Mission Beach was the birthplace of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and is the closest access point for the reef, less than 40km offshore.

“Known to his enemies as ‘The Bastard of Bingil Bay’, John Büsst, a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist, moved to tropical Bedarra Island in North Queensland and underwent an extraordinary transformation to become one of Australia’s most successful conservationists. In the 1960s and early 70s Büsst led campaigns to protect two of Australia’s most important and endangered environments – saving lowland rainforests from destruction and the Great Barrier Reef from reckless resource mining for oil, gas, cement and fertiliser. A plan Büsst likened to ‘bulldozing the Taj Mahal to make road gravel’. Along the way Büsst obtained the active support of five current or future Prime Ministers – Holt, Whitlam, Gorton, Hawke and Fraser”.