My Blog Updates - GREG SMITH - Novelist

The Bush Down Under - Part 1

6/27/2016

G'day folks,

Welcome to the Australian bush. We sure have plenty of it.

What is it about 'the bush' that is so special to Australians? The bush has an iconic status in Australian life and features strongly in any debate about national identity, especially as expressed in Australian literature, painting, popular music, films and foods.

The bush was something that was uniquely Australian and very different to the European landscapes familiar to many new immigrants. The bush was revered as a source of national ideals by the likes of Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. Romanticising the bush in this way was a big step forward for Australians in their steps towards self-identity. The legacy is a folklore rich in the spirit of the bush.

The infamous Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, renown for the suit of armor he made to fight the local constabulary.

Folklore, 1790s–1890s

Many Australian myths and legends have emanated from the bush. Early bushranging – ranging or living off the land – was sometimes seen as a preferred option to the harsh conditions experienced by convicts in chains. Later bushrangers such as Jack Donohue, Ben Hall and Ned Kelly were seen as rebellious figures associated with bush life. Their bushmanship was legendary as well as necessary.

The bush has evoked themes of struggle and survival epitomised in tales of bushrangers, drovers, outback women and lost children. The bush has also been seen as a source of nourishment and survival. These two opposing elements were often brought together by the activities of the Australian 'black trackers'.

The skills of Indigenous people in 'the bush', especially their tracking abilities, was seen as miraculous and became legendary in the minds of European Australians. Indigenous people's knowledge of the land, at the core of their spiritual beliefs, is expressed in stories, arts and performance - music, songs, dance and ceremony.

Books Should Run Advertisements Like The Classics Club

6/21/2016

Posted: 21 Jun 2016 12:45 PM PDT by Brian Feinblum
reproduced with kind permission from Brian Feinblum

While thumbing through a book that was printed in 1970 – a $1.25 mass market paperback – I came across a fold–out advertisement in the center of the book. It was printed on postcard stock. It was advertising membership for a book club. The book industry should return to those days when it both contained advertising in its books and when it promoted book clubs.

The ad lures you in, stating: “The Classics Club is quite unlike any other book club.

“The club does not offer best sellers that come and go – instead, it offers its members a chance to stay young through great books that never grow old. These books include Utopia by Thomas Morej the complete works of Shakespeare; Benjamin Franklin’sAutobiography; Omar Klayyam’s Rubaiyat;Walden by Thor Can; and other fresh, spontaneous, even outspoken works that stretch your mind and sweep away the mental cobwebs that hold back most men.”

They don’t write ads like that anymore!

Maybe they should.

Books, like anything else, need to be sold and positioned to the public in a way that makes them irresistible.

In case you were wondering, the club was offering an introductory fee of just a buck,"plus a few cents mailing charges,” and newcomers would get a trio of hard-bound books “in matched sand-colored buckram.” The books would contain the Five Great Dialogues of Plato, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and Aristotle’s On Man in the Universe.” Future volumes would come at $3.89 -- plus shipping.

Back then the publisher looked to eliminate paying authors –n-fees to dead people without copyright protections. Additionally, the publisher didn’t need to pay an editor for finished works nor did it need to cut in a wholesaler or book store. The publisher went straight to the public selling proven, known and highly regarded books.

I don’t know how profitable the ads proved to be for the publisher’s book club but the concept seems sound. Books are the best forum for selling more books. You have a reader in hand, someone who buys books, and you can even narrow down the demographics of who will see the ad based on who likely is reading a specific genre.

Book publishers should also consider advertising other products, services, or publications. Granted, a book is not a magazine or a newspaper, but upon careful selection, I’m sure a publisher can find a select number of advertisements that it feels would support the consumer passions of its readers.

Whereas some media, such as traditional outlets – radio, TV, print – complain that they aren’t getting enough ad money digitally to support the content consumers download for free, why can’t book publishers secure revenue in an area that really hasn’t been mined in recent times?

What arguments lend legitimacy to a publisher’s refusal to finance itself on such ads?

“It’s beneath books to have ads.”

No, it’s not, especially if it means the ads make the difference between having books and not. Every content source has ads; books don’t need to hold out anymore. However, publishers can hold higher standards as to what they’ll advertise, how those ads are presented, and how many they will run in a book.
“It costs money to secure these ads.”

