Heron Island Research Station is a marine research station located on Heron Island, an island within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, 80 km from Gladstone, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It is located at the leeward end of a coral cay on a 10 x 5 kilometre platform reef. Although the island had been used as a turtle cannery in the 1920s, after this was abandoned, it was taken over as a resort in the 1930s, by Captain Christian Poulsen. A number of researchers travelled to the island from the 1930s using the resort facilities. The island became a National Park in 1943, and following the end of World War II, saw the first groups of university students from the University of Queensland arrive. Today the island is divided into three sections - the resort, research station and National Park.
Origins of the research station The origins of the research station exist within the Great Barrier Reef Committee, which was established in 1922 by UQ's first Professor of Geology, Henry C. Richards and Sir Matthew Nathan, then Governor of Queensland. Nathan, Richards and a group of like minded academics and politicians from Australia and overseas, wanted to promote the need for original research, debate and exploration of the Great Barrier Reef within politics, the university and scientific community and in newspapers and public addresses. A bore drill of the reef was undertaken with funding from the Committee in 1926 at Michaelmas Cay. The committee helped to fund a major expedition in 1928-1929 by the Great Barrier Reef (Yonge) expedition to Low Isles reef, north of Cairns to research the zoological, botanical and geomorphological importance of the Great Barrier Reef with the support of the Queensland government. The results of the Yonge expedition, which yielded a number of reports were published by the British Museum of Natural History (now Natural History Museum) and generated worldwide interest. In 1929, the Australian government was being lobbied to establish a marine institute or a number of research stations on the east coast of Australia. It was hoped that the structures that had been built for the Yonge expedition on Low Isles reef would be suitable as a longer term solution, but these were destroyed by a cyclone in 1934. A further geographical expedition occurred in 1936, and in 1937 another bore drill was conducted at Heron Island. Support for the preservation and conservation of the reef had also been growing. Professor Ernest Goddard from the School of Zoology at the University of Queensland had been recommending the establishment of a marine biology research station in Queensland since his arrival at the university in 1923. A number of islands were proposed for such a station including Palm or Dunk Island in 1929. The Great Barrier Reef Committee and the university had reservations about establishing a research station because of the ongoing funding it would require during the Depression, and because of competitive interests within the committee which sought a broader scope of study in multiple reef locations. With the outbreak of World War II, much of the impetus of the Great Barrier Reef Committee's program was halted. Sir Matthew Nathan returned to England and died in 1939. Prof. Richards suffered a heart attack in 1945 and would later die in 1947, resulting in a changeover in the leadership of the Great Barrier Reef Committee. Prof. Goddard also died suddenly on Heron Island in 1948, on the eve of his retirement from the university. He had intended to make the island his home and conduct marine biology research there. After Goddard's death, a fund was set up to establish a research station on Heron island in his honour and this objective was eventually fulfilled. In 1950, the Great Barrier Reef Committee, then under the supervision of Dr Edward Oswald (Ted) Marks (chairman), Dr Dorothy Hill (research secretary) and Dr O.A. Jones (treasurer), applied for a lease of a portion of the island to undertake scientific research. Secretary of the Committee, Dr Dorothy Hill was able to obtain materials to construct the first buildings for the new research facility on the southern end of the island in 1951, with construction starting in 1952. Hill was able to secure assistance in the transport of materials to the Island from vessels taking tourists to the Island's resort. For the years 1951-1970 the Great Barrier Reef Committee would oversee the station.
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