Australia is frequently associated with big things and vast distances, from the Big Banana to the Big Prawn, giant golden guitar and many, many more, you can also drive for hours and still be in the same state.
When it comes to the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef, size and distance are on an even more epic scale. So just how big is the Great Barrier Reef?
Let’s take a look.
Great Barrier Reef Size Statistics
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest natural formation in the world comprising over 3000 coral reefs, 600 continental islands, 300 coral cays and more than 150 inshore mangrove islands. It is so big that it can even be seen clearly from space.
Spanning a distance of approximately 2300 kilometres and spread over an area of around 348,700 square kilometres. At its widest point, it is approximately 250 kilometres across and at its narrowest, 60 kilometres.
Cape York, Australia’s northernmost point, sits at the top limits of the reef where the Coral Sea meets the Torres Strait, some 630 kilometres from the nearest major city Cooktown.
At its southernmost end, sits Bundaberg, a historic sugarcane farming city around a 4 hours drive north from the state capital of Brisbane.
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To put this into perspective, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is bigger than:
- The Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania combined and
- The entire United Kingdom, Switzerland and Holland combined
If not combined with other states or nations, it is closest in size to Japan, Malaysia and Italy.
For those more familiar with the North or South American continents, it is roughly half the size of Texas and could easily cover the distance between Rio de Janeiro and the mouth of the Amazon River.
