# Family turns bare island into reef oasis after guano mining destroys it > Lady Elliot Island was stripped bare by 19th-century miners. One family spent decades replanting it by hand, and seabirds have returned by the thousands. - Title: Family turns bare island into reef oasis after guano mining… - Summary: Lady Elliot Island was stripped bare by 19th-century miners. One family spent decades replanting it by hand, and seabirds have returned by the thousands… - Keywords: lady elliot island, guano mining, seabird restoration, great barrier reef, don adams, moya adams, peter adams, gash family, ecosystem rehabilitation, bundaberg, queensland, news - Source: Abc — https://abc.net.au/news/2026-10-10/guano-mine-rehabilitation-on-lady-elliot-island-birds-return/107138364 - Published: 2026-10-09T18:30:00+00:00 - Read time: 4 min - Topics: lady elliot island, guano mining, seabird restoration, great barrier reef, don adams, moya adams, peter adams, gash family, ecosystem rehabilitation, bundaberg, queensland, news ## Seabirds silenced by mining For thousands of years, Lady Elliot Island at the Great Barrier Reef's southern tip was alive with seabirds. Within a decade of guano miners arriving in the eighteen sixties, the island was silent and bare. ## Why guano was gold Guano, accumulated seabird waste, is rich in nitrogen, phosphate and potassium. After German explorer Alexander von Humboldt took samples to Europe, farmers' demand for this fertiliser soared across the world. ## Commercial mining begins Commercial guano mining started in Peru in eighteen forty. The profitable global trade quickly expanded to hundreds of Pacific and Caribbean islands, displacing seabird colonies along Australia's east and west coasts. ## Lady Elliot Island targeted With hundreds of thousands of seabirds nesting on the forty-five hectare Lady Elliot Island, settlers identified it as a guano goldmine. The commodity fetched more than five pounds per tonne at the time. ## Mining lease granted In eighteen sixty-three, the Queensland government granted Jack Askunas the first official mining lease for Lady Elliot Island for three hundred pounds per year. He cleared all trees, shrubs and grasses to reach the guano. ## Massive extraction An estimated twenty thousand tonnes of guano, with a raw market value equating to about thirty million dollars today, was removed from Lady Elliot Island over the next decade. ## Island becomes moonscape After mining, Lady Elliot Island became uninhabitable even for seabirds. Miners then put goats on the island for shipwreck survivors, and any sprouting plants were eaten. Lighthouse keepers later introduced invasive plants. > This became like a moonscape, absolutely barren. ## Aviator sees potential Aviator Don Adams flew over Lady Elliot Island in the nineteen sixties and saw tourism potential in its coral reef. With almost no vegetation, he knew substantial rehabilitation would be essential to make it viable. ## Adams family begins work Don Adams and his wife Moya reached an arrangement with the Commonwealth Department of Transport to build an airstrip in return for a lease. They began the painstaking work of rehabilitating the island by hand. ## Surveying native species Wanting to rehabilitate correctly, Don and Moya surveyed native species growing on similar islands in the Great Barrier Reef. Coconuts from Dunk Island were used to grow coconut palms that still stand today. ## Nursery in Hervey Bay Moya Adams created a nursery in the backyard of their Hervey Bay home, where she propagated casuarina, pandanus and umbrella trees. The family flew hundreds of saplings to the island for hand-planting and hand-watering. > I distinctly remember digging holes in the coral with a crowbar. ## Conservation award The Adams family's rehabilitation program won a conservation award from the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland in nineteen seventy-four.Don Adams said his small involvement with Lady Elliot was the thing he was most proud of. ## Gash family takes over Peter and Julie Gash first visited Lady Elliot Island in the nineteen eighties and became involved in tourism in nineteen ninety-seven when their company Seair Pacific began flights. They became custodians in two thousand five. ## Solar power transition In two thousand eight, the Gash family built a first-of-its-kind hybrid solar power station with more than one thousand solar panels and two hundred fifty batteries. ## Twenty thousand trees planted Over the past two decades, more than twenty thousand trees have been planted on Lady Elliot Island.The Gashes partnered with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in about two thousand seventeen to accelerate the planting program. > Everything you see has been planted by hand on Lady Elliot Island, or it's been introduced by a bird species bringing out its seeds along the way. ## Nursery propagates native species In ten years since the island's nursery was established, staff propagated twenty-two species of native trees, shrubs and grasses. Revegetation has been completed across about seventy percent of the island so far. ## Seabirds return in thousands An estimated one hundred thousand black noddies now nest in the trees of Lady Elliot Island each year, up from just a few thousand in the nineteen sixties. ## Ecosystem recovery complete The trees and foliage provide protection and nesting materials, while birds bring nutrients from the sea to the land, supporting vegetation growth. > It's a great privilege to get to work out here and see what a healthy environment is, what a biodiverse environment is. ## Never silent again Seabird researcher Zerra Egerton says the island's recovery has been remarkable. She says it is very special to have seabirds breeding there because it means the island is sustaining their populations for the future. > We love this island and we love the animals here, and we don't ever want it to go quiet again. ## Key takeaway Lady Elliot Island, devastated by guano mining in the eighteen sixties, has been restored to thriving seabird habitat through decades of hand-planting by the Adams family and their successors, with one hundred thousand black noddies now nesting there annually.