Of course it does, but they should net more than they spend. It may be hard to set rates not knowing how much readership a specific book will have, but that can be worked around. For instance, run the same ads in a number of books. Charge a flat fee based on initial print runs and then a bonus based on final sales figures over the first 6-12 months.

“Authors may object to the ads.”

Writers will understand that ads could keep the lights on. Cut them in on some of the ad revenue and get their buy-in on types of ads to be permitted vs. those an author may object to.

“Ads are permanent and can’t be recalled.”

Again, choose ads that you feel confident don’t pose a harm or risk to anyone. But if something happens where an advertisement is met publicly with disfavor or the product advertised falls under some type of criticism, publishers can be sure to not use them in reprints and remove them from digital editions immediately.

“Ads will make books no different than magazines.”

Magazines are not books. They are printed weekly, monthly, and quarterly and have an expiration date attached to their content. Books are more substantial and have a longer shelf-life. Magazines are based on having lots of short articles, many with photos. Books primarily use words to convey their message. Ads won’t diminish books nor change how people distinguish them from magazines.

Advertisements could net the book industry a billion or more dollars. It’s time the book industry opened its pages to this opportunity.

Pearl Harbor — A Different Time, A Different War

4/14/2016

Shortly before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the skies over the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii filled with the drone of more than 350 Japanese fighter planes and bombers.

During a two-hour ambush, the Japanese strike force rained fire on the unprepared Pacific Fleet, damaging or destroying some 20 ships and 200 aircraft and inflicting 3,500 casualties. The attack thrust the United States into World War II, but it is also remembered for the many scenes of heroism and self-sacrifice that played out as sailors and airmen mounted a desperate defense. From the man who led the evacuation of USS Arizona to the fighter pilot who took to the skies in his pajamas, learn the stories of the many servicemen who distinguished themselves on one of the darkest days in American military history.

Doris Miller

Doris Miller’s skin color usually relegated him to the role of cook and laundry attendant aboard USS West Virginia, but when the ship was struck by multiple bombs and torpedoes on December 7, he became one of its most vital crewmembers. Miller had rushed to his battle station amidships as soon as the shooting started. Finding it destroyed, the amateur boxer sprinted to the quarterdeck and used his hulking frame to help move the injured. Miller was among the men who carried the ship’s mortally wounded skipper to safety, and he then helped pass ammunition to the crews of two .50 caliber machine guns.

Despite having no weapons training, he eventually manned one of the weapons himself and began blasting away at the Japanese fighters swarming around the ship. “It wasn’t hard,” he later remembered. “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine…I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.” Miller continued to operate the gun for some 15 minutes until ordered to abandon ship. His actions earned him the Navy Cross—the first ever presented to an African American—and he was widely hailed as a war hero in the black press. He later toured the country promoting war bonds before being reassigned to the escort carrier Liscome Bay. Sadly, Miller was among the 646 crewmen killed when the ship was torpedoed and sunk in 1943.

Samuel Fuqua

Missouri-born Samuel Fuqua had a front row seat to the devastation at Peal Harbor from aboard USS Arizona, a battleship that was heavily bombed during the first wave of the attack. The 42-year-old lieutenant commander was having breakfast when the ship’s air raid sirens first sounded around 7:55 a.m. He immediately rushed to the quarterdeck, only to be strafed by enemy fire and then knocked out cold when a bomb fell just feet away from him. Though dazed, Fuqua jumped to his feet after regaining consciousness and began directing firefighting operations. Moments later, he became the Arizona’s senior surviving officer after another bomb detonated the ship’s ammunition magazine, killing more than 1,000 men.

As burned and maimed sailors poured onto the deck, Fuqua ignored gunfire from passing aircraft and calmly led efforts to evacuate his sinking ship. “I can still see him standing there,” Arizona crewman Edward Wentzlaff later remembered, “ankle deep in water, stub of a cigar in his mouth, cool and efficient, oblivious to the danger about him.” Fuqua was among the last men to abandon ship. He and two fellow officers then commandeered a boat and braved heavy fire while picking up survivors from the fire-streaked waters. He went on to win the Medal of Honor for his actions at Pearl Harbor, and was later promoted to rear admiral upon his retirement from the Navy in 1953.

