the formation of the Island. By geographical standards, LEI is considered young. During the last Ice Age, the coastal plane on which today’s reef and cay developed was completely exposed. Early in the Holocene Period (around 10,000 years ago) the sea level began to rise. It finally stabilised at its present level roughly 6,000 years ago. The LEI reef flat then began to expand and provide the site for the formation of the cay. The Island first appeared above sea level roughly 3,500 years ago as a coral rubble spit! Over the next 3,000 years, storm deposited shingle ridges known as ‘berms’ and coarse coral rubble provided a suitable resting point for various seabirds. The seabirds’ droppings then provided nutrients for vegetation to grow. This provided the conditions needed to form the mature, vegetated coral cay seen today. Lady Elliot Island is classified as a shingle coral cay, which differs from a sand coral cay. Sand coral cays form from low energy tidal deposition and consist of fine material. Photo: Birds eye view of Lady Elliot Island in 1973 NEW PACKAGESECO ESCAPEFrom $899 per person (twin/triple share). Experience one of the most pristine and untouched sections of the Great Barrier Reef, with over 1,200 different species of marine life and exceptionally clear water (average visibility 30 meters). Sale period 3rd January 2020 to 29th February 2020 only. Valid for travel between 1 May – 31 Aug 2020. MANTA MIGRATIONFrom $1,165 per person (twin/triple share). Lady Elliot Island is a major hotspot for manta rays on the east coast of Australia. Encounter these gentle giants on our Manta Migration package between May-August.
Valid for travel between 1 May – 31 Aug 2020. SEAIR PACIFIC OUTBACK ADVENTURE TOURSSister company Seair Pacific's Outback Adventure Tours kick off in April 2020!! Experience some of the most remote and iconic parts of Australia with their three day Outback Adventure. Travelling in a Cessna Caravan, enjoy a birds eye view of the incredible colours and landscapes of the Australian Outback. Departing from the Gold Coast, fly west over 2,000km into the real Outback dropping into Birdsville, Lake Eyre, William Creek, Innamincka and Cunnamulla. These iconic Australian towns give guests a true taste of the Australian outback. Click below for more information or contact our reservations team via email [email protected] or call +61 7 5599 4509 to reserve your place now! |