Whitsundays’ Heart Reef up close and personal

Partnered by Hamilton Island

Whitsundays’ Heart Reef up close and personal

The new and decidedly classy way to explore this coral icon is from a bespoke $2 million pontoon accessed in a custom-built $4 million helicopter.

Heart Island's $1 million glass-bottomed boat positioned off Heart Reef. Salty Wings

Steve Meacham

Updated Aug 16, 2019 – 6.02am, first published at 12.00am

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As our $4 million, six-passenger Airbus H125 helicopter rises effortlessly above the famously white sands of Whitsunday Island’s 7 kilometre-long Whitehaven Beach, the pilot points out a humpback whale breaching in the aquamarine-coloured Pacific Ocean.

The newly engaged Chinese couple in the helicopter’s two front seats next to Tallum, our pilot, gaze at the sea of white caps, wondering where the whale has got to even before they’d managed to focus their cameras. Then they sit back, relax and enjoy a scenic flight to rival any in the world.

Until recently, Heart Reef could only be truly appreciated from the air. Salty Wings

“Neil” and “Yuki” (their anglicised names) are genuine VIPs: the first paying customers to visit Heart Island – Australia’s latest luxury tourism experience.

Until this afternoon, Heart Island has been experienced only by contractors, aviation crews, environmental inspectors and select media.

It has been 10 years and $2 million in the making, Brad Graves, chief executive of Hamilton Island Air, explains through our headsets. Eight of those were spent ensuring Heart Island met stringent environmental conditions to keep this part of the Great Barrier Reef pristine for future generations.

Heart Reef takes skill to find and it’s even more breathtaking in reality than in pictures.

To fully understand the magic we’re about to witness, let’s step back in time.

In 1975, John Ramsden, an Air Whitsunday pilot flying over Hardy Reef, took a photograph of a beautiful – but tiny – coral formation in the shape of a perfect Valentine’s Day heart. Heart Reef, as it was labelled, became a global romantic icon that could only be truly appreciated from a helicopter or seaplane.

Since Hardy Reef is 75 kilometres away from the nearest airfield at Hamilton Island and perilous for sea craft to reach at anything other than low tide, Heart Reef – a minuscule coral bommie hidden in its centre – has been off limits to snorkellers and picnickers for decades. (In the 1980s, people used to trample all over it and place their eskies in the middle.)

As of last month,all that changed with the launch of Heart Island – although it is neither heart-shaped, nor an island.

“People would ring up saying they wanted to go to Heart Island,” Graves explains. “We’d have to tell them it’s not an island, it’s a reef.”

So when he came up with the idea of a bespoke floating pontoon in the lagoon next to Heart Reef – complete with a helicopter landing pad, a luxurious glass-bottomed boat, snorkelling gear, a swimming pool and of course, champagne and canapés too – “Heart Island” seemed the obvious name to register.

The specially built pontoon, helipad and glass-bottomed boat. Salty Wings

By now we’re flying over the darkened deep-water channel that separates Hook Reef from Hardy Reef. The white outline of the artificial Heart Island soon comes into view, floating in a blue lagoon.

But Heart Reef, the main attraction, takes skill to find (it’s unrecognisable upside down). Tallum sweeps over it twice (giving Neil and Yuki plenty of opportunities to take photographs) and it’s even more breathtaking in reality than in pictures.

Minutes later we land on Heart Island’s upper deck (its automatic anti-bird spikes already retracted, courtesy of its solar and wind power).

Up to six guests at a time can travel to Heart Island and snorkel off Heart Reef. Salty Wings

Marketing professionals call Heart Island “a James Bond experience” but those of a certain age will marvel at its resemblance to Thunderbirds (minus the puppets). As Neil and Yuki change into their swimming costumes and are fitted with their snorkelling gear, Graves and his team turn the pontoon into a sci-fi fantasy.

A side hatch mysteriously rises. A snorkelling deck descends. Then a custom-made vessel emerges, looking more like a Monte Carlo plaything than a glass-bottomed boat.

“The whole concept of Heart Island came from the question: how do we protect the boat?” Graves says. His answer was to commission what he calls “an upmarket boat shed with a helicopter landing pad on top”.

The custom-made, Queensland-built $1 million glass-bottomed boat takes us over coral and tropical fish to Heart Reef, where Yuki takes her first ever snorkel.

Even in midwinter, the water temperature is a comfortable 20 degrees. After 45 minutes examining the aquatic life, we head back to Heart Island for champagne and nibbles.

As Graves and his team convert Heart Island back into an ocean pontoon protected from the elements, Neil and Yuki prove excellent post-snorkelling companions.

There is plenty of time to explore the surrounds before reboarding for champagne and snacks. Salty Wings

The whole experience takes three hours, including 90 minutes all to ourselves in this most isolated part of the Great Barrier Reef.

On the flight back, Tallum climbs the helicopter higher than usual to avoid the wispy clouds gathering, which means we have a view of the entire Whitsundays.

As Steve Jobs once said: “Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Have the courage to follow your heart.”

NEED TO KNOW
A visit to Heart Island, limited to six passengers, costs $999 a person. See hamiltonislandair.com.