On the remote Fairfax Islands at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, thousands of brown booby seabirds now nest among the coral rubble and sandy beaches. It is a peaceful scene, but the islands were not always so quiet.
During World War II, the sound of bombs exploding ricocheted across these small islands. The Australian government first gazetted Fairfax Islands as a military bombing range for the Royal Australian Air Force in November 1943. For nearly three decades, the islands served as a training ground for navy bombing and gunnery practice during the Cold War and Korean War, finally stopping in the early 1970s.
Senior ranger Damon Shearer from the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service has spent years helping to manage the conservation of these islands. "You can still see the evidence," he said, pointing to subtle undulations in the island's surface and old craters on the reef flat. But the story these days is one of remarkable recovery. "Nature's definitely taken it back over," Shearer said. "The birds nest all over it, and the coral has recolonised any craters."
East Fairfax, a cay made of coral rubble and shingle, hosts one of the largest brown booby colonies in the region for most of the year. "Obviously, with a lot of birds, you can't miss the smell of the place, the noise and the birds in the air. It's quite a chaotic island," Shearer said with obvious affection. The islands also serve as nesting grounds for sea turtles.
The islands now form part of the Capricornia Cays National Park, recognized for their significant conservation value. They remain closed to the public to protect the wildlife, a designation that would have been unimaginable during the islands' military years.
Yet traces of that history still surface occasionally. Unexploded ordnance has been reported on the islands and nearby reef at least five times, requiring specialist explosive technicians to safely dispose of each discovery. In 2008, ADF personnel traveled to the island to remove bombs, using small controlled explosions to break them apart where they lay. Gladstone Water Police Sergeant Jeff Barnett, who assisted in that operation, said they had to ensure the detonations were done as environmentally friendly as possible. "Because we're blowing up the reef, we had to make sure it was done in a manner that was environmentally friendly, as much as you can when you're blowing things up," he said.
Sergeant Barnett finds it difficult to believe the island was ever used for bombing practice. "Those were very different times," he acknowledged. While most large items have been cleared, he warns that shifting sand and storms can occasionally uncover remaining fragments.
For Shearer, the transformation is inspiring. Standing on islands that once echoed with explosions, he now watches seabirds fill the sky and coral reclaim the craters left behind. "It's quite idyllic really," he said.