Peter Tomich

Around the same time Arizona was being bombed, the training and target ship USS Utah was rocked by two torpedo strikes from Japanese aircraft. The aging vessel soon began to list to one side as water flooded into its hull. Inside the boiler room, Chief Watertender Peter Tomich ordered his crew to abandon ship. After ensuring that his men had escaped their engineering spaces, the Austro-Hungarian immigrant and World War I veteran returned to his post and singlehandedly secured the boilers, preventing a potential explosion that would have claimed many lives. USS Utah rolled over and sank just minutes later. Fifty eight men—Tomich among them—went down with the ship. The 48-year-old was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his lifesaving actions, but in an unusual twist, the Navy was unable to locate any of his family members. His award went unclaimed for nearly 65 years until 2006, when it was finally presented to a relative during a ceremony in Split, Croatia.

Kenneth Taylor and George Welch

Army Air Corps pilots George Welch and Kenneth Taylor spent the evening before the Pearl Harbor attack attending a formal dance and playing poker until the wee hours of the morning. They were still sleeping off their night of partying when they were awakened around 8 a.m. by the sound of exploding bombs and machine gun fire. Not wanting to miss out on a fight, the pair threw on their tuxedo pants and sped to Haleiwa airfield in Taylor’s Buick, dodging strafing Japanese planes along the way. Just minutes later, they became the first American pilots to get airborne after they took off in their P-40 fighters.

Welch and Taylor went on to wage a lonely battle against hundreds of enemy planes. They even landed at Wheeler airfield at one point and had their ammunition replenished before rejoining the fray. By the time the attack ended, the second lieutenants had shot down at least six fighters and bombers between them. Both were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for their high flying exploits, and Taylor was given a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound he received when his P-40 was struck by machine gun fire.

“My main admonition out of Pearl Harbor is "Remember Pearl Harbor. Keep America alert and strong” because I believe that weakness invites aggression and we must never be weak as a nation or aggression will result.”

Retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Jim Downing, Pearl Harbor survivor.

Have You Ever Wondered Who Named The Planets?

4/7/2016

G'day folks,

Ever wondered about this? Roman mythology is to thank for the monikers of most of the eight planets in the solar system. The Romans bestowed the names of gods and goddesses on the five planets that could be seen in the night sky with the naked eye.

Jupiter, the solar system’s biggest planet, was named for the king of the Roman gods, while the reddish color of the planet Mars led the Romans to name it after their god of war. Mercury, which makes a complete trip around the Sun in just 88 Earth days, is named after the fast-moving messenger of the gods. Saturn, the solar system’s second-largest planet, takes 29 Earth years to make a full revolution of the Sun and is named for the god of agriculture. The Romans named the brightest planet, Venus, for their goddess of love and beauty.

Two other planets, Uranus and Neptune, were discovered after the telescope was invented in the early 1600s. Astronomer William Herschel, who is credited with discovering Uranus in 1781, wanted to call it “Georgium Sidus,” (George’s Star) for the British ruler at the time, King George III. Other astronomers were interested in dubbing the planet Herschel. It was German astronomer Johann Bode who recommended the name Uranus, a Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos; however, the name Uranus didn’t gain full acceptance until the mid-1800s.

Neptune, the planet farthest from the Sun (it makes a solar revolution once every 165 years), was first seen by telescope in 1846 by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, using the mathematical calculations of French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams. There was some discussion of naming the planet after Le Verrier, but ultimately Neptune, which has a vivid blue color, got its name from the Roman god of the sea.

Pluto, which was classified as a planet in 1930 before being stripped of that celestial honor in 2006, was named after the Roman god of the underworld—thanks to the suggestion of an 11-year-old English schoolgirl named Venetia Burney.

As for Earth, the planet that’s currently home to an estimated 7.3 billion people, its name comes not from Roman or Greek mythology but rather from Old English and Germanic words meaning “ground.”

Have You Ever Wondered How Books Are REALLY Made?>

3/21/2016

The Big 5 and other traditional publishers tend to do the following when it comes to green lighting book deals:

1.      They give a priority to what certain literary agents present to them. The agent can serve as a time-saving filter but the publishers don’t want to overpay on a book.

2.      The smaller publishers need to find books that won’t force them to give huge advances so they are more open to slogging through the slush pile of submissions. But too much effort has to go into researching an author’s background and to read sample chapters.

3.      Some literary agents and publishers don’t wait to see who solicits from them for representation or publication. They take a pro-active approach and recruit people they feel are marketable.

4.      Some publishers seek out work-for-hire writers – people who write well but can write on any number of topics hand-picked by a publisher. These writers get a flat one-time fee for writing the book and rarely are involved in the book’s promotions.

