Green Island - the exquisite gem in the internationally acclaimed Great Barrier Reef - is located just 27 kilometres (17 miles) offshore from Cairns.  Recognised as one of the most popular attractions within the World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, the island daily entices multitudes of eager visitors from around the world.

Totalling just 15 hectares (37 acres) and surrounded on all sides by magnificent coral reefs, the island is actually a vegetated coral and sand cay, its sparkling beaches made up of both sand and finely ground coral.  Green Island is just 650 metres long and 300 metres wide and has a circumference of approximately 1.5 kilometres.

Of course, the traditional owners of the Cairns area have always been acquainted with Green Island, and prior to European colonisation the Gungganydji people, who inhabit the Yarrabah area, utilised it for their initiation ceremonies.

The first Europeans to lay eyes upon the island, on Trinity Sunday, June 10 1770, were Captain James Cook and his crew, as they sailed past in the HMS Endeavour, on their way to their historic appointment with destiny - the first-ever collision of a ship upon the Great Barrier Reef.  Cook named the coral cay Green Island, in honour of the astronomer on this famous voyage of discovery, Charles Green.