Forty years ago, Lady Elliot Island, which sits on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, lay barren and windswept, having been mined for guano in the 1860s. There was barely a tree left.
It caught the attention of former motorbike racer, Peter Gash, then 24, who was visiting the island with his girlfriend Julie. They were struck by its potential.
“The water around Lady Elliot was still magnificent with turtles, dolphins and rays. I had this remote dream to turn the place back to the way it was,” Peter, now 65, tells New Idea. He began a tourist business flying visitors out to see the nearby Lady Musgrave Island before his attention turned back to Lady Elliot.
With hustle, hard work and a bit of luck, Peter and…