40 Best Sights in Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

Hugely popular with locals and visitors, especially in stinger season, this stinger-free swimming enclosure on Airlie's shorefront has dedicated lap-swimming lanes, real-sand "beaches," adjoining children's pools, and sensor-activated lighting after dark. There are toilets, showers, and change rooms nearby, and all pools are patrolled by trained lifeguards year-round. Surrounding the lagoon are a children's playground and a tropical garden, crisscrossed with walkways and dotted with public art, picnic tables, and free electric barbecues. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets. Best for: swimming.

One of your best chances to see the endangered southern cassowary, a prehistoric emu-like bird, is at Birdworld Kuranda. It's home to hundreds of colorful birds from nearly 60 species, more than 20 of them native to vanishing rain-forest areas—walking and flying freely in a gigantic aviary. Many of them are tame enough to perch on your shoulders. Wear a hat and sleeved shirt: birds' claws are scratchy.

For divers and snorkelers, the usually crystal clear waters off Lizard Island are a dream. Cod Hole, 20 km (12 miles) from Lizard Island, ranks among the best dive sites on Earth. Massive potato cod swim up to divers like hungry puppies; it's an awesome experience, considering these fish can weigh 300 pounds and reach around 6 feet in length. The island lures big-game anglers from all over the world from September to December, when black marlin are running.

The world's oldest tropical rain forest is an ecological wonderland: 85 of the 120 rarest species on Earth are found here, and new ones are still being discovered. The 22,000-acre park, part of the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Wet Tropics region, stretches along the coast and west into the jungle from Cow Bay, 40 km (25 miles) or around an hour's drive northwest of Mossman. The traditional owners, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji, who live in well-honed harmony with their rain-forest environs, attribute powerful properties to many local sites—so tread sensitively. Prime hiking season here is May through September, and many local operators offer guided Daintree rain-forest walks, longer hikes, and nighttime wildlife-spotting excursions. Gather information and maps from local rangers or the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service's ParksQ website before hiking unguided, and stay on marked trails and boardwalks to avoid damaging your fragile surroundings. Whatever season you go, bring insect repellent.

To astronauts who've seen it from space, the Great Barrier Reef resembles a vast, snaking wall—like a moat running parallel to Australia's entire northeastern coast. Up close, what looks like a barrier is in fact a labyrinthine complex with millions of points of entry. Mind-boggling in size and scope, encompassing more than 4,000 separate reefs, cays, and islands, the Reef could rightly be called its own subaqeous country.

The Great Barrier Reef is a living animal. However, it's hard to imagine that the reef, which covers an area about half the size of Texas, is so fragile that even human sweat can cause damage. Despite its size, the reef is a finely balanced ecosystem sustaining billions of tiny polyps, which have been building on top of each other for thousands of years. So industrious are these critters that the reef is more than 1640 feet thick in some places. The polyps are also fussy about their living conditions and survive only in clear, salty water around 18°C (64°F) and less than 98 feet deep.

An undersea enthusiast could spend a lifetime exploring this terrain—which ranges from dizzying chasms to sepulchral coral caves, and from lush underwater "gardens" to sandy sun-dappled shallows—without ever mapping all its resident wonders. Not only is the Reef system home to thousands upon thousands of sea-life species, the populations are changing all the time. Here, divers can swim with more than 2,000 species of fish, dolphins, dugongs, sea urchins, and turtles; and marvel at hundreds of species of hard and soft coral.

The Great Barrier Reef begins south of the tropic of Capricorn around Gladstone and ends in the Torres Strait below Papua New Guinea, making it about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) long and 356,000 square km (137,452 square miles) in area.

Just 5 km (3 miles) outside Mossman are the spectacular waterfalls and swimming-hole-studded river that tumble through sheer-walled Mossman Gorge. The Kuku Yalanji–run Mossman Gorge Centre is the starting point for various walks, tours, and activities. There are several boulder-studded, croc-free swimming holes within the gorge, and a 2½-km (1½-mile) rain-forest walking track and suspension bridge. (Swimming in the river itself is hazardous, crocs or not, due to swift currents, slippery rocks, and flash flooding.) Keep your eyes peeled for tree and musky rat-kangaroos, Boyd's water dragons, scrub fowl, turtles, and big, bright butterflies—and try to avoid stinging vines (plants with serrated-edge, heart-shaped leaves, found at rain-forest edges). If you intend to hike beyond the river and rain-forest circuits, inform the information desk staff at the Mossman Gorge Centre, which also has café/restaurant, gift shop, Indigenous art gallery, restrooms, showers, and visitor parking.

