Beachcombers Delight In A Dunk Down Under Would-Be Crusoes Still Find Respite On Island Along Great Barrier Reef

You know you’re under this island’s spell when spider webs - similar to those you spend hours knocking down back home - suddenly seem more beautiful than the most exquisite Flemish tapestry.

Lush with vegetation and laden with wildlife, Dunk is one of only three tropical rain forest islands along the Great Barrier Reef coastline. Seeing such scenery is stunning enough. But seeing it as naturalist Edmund James Banfield did (through his one good eye, no less) makes even the webs wondrous.

Part national park, part resort, Dunk will always be Banfield’s. “Ted” and his wife, Bertha, came to live here in 1897 after he worked himself into a nervous exhaustion at a newspaper and read a little too much Thoreau. For the next 25 years, he delighted in recording facts about the life around him, from the “pink translucent fish” in “lemon-coloured coral” to the sunbirds he described as “sired by a sunbeam, born of a flower.”

“Like an artist who keeps coming back again and again to a subject or scene which obsesses him, Ted was to create a succession of pen portraits of the island,” writes Michael Noonan in “A Different Drummer,” a biography of Banfield.

A conservationist before his time, Banfield was the author of four books about life on the idyllic island. The most renowned, “The Confessions of a Beachcomber,” published in London in 1908, inspired a world of would-be Crusoes, who dreamed of giving it all up for one “shining blue delicious day” after another.

Although a Qantas-owned resort attracts beachcombers of a different sort to Dunk these days, it’s still possible to get into that Banfield state of mind. Soothe your nervous exhaustion by withdrawing into the forest with the birds and butterflies. Or beach-chair it at Banfield’s beloved Brammo Bay with a book of the naturalist’s paradisiacal descriptions - and a drink called a Banfield Banshee.

Less than 4 miles long and 1 miles wide, Dunk is the largest of the Family Islands. Named by Captain Cook in 1770, it’s more than 2 miles from Mission Beach on the mainland and about 17 miles west of the Great Barrier Reef. Coral-sand beaches fringe a jungle, and the island has its own reef.

Before Banfield died, he faced up to Dunk’s future, imagining beaches that “swarmed with reddening bathers” and the forest gone, “to give way to golf links and cricket pitches and tennis courts.”

The man was a visionary. The island’s 148-room resort has all of that and more: pools, pony rides, coconut de-husking, softball matches, lawn bowling and a fun-loving staff. Honeymoon couples are feelin’ hot, hot, hot on the dance floor in the bay-side lounge, and bands with names such as Junglejam sometimes drown out the sounds of silence.

But there are benefits to being a Crusoe in comfort. You can dine on chilled melon soup and ocean trout without foraging and fishing for your supper. You can hike through the forest on a groomed path rather than spend the day wandering and wondering whether you’ll find your way out before nightfall. And you can sleep soundly in a beachfront room, sore from a day of water-skiing rather than a day of bungalow-building.

Banfield never had it so good.

Not only can you behold the brilliant blue Ulysses butterfly, a swallowtail discovered on Dunk at the turn of the century, but you also can shop at the Blue Butterfly Boutique. Splurge on the butterfly T-shirts and carry your purchases home in a bag with a blue butterfly emblem.

Although not luxurious, the accommodations recently underwent nearly $3 million in renovations. Cabanas and villas are camouflaged by palm trees and hibiscus. Leave your sliding-glass door open and you feel like a weekend guest at the Swiss Family Robinsons.

As captivating as the beach chair at Brammo Bay may be, you haven’t really discovered Dunk until you’ve hiked to the top of Mount Kootaloo. The view from the 895-foot peak is as breathtaking as the two-hour hike up and down the mountain.

Past the Indiana Jones-type footbridge, the only sound is your own breathing. Then there’s a scampering and a rustling (not to mention the purr of a far-off ski boat), and the forest comes alive with spiders, lizards, snakes and birds. There are birds that sound like girls laughing and birds that whistle up and down the scales more often than the kids in The Sound of Music. A census by Banfield, who spent much of his time chronicling the comings and goings of metallic starlings and such, revealed 150 species in all.

Similar solo wanderings around the island by Banfield resulted in the discovery of several creatures: a silvery gray moth, a shadowy fish, a spider crab (Zewa banfieldi), and a fruit-eating rat (Uromys banfieldi).

The only species you’re likely to “discover” is a black, red-headed brush turkey, who seems as alarmed as you about crossing paths.

Back at the base of the mountain, pause at Banfield’s grave, in a forest so thick it blocks out much of the day’s sunlight. It seems he never kicked the Thoreau habit. Not only does a quote from his inspirer lead off his first book, but it also follows him in death.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer,” reads the tablet. “Let him step to the music which he hears.”

After such a hike, you may feel more like stepping to the music which you hear back at the main lounge. It’s happy hour and the men at the bar with castaway beards are talking about how boring it is when the weather is always so nice.

Just another day at Dunk.

Wrote Banfield, “The sun rises, travels across a cloudless sky, gleams on a sailless sea, disappears behind purple mountains gilding their outline, and the day is done.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Getting there Dunk Island, about 2-1/2 miles off Australia’s Mission Beach, has its own airport. It’s a 30-minute flight from Cairns or a 45-minute flight from Townsville on Sunstate Airlines. Water taxis also make the trip from Mission Beach. Go to Dunk for the day, camp at the national park or stay at the resort. South of Dunk are the other tiny Family Islands.

Resort Qantas operates a 148-room resort on Dunk. Prices range from $120 to $186 (U.S.) per night for a double. Meal packages can be purchased. For reservations and information, call (800) 227-4411.

Activities Dunk’s early inhabitants called it Coonanglebah, “isle of peace and plenty.” When you’re tired of the peace, there are plenty of activities: champagne sunset cruises, snorkeling/diving trips out to the Great Barrier Reef (about $80), game fishing ($125), parasailing, horseback riding, nature walks and the usual water sports. Children can participate in supervised activities through Kids Korna and Teenage Club (including camping in a tent at Coonanglebah Farm on Wednesday nights for the 8 to 14 set). Rent a boat, take a picnic and go to a secluded beach. Or, walk over to the artist colony (on Monday and Friday), established by Bruce Arthur, former Olympic middleweight wrestler and resident artist. The anual Billfish Classic fishing tournament takes place off Dunk every September.

When to go Australia’s winter (our summer). Wet season is from late December to April. Temperatures average 70 degrees in winter and 79 in summer with a maximum of 95.

Beach-chair reading Anything by the ultimate beachcomber, E.J. Banfield; “Discovering the Family Islands” by James G. Porter; and “A Different Drummer,” a biography of Banfield by Michael Noonan. Dunk Island’s Blue Butterfly Boutique sells them all.