The area of the Great Barrier Reef has attracted man for perhaps more than 40,000 years. The prehistory of the [L2 601 / Aborigines], though, is still obscure. Early inhabitants of the region most probably migrated from Southeast Asia and arrived at the continent after a grueling sea journey. These were people of the sea who had a basic technical knowledge of sailing and based their lives on harvesting the estuaries and coastal waters. They probably settled along the Queensland coast before the Ice Age ended in 15,000 BC. Then sea level gradually rose, drowning the ancient coastline and evidence of early settlements.
In the 18th century, 40 tribes formed a sandbeach clan culture that lived hunting dugong and [V003 / turtle], fishing and trapping shellfish. This would change dramatically in the early 19th century [L2 602 / when Europeans came to Australia] in great numbers. This all began when Captain James Cook discovered the Great Southern Continent in 1770 after he was officially sent to Tahiti to make astronomical observations of the transit of the planet Venus across the sun. Cook was also the first European literally to come in contact with the Great Barrier Reef, when his ship struck a small reef near Cape Tribulation.
Captain Cook's final act before leaving Australian waters was acted out on what is now called Possession Island where he laid formal claim to Australia in the name of the British Crown. A stream of scientists and surveyors followed him and when gold was discovered in the north, the first of several waves of new immigrants came. By the end of the last century, at the cost of scores of ships wrecked on numerous reefs, charts, lights and towers made navigation less of a hazard.
Conflict came with colonization by Europeans. Aborigines were murdered and retaliations followed. They were also decimated by newly introduced diseases to which they had no acquired immunity. Eventually, though, the Aborigines became an essential part of the [L2 603 / new maritime industries] that sprang up - beche-de-mer, guano mining, the harvesting of pearl oysters and trochus shells and shipping.
Today the reef plays an important role in many more people's lives. Many earn a living from [L2 604 / commercial fishing] or from the all important [L2 605 / tourist industry]. With the substantial increase in human activity on the reef, concern has grown over preservation of its natural heritage. This resulted in the passing of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act in 1975 which created a protected Marine Park covering more than 200,000 square miles and a generously-empowered park authority to oversee its management. The Great Barrier Reef remains in a relatively natural state in comparison to other reefs that have suffered from uncontrolled human activity and its pollution.
