Steve Sharpe and Louise Collier have moved back to Low Isles, a small coral cay about 15km off Port Douglas in Far North Queensland, to begin a second term as its caretakers, ABC News reports. The couple first volunteered there in 2003, took on the paid role in 2005 and left in 2008 for family reasons.
Their son Tom was born the day after the family left the island ahead of a wind warning, and he spent his first four years living there. Now 21, he has come back for a month to see his parents settle in.
Low Isles is the only island in the Great Barrier Reef’s joint field management programme with people living on it. The caretakers look after the buildings and water systems, keep watch for unauthorised boats and welcome the roughly 50,000 visitors who arrive each year. Much has changed since 2008: solar power has replaced boatloads of fuel, and satellite internet has replaced the old radio link.
Collier told the ABC she “felt like we had unfinished business there.”
Source: ABC News