Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Tuesday 29 March 1938, page 12


NAMES OF REEFS.

DUPLICATION DANGERS.\,

TO NAVIGATION.

The ' (Inplication of names of reefs and - beacons- ' on the Queensland coast is considered to be a danger to navigation. , Renaming them is fav-ored m official circles.

Captain- A. N. Bolton, nautical and ship surveyor, and examiner of mist ers and mates at the Brisbane brandi of the Commonwealth Navigation and there: is a similarity of, 'names foi about 60 reefs and beacons. The dup-lication had caused confusion, particu-larly when it was -proposed- to* estab-lish a light on "Y" reef, as there wai already a beacon on WYE (Y) red approximatdy 120 miles to the south-ward.- - _"... ""' .

. In, a fist of reefs prepared.by. Cap-

tain Bolton it was shown there were

three."F*; reefs, one EF X(F) ? reef situated north of Cooktown; EEF. (F) reef, off Port Stewart, and EFT (F) reef off Weymouth Bay. Then EH (a) reef situated between Port Douglas and Cooktown might be confused witl AID (a) reef near Flinders Island, ofi Bathurst Head, north of Cape Mel-ville.

There was a Turtle Island,-and twe Turtle reefs a Yon (TJ) and a Yew (U) reef, three reefs named END (N) ENN (N), and EN (N), and three "T" reefs known as TEE, TEA, :and TIH. . . :. ? -

A shipmaster of :< an ; inter-State vessel stated that .on- one-occasion h< would have gone to the wrong reef in

answer'to a distress call but for th« fact that he had passed the vessd con-cerned the day before, and con-sequently knew the position of the reel

named.

The Hydrographie branch, Sydney, had referred the matter to London^ and recdved the reply that the Hydrographic Department of the Admiraltj was in favor of renaming all the reefs and islets contained in the list It re-quested that the names to be given b< as dissimilar as possible. The Navi-gation and Lighthouse Departmenl has communicated with members ol

[the Great Barrier Reef Committee,

'asking them to suggest new names.