Knowledgeable marine biologists and conservationists give entertaining talks and multimedia presentations, usually to packed houses, about everything Great Barrier Reef–related, from sea turtles' sleep cycles to coral-killing starfish. Expect to learn more than you thought possible about the reef's evolution and the diverse inhabitants of this delicate marine ecosystem. The attached Marine Shop sells an array of reef-themed merchandise: T-shirts, DVDs, books, field guides, and souvenirs. Sign up for a Reef Teach seat by midday.

From the Skyrail terminal just north of Cairns, take a six-person cable car on a breathtaking 7½-km (5-mile) journey across pristine, World Heritage–listed rain-forest canopy to the highland village of Kuranda, where you can visit wildlife parks and shop for local crafts and Aboriginal art. At two stations along the way, you can hop off and explore (the Skyrail ticket price includes a short ranger-guided rain-forest tour at Red Peak, and there's an info center and lookout at Barron Falls). Upgrade your ticket to the glass floor Diamond View Gondola for an even better view. The cableway base station is 15 km (9 miles) north of Cairns. Many visitors take the Scenic Railway to Kuranda, the cableway on the return trip.

Fronting Cairns Harbour, this busy boardwalk and recreational zone is the focal point of life in Cairns. Along the walk you'll encounter shady trees and public art, picnic and barbecue facilities, a large saltwater swimming lagoon, volleyball courts, an imaginative kids' playground, a state-of-the-art skate plaza, and areas for fitness, markets, and live entertainment. A shallow, 4,800-square-meter (51,667-square-foot) filtered saltwater lagoon swimming pool with a sandy shore, decking, and shelters, patrolled by lifeguards year-round, provides free, convenient relief from the often sticky air. Along the street opposite and along the marina at the boardwalk's southern end, you'll find hotels, shops, galleries, bars, and eateries.

Dubbed Australia's Cleanest Beach, this palm-flanked stretch of sand—lined with jogging tracks and cycleways, picnic-friendly parklands, and hip beachfront bars—has two swimming enclosures and a long pier perfect for fishing. The beach and its permanent swimming enclosure, Strand Rock Pool, are fitted with temporary nets during box-jellyfish season, November through May. There's also a free, kid-friendly Strand Water Park. All are patrolled by lifeguards daily, with hours varying seasonally. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; toilets. Best for: swimming.

This world-class wildlife sanctuary just off the Captain Cook Highway is divided into "immersion" wetland, rain forest, grassland, and savanna habitats, enabling close creature encounters with everything from koalas to cassowaries and crocs. The park shelters more than 180 species of native wildlife in its 8-acre expanse, including technicolor parrots, emus, kangaroos, echidnas, and reptiles. The breakfast with the birds, served daily 9–10:30 am, is accompanied by avian residents so tame they'll perch on your shoulders—and may steal your food if you're distracted. You can also lunch with the lorikeets from 12:30 daily, then join one of the sanctuary's free expert-guided tours, held several times daily. For something even more special book the nocturnal tour (A$43) or a two-hour animal and dining package (A$170).

More than 1,500 tropical butterflies—including dozens of the electric-blue Ulysses species and Australia's largest butterfly, the green-and-gold Cairns birdwing—flutter within a compact rain-forest aviary, alighting on foliage, interpretative signage, and feeding stations. About 60 butterflies are released into the aviary each day, ensuring the colorful spectacle continues. Free half-hour guided tours of the aviary and caterpillar breeding area are full of fascinating tidbits.

About an hour's drive from Cairns, Babinda Boulders is a popular swimming hole, and a sacred Aboriginal site. It's 7 km (5 miles) inland on The Boulders Road from the town of Babinda, accessible via the Bruce Highway about 60 km (37 miles) south of Cairns. You can also hike to the boulders, taking the 19-km (12-mile) Goldfield Track (Wooroonooran National Park) that starts in Goldsborough Valley, southwest of Cairns, and ends in Babinda Boulders car park.