Publishers determine the books they’ll publish based on some or all of these factors:

1.      If they believe the book is marketable. They determine this based on the size of the market, level of competition, and past performance of the author or the track record of book sales on the subject matter by all publishers.

2.      If they believe you have the ability to promote your book. Do you have a large social media following or a large author platform? Will you commit to hiring a book promoter? What’s your current media profile?

3.      If they hear that you’ll commit to buying thousands of books, they’ll be eager to work with you. If you know, because of your own connections, speaking engagements, or sales capabilities that you’ll sell lots of books, convey this to the publisher. They’ll want you to guarantee a certain number of sales.

4.      Oh, yes, and the book should be well-written and at least decent. The first three trump this, so your book doesn’t have to be great or even better than half of your competitors, but it can't be awful.

5.      The publisher wants books that fit into its brand - based on subject matter, content style and book design, and author credentials.

6.      Lastly, they want books that serve their preferences, values, and interests. Yes, this means the publisher's politics, religious beliefs, sexual proclivities, and other demographics will bias the publisher as to what it will publish or won’t.

So, once the publisher agrees to publish a book, what happens next?

The contract will dictate the terms to proceed. It likely includes a time period for publication – set 12-18 months in advance in most cases. There will be official or unofficial mini-deadlines for submitting outlines, chapter drafts, approving of revisions, contributing ideas for catalog copy, book cover images, layout design, and submitting visuals - charts, photos, drawings – if needed.

The author gets introduced to an editor early on, and a publicist later on.

As the book is being put together, pre-sales, are being arranged. This means the publisher is looking to convince its sales force and key accounts that they should buy into the book. The author is also soliciting advance sales, perhaps from people he knows or groups that seem logical to contact.

Somewhere along the line, a publisher will seek to do an audit of the manuscript with several purposes in mind. For instance, the publisher will do a legal scrub of the book and make sure from a lawsuit perspective, everything in there is legitimate and defensible. Second, it looks to do a fact-check and make sure the book is accurate, factual, and not misleading. Third, it may do a morality sweep. Some publishers may be sensitive to language, controversial views or political anglings and will cleanse a book of anything it disagrees with.

Lastly, the publisher wants to make the book competitive in the marketplace. It will create hype-filled copy to describe the book, secure major endorsements and position the book to garner favorable book reviews. It will see what other books do well -- and copy them. It will look to add something unique to the book, something extra to give it an edge.

While all this is going on, the publisher could change directions. Based on things in the news or changes in the marketplace, the timetables of books can be altered. Some books get rushed to press while others get delayed or in rare cases, permanently shelved. Publishers may also look to sell off certain rights before the book is published, such as foreign, audio or paperback – or-film/TV -- to help offset costs and turn a profit faster.

Traditional publishers are producing a new book every minute of the five-day workweek. Yes, think about it. Tons of books are being acquired, written, edited, packaged, and sold as we speak. The process may seem long and hard, but to all of those who persevered and prevailed, it was worth it.

This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016

You Can Run for Pre-Order

3/15/2016

The second book in my Kramer & Shadow Action Crime Series is now available for pre-order (Kindle version). You can go here to pre-order a copy for yourself:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CZH0J0G?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660

or you can visit my website for more storyline detail:
http://gregsmith-writer.weebly.com/you-can-run.html

ISIL — Goals and Strategy ... Understanding Them

3/14/2016

Goals
Since at least 2004, a significant goal of the group has been the foundation of a Sunni Islamic state. Specifically, ISIL has sought to establish itself as a caliphate, an Islamic state led by a group of religious authorities under a supreme leader—the caliph—who is believed to be the successor to Prophet Muhammad.

In June 2014, ISIL published a document in which it claimed to have traced the lineage of its leader al-Baghdadi back to Muhammad, and upon proclaiming a new caliphate on 29 June, the group appointed al-Baghdadi as its caliph. As caliph, he demands the allegiance of all devout Muslims worldwide, according to Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).

ISIL has detailed its goals in its Dabiq magazine, saying it will continue to seize land and take over the entire Earth until its:

Blessed flag...covers all eastern and western extents of the Earth, filling the world with the truth and justice of Islam and putting an end to the falsehood and tyranny of jahiliyyah [state of ignorance], even if American and its coalition despise such.
— 5th edition of Dabiq, the Islamic State’s English-language magazine.

