Why The Great Barrier Reef Is Simply Awesome

In honour of the new series Life On The Reef (beginning on ABC Sunday 1 March), we celebrate the awesomeness of this Aussie location.

This is the Great Barrier Reef.

And this.

It’s one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage area.

It is bigger than the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Holland combined, roughly the same area as Japan, Germany, Malaysia or Italy and approximately half the size of Texas.

It's larger than the Great Wall of China.

It is the only natural structure that can be seen unaided from space.

You'll meet many amazing creatures on the reef.

It has over 1500 species of tropical fish.

It has over 3000 varieties of molluscs.

It's home to six of the world’s seven species of threatened marine turtles.

And over 200 species of birds.

It has 20 types of reptiles.

It has 134 species of sharks and rays.

And it's home to 411 different types of hard coral, and 600 types of soft and hard corals (including one-third of the world’s soft corals).

It’s a uniquely beautiful place with hard working guardians.

But most importantly, Nemo lives there. So it’s simply the best.