056 - SANDBANK ON THE COAST OF WHITSUNDAY ISLAND, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA (20°17' S, 149°01' E).
Innumerable coral islets and continental islands are sprinkled over the narrow corridor separating the coasts of Queensland, in north-eastern Australia, from the Great Barrier Reef about 30 km offshore. Whitsunday Island, 109 km2 in area, is the largest of the 74 islands that make up the archipelago of the same name, baptized by British explorer James Cook, who discovered the islands in 1770 on Whitsunday (the Sunday of Pentecost). As seen here on Whitehaven beach, the shoreline is marked by the exceptional whiteness of its sand. This site is part of Great Barrier Marine Park, which receives more than 2 million visitors each year. Tourism, which is tightly regulated, has only a slight impact on this sensitive site, unlike coastal pollution and the repeated, unexplained invasions of crown-of-thorns starfish, a marine species that has damaged close to 20 percent of the reefs in the past thirty years.

View a Satellite Image of the area