According to German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, who spent ten days embedded with ISIL in Mosul, the view that he kept hearing was that ISIL wants to “conquer the world” and all who do not believe in the group’s interpretation of the Koran will be killed. Todenhöfer was struck by the ISIL fighters' belief that “all religions who agree with democracy have to die”, and by their "incredible enthusiasm"—including enthusiasm for killing "hundreds of millions" of people.

A map circulated around the internet purporting to show historical areas of former Muslim states in Europe, Asia, and Africa, that ISIL planned to expand to, was created by outside supporters and had no official connection to ISIL.
When the caliphate was proclaimed, ISIL stated: "The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null by the expansion of the khilafah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas." This was a rejection of the political divisions in Southwestern Asia that were established by European countries during World War I in the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

Strategy
According to Jason Burke, a journalist writing on Jihadi Salafism, ISIL goal is to "terrorize, mobilize, polarize".

Terrorize to intimidate civilian populations and force governments of the target enemy "to make rash decisions that they otherwise would not choose". Mobilize its supporters by motivating them with, for example, spectacular deadly attacks on enemy soil such as the November 2015 Paris attacks. Polarize by driving Muslim populations—particularly in the West—away from their governments, thus increasing the appeal of the ISIS caliphate among them. "Eliminate neutral parties through either absorption or elimination".

A 2004 work published online entitled Management of Savagery (Idarat at Tawahoush), described by several media outlets as influential on ISIL, and intended to provide a strategy to create a new Islamic caliphate, recommended a strategy of attack outside its territory in which fighters would:

Diversify and widen the vexation strikes against the Crusader-Zionist enemy in every place in the Islamic world, and even outside of it if possible, so as to disperse the efforts of the alliance of the enemy and thus drain it to the greatest extent possible.
— Scott Atran, Paris: The War ISIS Wants

Terror attacks on soft targets like resorts will require expenditures for security that will weaken the "crusaders".

If a tourist resort that the Crusaders patronize…is hit, all of the tourist resorts in all of the states of the world will have to be secured by the work of additional forces, which are double the ordinary amount, and a huge increase in spending, while inspiring disaffected youth who are naturally rebellious and energetic. The terror will motivate crowds drawn from the masses to fly to the regions which we manage, particularly the youth… [For] the youth of the nation are closer to the innate nature [of humans] on account of the rebelliousness within them — Scott Atran, Paris: The War ISIS Wants and will also draw the "Crusaders" into a quagmire of military conflict:

Work to expose the weakness of America’s centralized power by pushing it to abandon the media psychological war and war by proxy until it fights directly.
— Scott Atran, Paris: The War ISIS Wants

One observer has described ISIL's publicizing of its mass executions and killing of civilians as part of "a conscious plan designed to instill among believers a sense of meaning that is sacred and sublime, while scaring the hell out of fence-sitters and enemies."

Another describes it purpose as to "break" psychologically those under its control "so as to ensure their absolute allegiance through fear and intimidation", while generating "outright hate and vengeance" by its enemies.

Documents found after the death of Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, a former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein's air defense force who has been called "the strategic head" of ISIL, detail planning for the ISIL takeover of northern Syria which made possible "the group's later advances into Iraq". Al-Khlifawi called for the infiltration of areas to be conquered with spies who would find out "as much as possible about the target towns: Who lived there, who was in charge, which families were religious, which Islamic school of religious jurisprudence they belonged to, how many mosques there were, who the imam was, how many wives and children he had and how old they were." Following this surveillance and espionage would come murder and kidnapping -- "the elimination of every person who might have been a potential leader or opponent". In Raqqa, after rebel forces drove out the Assad regime and ISIL infiltrated the town, "first dozens and then hundreds of people disappeared."

There is no known involvement in any form of conflict resolution. In Fall 2015, the first moves at all inclusive talks about talks were made by Irish mediator Jonathan Galway-Jackson to the anti-war leader of the opposition in Britain Jeremy Corbyn to construct a form of "track 2 diplomatic talks" at INCORE in Ireland involving all parties including Daesh political representative/s.

