“In June 1828 a British scientific expedition, jointly funded and organized by Cambridge University and the Queensland Great Barrier Reef Committee, began a revolutionary twelve-month study of two tiny interconnected coral cays near Cairns, known as the Low Isles. Daringly, the team of nine young British biologists included a number of talented women scientists, and was led by a 24-year-old trainee coral biologist Charles Maurice Yonge. None of these Britons had ever seen a coral reef before. British newspapers romanticized them as intrepid young ‘Crusoes’ about to be self-marooned on a desert isle.”
“The results of the Yonge expedition were presented in a massive series of Cambridge volumes, which transformed global knowledge of corals, reefs and their marine ecologies. Many of these findings reached a general audience. Yonge himself wrote scores of popular articles, as well as a delightful bestselling book, A Year on the Barrier Reef. This flood of publicity succeeded in romanticizing the wonders of the Barrier Reef and its science all over the western world. The expedition also pioneered the use of new ecological techniques and ideas, influenced the study of vulnerable marine species, inspired the appointment of women scientists in Britain and Australia, and led to the formation at the Low Isles of the first Australian Reef research station.”