How did the Great Barrier Reef
Become what it became?
Who really found it?
How’d it get its name?

I have the answers!
Facts you don’t know!
Get ready to listen
The history goes...

Chorus:
Aboriginals.
Bougainville.
They knew that
This place was real.

Cook and Bligh.
Flinders, King, good grief!
That’s a lot of people who found
The rainbow of a reef!

Verse 1:
It starts with Aboriginals.
Historical people, they are.
They got their resources
From the ocean afar.

In 1768 Europe jumped in.
The first one from France.
Sadly, Louis de Bougainville
Missed the Reef by chance.

(chorus)

Verse 2:
But then, James Cook in 1770,
Sailed Queensland’s length!
But afterward, his ship broke down
Despite its strength.

Damage was fixed,
Research was low.
But the botanist, Joseph Banks
Saw the reef below.
(spoken) Otherwise known as Cook’s Passage!

(chorus)

Verse 3:
In 1792
Was William Bligh.
The information
Was more high.

Two weeks he spent
Charting straits some more.
This became engrossing
Then, explorers galore!

Matthew Flinders
Did something new.
Not only sailed the whole coastline!
But walked on the beaches too.

(spoken) This is Flinder’s Passage, discovered in 1803.

This biome was called,
“The Extensive Barrier Reefs”
And we can refer
To Flinders’ beliefs.

(chorus)

Interlude:
Philip King, 1819,
Another set to sail
Who meticulously noted the reef
With careful detail.

Ending
Now you know the story.
If you don’t believe me,
Ask greatbarrierreef.org
Then you’ll see.

That is the main source
Regarding ecology.
But above all,
The best subject’s biology!

(chorus)