REEF RESPITE

If you’ve never heard of Ashmore Reef, you’re not alone. Welcome to one of Australia’s most remote – and ravishing – marine parks.

It’s likely that you’ll hear and smell Ashmore Reef long before you spot it – this speck on the map, 650 kilometres north of Broome, is quite the sensorial feast. It’s remote; in fact, it’s closer to Indonesia than it is the Australian mainland. And that suits its residents to a tee. Let’s be clear – said residents are all of the avian kind. Comprising three tiny islets that gleam like gems in the Indian Ocean, Ashmore Reef is a bit of a mecca for seabirds. Every year, 100,000 of them come here to breed, cramming together across 56 hectares – keep watch for crested terns, red-tailed tropicbirds and great frigatebirds, among other species. The islands also provide an important staging point for migratory shorebirds, providing a place to rest and feed before continuing their long journeys between Europe and Australia. Small wonder the habitat has been listed as an Important Bird Area and a Ramsar wetland site.

Very few cruise ships make it this far north, which means that on a Ponant voyage, you’ll likely have this dreamy landscape all to yourself, easing around the islands in Zodiacs before pulling on a mask and fins to explore the underwater world.

In addition to being a sanctuary for birds, Ashmore is a thriving habitat for marine turtles, dugongs, whale sharks, a kaleidoscope of colourful fish (coral trout, parrotfish, trevally, dolphinfish…) and a staggering number of molluscs; some 430 different species. Then there are the sea cucumbers, sponges and soft and hard coral – at 255 species, the marine park here has the greatest number of reefbuilding corals of any area off the West Australian coast.

Once upon a time, Ashmore Reef was a hotspot for sea snakes, supporting a population of more than 40,000 across 14 species. Today, you’re lucky if you see a single one, with biologists still scratching their heads over the vanishing act. What will you spot?