Australia's Most Photogenic Locations

3/13/2016

Uluru National Park

Located 462 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is home to the world-famous Uluru/Ayers Rock and the 32 weathered rock domes known as Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. The sight of these extraordinary ancient natural wonders glowing and appearing to change colour at sunrise or sunset is an unforgettable natural show.
Explore Uluru/Ayers Rock by taking to the skies in a helicopter, or up close from the walking track at its base, or climb onto the back of a camel to circumnavigate it. Learn more about the local flora, fauna, bush tucker, ancient paintings and the Dreamtime stories of this Anangu sacred site on an Aboriginal tour. The Anangu people are Uluru's traditional custodians and have lived in the area for at least 22,000 years. Stop in at the Cultural Centre to purchase their distinctive art, or watch craft demonstrations.
Ancient and monumental, Kata Tjuta/The Olgas soars above the desert. Challenge yourself to the 7.4-kilometre Valley of the Winds walk for spectacular views over the desert plains. Ayers Rock Resort, the park's sole accommodation option, offers a choice of apartments, a luxury wilderness camp, hotel, backpacker rooms or campground accommodation.
Opening times:

The park is closed at night - opening hours vary throughout the year.

Activities:

Birdwatching
Self-Guided
Wilderness Walking

Facilities:

Cafe
Car park
Child Activities
Coach Parking
First aid equipment
Interpretive Centre
Interactive Centre
Picnic Area
Public Toilet
Shaded Area

Australia's Most Photogenic Locations

3/10/2016

The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland

As the largest living structure on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef is incredibly rich and diverse.
Stretching 2300 kilometres, this natural icon is so large it can even be seen from outer space.
While it’s known mostly for its large maze of colourful reefs, its intricate architecture also provides a home for a huge number of plants and animals.
Some of these, such as turtles and crocodiles, have been around since prehistoric times and have changed little over the millennia.
The breathtaking array of marine creatures includes 600 types of soft and hard corals, more than 100 species of jellyfish, 3000 varieties of molluscs, 500 species of worms, 1625 types of fish, 133 varieties of sharks and rays, and more than 30 species of whales and dolphins.
The Great Barrier Reef is also unique as it extends over 14 degrees of latitude, from shallow estuarine areas to deep oceanic waters.
Within this vast expanse are a unique range of ecological communities, habitats and species – all of which make the Reef one of the most complex natural ecosystems in the world.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park:

covers 344,400 km2 in area
includes the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem
includes some 3000 coral reefs, 600 continental islands, 300 coral cays and about 150 inshore mangrove islands
extends south from the northern tip of Queensland in north-eastern Australia to just north of Bundaberg
is between 60 and 250 kilometres in width
has an average depth of 35 metres in its inshore waters, while on outer reefs, continental slopes extend down to depths of more than 2000 metres
was created in 1975 through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act
extends into the airspace above and into the earth beneath the seabed.

While coral reefs initially made the Great Barrier Reef famous, they only comprise about seven per cent of the Marine Park and the World Heritage Area.
The rest of the Marine Park is an extraordinary variety of marine habitats, ranging from shallow inshore areas – such as seagrass, mangroves, sand, algal and sponge gardens, and inter-reefal communities – to deep oceanic areas more than 250km offshore.
Rather than having one level of protection throughout the Marine Park, the area is instead divided into different zones. Each zone has different rules outlining permitted activities and those that are prohibited.
Just how big is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park?Covering 344,400km2, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is:

bigger than Victoria and Tasmania combined
bigger than the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Holland combined
roughly the same area as Japan, Germany, Malaysia or Italy
approximately half the size of Texas
slightly smaller than the entire Baltic Sea.

The Marine Park stretches approximately 2300 km along the coast of Queensland in north-eastern Australia – this is about the same length as the west coast of the USA from Vancouver to the Mexican border.

The Belize Reef off the Caribbean coast of Belize is the second longest barrier reef in the world at 290 km, while Ningaloo Reef off the West Australian coast is 280 km long.

Australia's Most Photogenic Locations

3/9/2016

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

Cradle Mountain forms the northern end of the wild Cradle Mt - Lake St Clair National Park, itself a part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The jagged contours of Cradle Mountain epitomise the feel of a wild landscape, while ancient rainforest and alpine heathlands, buttongrass and stands of colourful deciduous beech provide a range of environments to explore. Icy streams cascading out of rugged mountains, stands of ancient pines mirrored in the still waters of glacial lakes and a wealth of wildlife ensure there is always something to captivate you. The area is one of the most popular natural areas in Tasmania. A visit will reveal why.
Cradle is the starting point for the world-famous Overland Track, a magnificent 6 day walk that will take you through the heart of some of the finest mountain terrain.