Lizard Island

In August 1770, with the Endeavour repaired after striking the reef and beached on the mainland at what is now Cooktown, James Cook landed on a granite island to the north and climbed its summit to look for a passage to the open sea. He named it Lizard Island for the large monitor lizards he found there. The hill is still called Cook's Look, and the resort that shares the island's name lies below it, the northernmost on the Great Barrier Reef, some 240 kilometres north of Cairns.

History

The island is the country of the Dingaal people, who call it Jiigurru and have long used it for ceremony. In 1881 Mary Watson, the wife of a bêche-de-mer fisherman, fled an attack on the island with her infant son and a Chinese servant, Ah Sam, in an iron tank used for boiling sea cucumbers. All three died of thirst on a small island to the north, and her diary was found with them. The stone ruins of the Watson cottage still stand near the shore.

In 1973 the Australian Museum opened the Lizard Island Research Station, which has become one of the principal coral reef research centres in the world, and a resort was built on the island in the same period. The resort has changed hands several times. Cyclone Ita struck in April 2014 and damaged it heavily, and it was rebuilt and reopened the following year.

Architecture and design

The rebuild produced low, airy buildings in pale tones, with wide windows and decks turned towards the water. Little competes with the setting: the turquoise of the bays, the granite boulders and the grey-green scrub of the national park.

Rooms and suites

There are 40 suites and villas, set along the shore and on the slopes behind it. The larger villas have private plunge pools, and the Pavilion, the most private of them, stands apart with its own pool and long views across the water.

Dining

Meals are taken in the main restaurant, open to the bay, with menus that change daily and lean on reef fish, prawns and tropical fruit. Rates include meals and most drinks. The kitchen packs picnic hampers for guests to take by dinghy to a beach of their choosing, and each beach can be reserved for a single party for the day.

Wellness

A day spa offers massage and treatments. Most guests find their exercise in the water or on the walking tracks that cross the national park, including the climb to Cook's Look, a steep walk of a couple of hours return that rewards an early start with views across the lagoon to the outer reef.

Location

The island and its surrounding waters are protected as Lizard Island National Park and lie within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. There are 24 beaches, many of them reached only by boat, and coral gardens begin close to the sand. Watson's Bay and the Blue Lagoon offer shallow snorkelling, while the Cod Hole on the outer Ribbon Reefs is famous among divers for the giant potato cod that swim up to meet them. From September to December the waters beyond the reef are fished for black marlin, and the island has long been a base for game fishing boats.

Access is by light aircraft from Cairns, a flight of about an hour along the coast of Cape York and over the reef. As a luxury resort on the Great Barrier Reef, it puts guests further from the mainland crowds than any other while keeping the comforts of a small hotel.