1st Edition

Visitor Encounters with the Great Barrier Reef Aesthetics, Heritage, and the Senses

By Celmara Pocock Copyright 2020
198 Pages
by Routledge

198 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

198 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Visitor Encounters with the Great Barrier Reef explores how visitor encounters have shaped the history and heritage of the Reef. Moving beyond the visual aesthetic significance, the book highlights the importance of multi-sensuous experiences in understanding the region as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, the book describes how visitors have... Read more


Chapter 1



Introduction



World Heritage Values



New directions in heritage



The cultural bias and potential of aesthetic value



Aesthetics as Senses and Place



Visitor experience



References





PART I: VISITOR EXPERIENCES OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF





Chapter 2

Orientation, wayfinding and cartographic knowledge of the Reef *



Disorientation and Danger



Controlling Danger: orientation and mapping



Science, tourism and navigation



Visitor Traditions of Orientation



In the Footsteps of the Navigators



Disorientation



Orientation: Continuity and Change



References *







Chapter 3

Visitors’ Sensuous Experiences at the Reef



Seeing the Reef



Feeling the Reef



Fossicking



Heat



Sea Water



Insects



Reef Sounds



Sighing She-Oaks



Birds



Whistling Sand



Smelling the Reef



Tasting the Reef



Turtle



Tropical flavours



Merging Senses and Movement



References







 



Chapter 4

Sharing Experience of the Reef with the World



Contact and Copy



The Means of Capture



Verbal and Written Description



Collections



Images



Transmission of Experience



The Panoramic View



The Underwater World



Representing a Multi-Sensuous Reef



References







PART II – CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF





 



Chapter 5

Reef Islands as Signifiers of Paradise



Australian Landscapes of the Great Barrier Reef



Australian Bush as the Everyday



In Pursuit of Paradise



The Coconut Palm as Signifier of Paradise Found



The Coconut Palm and Local Knowledge



A Tourist Gaze for Australian Visitors



References







 



Chapter 6

Controlling the Underwater Reef through Cultivation of Coral Gardens



Cartographic Mimesis: Control Over the Other



Out of Control: A Return to Otherness



Seeking Similitude: Coral Gardens



Aquariums as controlled gardens



Immersion and loss of control



Coral gardens as imagery



References









Chapter 7

The Great Barrier Reef as Hyperreality and World Heritage



The Simulacra of a Single Natural Reef



Hyper-Reality at ReefWorld



Loss of Place



Conservation of the Great Barrier Reef



World Heritage Listing



Postscript



References







Index

Biography

Celmara Pocock is Director of the Centre for Heritage and Culture and Associate Professor in Anthropology and Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests encompass human relationships with the environment, including senses of place; social value and community heritage; and the intersections between heritage and tourism.