Australia's Hidden Islands

1. Lady Elliot island: Undoubtedly the crown jewel of the largest living structure on Earth, the Great Barrier Reef, is Lady Elliot Island, the southern-most island of the Reef chain. Here the dizzying swirls of colour, life and diversity both above and below the island, is unrivaled anywhere on the reef. It’s a Mecca for underwater life. Coral, fish, manta rays, whales and sharks all congregate here in spectacular abundance. Seabirds too thrive here on the abundant marine life on offer. Lady Elliot is the southern fortress of the entire reef system, the gateway to one of the great natural wonders of the world.
2. Kangaroo Island: Kangaroo Island, off the southern coast of Australia is an ocean fortress cut off by wild seas and battered by brutal Southern Ocean winds. It’s an enchanted refuge where some of the most iconic mainland fauna have made a last stand. In Seal Bay, Australian sea lions live between the ocean and the shore. Dominant males compete for breeding rights on the beaches. Flocks of Glossy Black Cockatoos fly overhead. This sub-species of cockatoo is endangered and are now found only on Kangaroo Island. It’s the island’s isolation from the mainland that is helping to forge other new species too. A relative of the Western grey kangaroo, the stocky brown Kangaroo Island variant gather in mobs to feed and fight for breeding rights. Kangaroo Island is the story of the vibrant and teeming version of mainland wildlife cast adrift and alone in the wild, nutrient rich Southern Ocean.
3. Christmas Island: Christmas Island, over a thousand kilometres northwest of Australia’s mainland, is a speck of an island that rises out of the Indian Ocean, a tiny refuge to plants and creatures found nowhere else in the world. Birds rule its skies and it’s stunning landscapes are the stage for a miracle migration of millions. Here the infamous Christmas Island Red crab has evolved to life on land and makes a treacherous overland journey to the ocean to breed. Some 80,000 seabirds nest here annually, including the Golden Bosun, Brown Boobies and the Christmas Island Goshawk.
4. Fraser Island: Just to the south of the Great Barrier Reef and the Tropic of Capricorn, Fraser Island lies like a sprawling lizard. Some 120 kilometers long and up to 25 kilometers wide, Fraser Island is now the largest sand island on Earth. Somehow on this nutrient poor bed of sand life has thrived. Dingoes patrol its forests in search of wallbies while white-bellied sea eagles scour the beaches from above. From the lakes to the forests and its crystal clear streams - Fraser Island is a unique mosaic of unlikely habitats that have earned it World Heritage Status. (Love Nature 4K)