This eco-friendly, interactive sanctuary on 22 acres of bushland shelters koalas, wombats, dingoes, wallabies, endangered bilbies, snakes, crocodiles, lizards, and numerous birds, most featuring in daily wildlife shows, presentations, and feedings. The sanctuary has daily free-flight birds of prey shows, crocodile and cassowary feedings, venomous snake presentations, and turtle racing. Visitors can snap a selfie with a koala, or have their photo taken holding a wombat, snake, or baby croc. Thrill-seekers can book a personal croc-feeding experience, with or without souvenir photo.

Just south of Cooktown within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) National Park protects a unique mix of gigantic granite boulders, wet-tropics species, and savanna woodland vegetation harboring abundant wildlife, including threatened species. Lucky visitors might spot the scanty frog, rainbow skink, Black Mountain gecko, Godman's rock-wallaby, or a rare ghost bat. Kalkajaka means "place of the spear"; Black Mountain was a significant meeting place for the Eastern Kuku Yalanji. The boulders are treacherous, so climbing and hiking is not allowed, but the lookout point provides a fairly close-up view.

Occupying the impressive former Public Office Building constructed in the 1930s, Cairns Art Gallery houses a hodgepodge of local, national, international, and Indigenous artworks, including a fine collection of Australian photography, in its wood-paneled rooms. The shop stocks high-quality Australian giftware, toys, jewelry, prints, books, and cards. There are also kids' programs, classes, talks, and workshops.

This floating marina's 261 berths bristle with charter fishing, diving, and private vessels, including superyachts up to 197 feet long. At the Reef Fleet Terminal off Marlin Wharf, you'll find tour offices, shops, cafés, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Big-game fishing is a big business here; fish weighing more than 1,000 pounds have been caught in the waters off the reef. Most of the dive boats and catamarans that ply the Great Barrier Reef dock here or at nearby Trinity Wharf.

The summit of pink-granite monolith Castle Hill, 1 km (½ mile) from the city center, provides great views of the city and Magnetic Island. While you're perched on top, think about the proud local resident who, with the aid of several scout troops, spent years in the 1970s piling rubble onto the peak to try to add the 23 feet that would make Castle Hill a mountain, officially speaking—which means a rise of at least 1,000 feet. These days, most people trek to the top along a steep walking track that doubles as one of Queensland's most scenic jogging routes.

Ten minutes' drive southeast of Airlie, Conway National Park is a 54,000-acre expanse of mangroves, woodlands, rocky cliffs, and tropical lowland rain forest that shelters the endangered Proserpine rock wallaby and other rare species, as well as sulfur-crested cockatoos, emerald doves, Australian bush-turkeys, and orange-footed scrubfowl. Most walking trails start at the park's picnic area at the end of Forestry Road, about 10 km (6 miles) from Airlie. Mount Rooper Walking Track, a 5.4-km (3-mile) circuit, meanders uphill through bushland to a lookout with breathtaking Whitsundays views. If time permits, and you're sufficiently fit, you can cycle, run, or walk the 27-km (17-mile) Conway circuit, starting at Forestry Road carpark and ending in Airlie Beach. Swamp Bay track follows the creek to a coral-strewn beach with a bush camping area.

Cooktown's historical museum, aptly housed in a former postal and telegraph office built in 1875, is staffed by affable volunteers and houses an extensive collection of photographs dating from 1873. The building also holds Cooktown's archives and is a research center for local history. It also houses semipermanent displays.

Locally made works (including Indigenous art) in various media line the walls of this terrific gallery, where you'll often find artists working on-site. Proceeds benefit the Cooktown School of Art Society, which also offers art classes.

This World Heritage–accredited Wet Tropics Visitor Centre's elevated boardwalks and a high viewing tower enable you to overlook an astoundingly diverse tract of ancient rain forest. You can acquire information en route from handheld audio guides, expert talks, and the on-site interpretative center. Four audio-guided trails include a Bush Tucker Trail and a Cassowary Circuit, on which you might spot one of these large but well-camouflaged birds. Take the Aerial Walkway across part of the bush, then the stairs to the top of the 76-foot-high Canopy Tower. Keen students of botany and ecology might want to prebook a guided group tour. The shop sells books, cards, souvenirs, and clothing. There's also an on-site café.

