30 October 2019
1 min Read
Great Keppel Island, Qld
While Great Keppel Island’s resort is currently undergoing a major revamp, this tropical hideaway is but a hub of turquoise waters, coral gardens and quiet beaches visited only by savvy campers.
Rest assured; the new resort will have an ecological focus to help preserve this special destination.
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No thanks, I like to travel solo
Great Keppel Island – The greatest secret until a major overhaul of the island which will see a large amount of native vegetation bulldozed to make way for a Golf Course. There will also be a several Hundred Berth Marina and a Several thousand room accommodation complex build. Billed as a “Carbon Positive” Resort, it is just a spin turn on using solar and other means of electricity generation.
At the moment you can indeed walk the beaches and be lucky to see another person. Once the resort is built there will be several thousand people wandering the island at any point in time, hardly making it any sort of tropical hide away.
It should be noted that is some local circles there is heavy debate as to the Environmental Process and Assessment for this island. As it stand currently close to shore reefs are bleaching and dying at a rather alarming rate.
The above image does look similar to the proposed Marina and so that beach will no longer exist as such. (I could be wrong but it does look similar). The environmental Assessment viewed the impact of any dredging and subsequent extra marine traffix not to be of a threat to the area; keeping in mind this is believed to be the northern limit of a extremely rare and highly endangered species of Dolphin. Proposed growth on the mainland, if given the green light, will see these waterways filled with bulk Coal and Gas carriers, hardly something to be look at and think this is bliss.
While GKI is a beautiful island it is in severe danger of becoming over run with tourists to a point of saturation. It is a sad future for this secret location but it is a realistic assessment of the islands future.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with Johno…GKI is amazing, but for how much longer?