"Save the Barrier Reef" from 1967 to 2013: a forty six year old campaign that changed the Great Barrier Reef

TL;DRAbstract

In 2013 the Great Barrier Reef hit the headlines with political debates on port expansion, dredging, UNESCO World heritage status, and tourism. From Greenpeace to conservationist Bob Irwin and octogenarian activist June Norman, environmentalists carried out media tours the length of Queensland in a campaign to 'Save the Reef'. Save the Reef '2013' came 46 years after the first campaign. In 1967 conservationist and philanthropist, John Busst, with the support of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, Queensland Littoral Society (now Australian Marine Conservation Society, AMCS) and then Prime Minister, Harold Holt, successfully prevented the Reef from being mined. The first ever 'Save the Reef' campaign successfully halted a Cairns sugar farmer's application to mine Ellison Reef for limestone. The argument for mining was that the reef was dead following a crown-of-thorns outbreak, which activists countered with scientific discourse and questions of ownership and intrinsic valu

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