ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how Europeans first encountered the region now known as the Great Barrier Reef. It highlights the complexity and challenges to navigation and the way in which cartography has been used to control the dangers of navigating the region. If further outlines how navigators’ practices of orientation were mimicked by early holidaymakers who thus understood their own experiences of the region in space and time, giving rise to a strong sense of place. The chapter contrasts these early practices with contemporary tourist experiences in which navigation and spatial location are largely absent, leading to a loss of orientation and spatial awareness.
