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An extraordinary barrier: European exploration, shipwrecks and early heritage values on the Great Barrier Reef 1770–1860

Abstract Popular understandings of the Great Barrier Reef’s early-settler history are anchored to the Endeavour’s crashing in 1770. Recently, however, James Bowen, Margarita Bowen, and Iain McCalman have illuminated the diversity of settler encounters with the Reef. This article builds upon their work. It discusses the first century of settler engagement, specifically the perceptions of explorers towards the Reef. It argues that while the Reef was the site of wrecks, those who threaded through its waters helped foster an appreciation of the Reef’s potential as a safe sea-lane, a site of profitable marine industries, and a source of scientific interest, beauty and cultural heritage.