A stroll along Flinders Street from the Strand to Stanley Street takes you past some of Townsville's most impressive turn-of-the-20th-century colonial structures. Magnetic House and several other historic buildings along the strip have been beautifully restored. The grand old Queens Hotel is a fine example of the early Victorian Classical Revival style, as is the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, circa 1885, originally a bank. Tattersalls Hotel, circa 1865, is typical of its era, with wide verandas and fancy wrought-iron balustrades; today, it houses the rambunctious Molly Malones Irish pub. Once the town's post office, what's now The Brewery had an impressive masonry clock tower when it was erected in 1889. The tower was dismantled in 1942 so it wouldn't be a target during World War II air raids, and re-erected in 1964. The Exchange, Townsville's oldest pub, was built in 1869, burned down in 1881, and was rebuilt the following year.

A strenuous, not especially scenic walk or short drive from Cooktown lie Grassy Hill and the lighthouse, spectacular lookouts affording panoramic views of Cooktown, the Endeavour River, and the Coral Sea. Follow in the footsteps of Captain James Cook, who scaled the slope to view the reef and navigate his boat's safe passage out. The lighthouse, shipped from England in 1885, helped boats avoid the reef for a century before being rendered obsolete; it was then restored as a historical relic.

A scenic section of the Bruce Highway locals call the Great Green Way links Cairns with Townsville, taking you through sugarcane, papaya, and banana plantations, past white-sand beaches and an island-dotted ocean. The 348-km (216-mile) drive takes about 4½ hours. Allow time to explore towns, parks, and rain-forest tracts along the way.

This charming wildlife sanctuary houses kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, dingoes, birds, and reptiles, including a resident croc. Guided tours run daily, at 10 am and 3 pm, and there are daily breakfasts with the koalas.

Hartley's houses thousands of crocodiles as well as koalas, wallabies, quolls, snakes, lizards, southern cassowaries, and tropical birds in natural environs, accessible via boardwalks and boat tours. A lagoon cruise, on which keepers feed big crocs at close range, is included in your entry price. There are daily cassowary, wallaby, quoll, and koala feedings, croc and snake shows, and croc farm tours. Most thrilling is the "Big Croc Feed," a private tour for up to four people. It's your chance to handle squirming baby crocs and pole-feed gigantic ones, and includes a guided tour and commemorative photo. Lily's Bistro showcases local delicacies, including crocodile, of course. If you don't feel like driving, several Cairns-based tour operators include Hartley's on their day-tour itineraries.

Cooktown, in its heyday, was a gold-mining port, with 64 pubs lining the 3-km-long (2-mile-long) main street; a significant slice of this colorful history, including mementos of Cook's voyage and Indigenous artifacts, is preserved at this National Trust–run museum. The former convent houses relics of the Palmer gold-mining and pastoral eras, including a Chinese joss house; canoes; and the anchor and one of six cannons jettisoned when the HMS Endeavour ran aground. The surprisingly good on-site shop sells books and souvenirs. It's recommended that you allow at least an hour to pore over the exhibits.

The historic Kuranda Scenic Railway makes a two-hour ascent through rain forest and 15 hand-hewn tunnels to pretty Kuranda village, gateway to the Atherton Tableland. Book a simple Heritage Class seat; get a cool towel and souvenir pack; or splurge on a Gold Class ticket with fine local food and wine, table service, swanky decor, and a souvenir guide. Several tour packages are available, from full-day rain-forest safaris, and visits to local Aboriginal centers and wildlife parks to simple round-trips combining rail and cable-car journeys.

Centuries-old relics from the HMS Pandora (the ship sent by the British Admiralty to capture the mutinous Bounty crew), which sank in 1791 carrying 14 crew members of Captain Bligh's infamous ship, are among the exhibits at this repository of the region's maritime, natural, and Indigenous history. There's a fun introduction to North Queensland's culture and lifestyle, a shipwreck exhibit, and the ecology-focused Enchanted Rainforest. Displays of tropical wildlife, dinosaur fossils, local corals, and deep-sea creatures round out a diverse public collection.