Known as the Godfather of Coral , Charlie Veron's book, A Life Underwater , was recently published . Diver Eddie Hergel, of the Queensland Littoral Society , now the Australian Marine Conservation Society , was one of the players in the campaign which prevented Ellison Reef from being mined as a source of fertiliser.
Ninney Rise is the restored residence of the late artist and " Barrier Reef hero" , John Bustt, involved with the Victorian art colony of Montsalvat before moving to North Queensland , using his friendship with PM Harold Holt to campaign for the reef and rainforest. Ninney Rise is now heritage listed and contains the library of conservationist and environmental activist Margaret Thorsborne AO, who with her late husband , Arthur, initiated the monitoring and protection of the Torresian imperial-pigeon on the Brook Islands near Hinchinbrook Island .
The small portrait at the bottom of the poster is of John Bustt and is from the Thorsborne collection .