GREEN ISLAND

VISITED AUGUST 2022 

Green Island off Cairns is a fully vegetated coral cay – apparently the only one in Australia (although I have seen way better in the nearby western Pacific). Fully vegetated coral cays result from an atoll attacked by storm waves filling or part-filling its lagoon with sand and coral chunks which are then heaped up by wind and wave action. Vegetation is the result of seeds dropped by birds, washed onshore by waves, blown by storm winds – given long enough a secondary rainforest results. I’ve never seen a full blown rainforest on a coral cay.

Appears roughly circular....

....but ain't.  The island is more a squashed egg shape – the short axis is abt 350M vs - the longer 550m. The lagoon inside the atoll drop-offs is considerably larger – the closest drop-off to the beach is 600m, the furthest abt 5km.

BTW those light building in the far background are in Cairns, abt. 28km SW.

Directly off the boat you hit the town square which has a lot of tourist outlets designed, as one fellow guest said, to separate you from your money. But pay attention: it is here that the fast food outlet which sells a heap of reasonably priced stuff around lunchtime is located. This area is nicely sheltered from any stiff trade winds.

Fancy alcohol? The pool bar to the left of the square can do this. Prices reasonable for a touristy joint although bottom-budget cheapskates like me may be outraged.

The resort is to the right of the square. It looks older than Fitzroy Island’s resort (it was opened 1994) and certainly room prices are higher – for a way less appealing island IMHO

The main swimming/beach area is well sign-posted from the square. A short stroll, it is on the lee side of the island although my visit saw the SE TRADES strong enough to keep things cool. One correspondent I've read suggests no lifesavers: they were present my visit: maybe it is a seasonal thing. Not that there is any surf. Sand is reasonably nice, the water fairly clear and snorkeling off the beach okay although there was evidence of coral bleaching. The coral and fish were better near the pier but not mind-blowing. Didn’t see any turtles and apparently this is a good spot for them. I didn’t snorkel long. At nearly 77 I’ve seen plenty of coral and marine critters. Done that – not doing a lot more.

CAVEAT:
A - Dunno what the snorkeling and swimming are like off the beach in low tide. Photos I have seen indicate a lot of the lagoon bottom is exposed. Fortunately it seemed high tide my whole visit. I seem to remember the normal 2 tides a day thingo varies inside the outer reef.
And of course the height of low tide (and high) varies throughout the month and year.
B - Beaches wax and wane with the weather – the current Google Earth image shows more sand/less rock than at my visit. Maybe the weather was more benign preceding Google’s shot. I can’t promise the situation when you visit.

WALK AROUND THE ISLAND 

Photos give the impression the beach is continuous around the island. True of some cays but not Green Island. 

For a start there are a hundred+ meters of artificial bank-erosion protection in the pier area – fortunately walking tracks a short distance inland allow you to continue your circumnavigation. 

Where the bank protection ends near the north corner is a wide strip of sheltered nice sand but signs suggested no swimming – didn’t stop this dude from launching his near-pier snorkeling excursion.

This wide strip of sand continues around the island corner to become the main beach about 50m wide.

After about 250m it gives way to a rocky section*: easily traversed but not with bare feet. 

Main beach in background.

The rest of the circumnavigation alternates between sandy and rocky sections: the latter often with narrow strips of sand behind. All was more exposed to the SE Trades which were brisk early – later in the day they reached gale-force. At least it was sunny early – later it clouded over and we got a few light showers.

THE ISLAND INTERIOR

The town square and circumnavigation took up less than 3 of my 7 hours. That left the island interior which GREAT ADVENTURES has tried to jazz up with 2 main walkways ("ECO" WALKS) along which are INTERPRETIVE PANELS every 50m or so on which are a lot of facts and timelines about the island's history, flora, fauna and geology.

I find this sort of stuff interesting but the island is small, the tracks short and I knocked them over in 45 minutes. That left over 3 hours until the ferry. So I headed for the pool....,

THE POOL

The pool is pretty sweet. Adjacent the town square, it is an irregular 40mX25m and pretty sheltered from the wind. There was enough sun lounges on this not so great day, but more benign conditions may see some pressure. Judging by the few swimmers’ reactions the water was pretty chilly. Something I was not prepared to confirm – I spent my youth surfing 7/52 in cold southern waters (cold at least in winter) back in the day when we couldn’t afford wet-suites: any of you thinks I’m going to brave chilly pool water to make my trip-report more personal has another think coming.

I didn't mind spending time here - at least until it started to rain. 

SUM UP

I wasn't whelmed with Green Island -but then I've never been on a coral cay which offers more than a few hours diversion.

But others think it the duck's guts, judging by the gushing user reviews online. To get full value from the place:

1- spend up on the extras like paid snorkelling, scuba, glass bottomed boat, paragliding, the giant croc show, the big a la carte restaurant lunch etc. Note my GREEN ISLAND TRANSFER as run by GREAT ADVENTURES was a basic there-and-back transfer with 7 hours self-discovery on the island (trip was abt 50mins each way (28km) from/to Cairns marina) at $92**. The same outfit runs more expensive tours which include some of the above. Well worth checking as I discovered.
2- get a perfect windless sunny day (not so common in this region of prevailing SE trade winds) when the beach and snorkeling are idyllic.
3- combine your visit with another marine place out of Cairns like Fitzroy Island or the outer reef: If like me you are just out to check Green Island you can do a comprehensive tour in about 3 hours. Any longer and the place is a bit boring unless you also have 1 or 2 above.

RECOMMENDATIONS
- if you really want to spend time on an Australian fully vegetated coral cay, do a trip which has some extras mentioned above (note you can pay for these on the island but I don’t know if the price is the same) – or better still combine some other area like the outer reef or Fitzroy Island.
Alternatively, spend less time. At least one transfer outfit out of Cairns offers a half day visit,
-take warm clothing: waiting for the ferry in the SE gale was less than pleasant. Better still, lurk in the shelter of the trees near the pier until the ferry arrives – they won’t leave without you – the ferry takes time to load and there was plenty of surplus seating on the return trip.
- if you are time-short and can only do one island trip out of Cairns I reckon Fitzroy is way better than Green. It’s far more interesting, has more variety and will keep dudes like me who want to do a simple transfer and self discovery way more happy. Oh, and the ferry transfer is slightly shorter and cheaper.

**not great value when JETSTAR can do SYDNEY-ULURU return for $99 when they have their specials up.