Coral reef islands are some of the most forlorn and challenging places to live on earth. As a mechanic, fisherwoman, artist, farmer and businesswoman, Jane’s chameleon-like approach to meeting these challenges head-on is fantastic.

Islands have a reputation for being liminal spaces - between water and land, the present and the past, but on this one in particular, between humans and their environment. The interconnection between the people and the sea here is unlike any other way of being I’ve seen before.

Corals in the anchorage at Low Isles, painted by Alan Stephenson.

Coral Reefs of Australia: Perspectives from beyond the water’s edge

Making the remarkable scientific achievements of these women visible subverts their absence from much of the recorded history of coral reef science.

Talking to the Australian Academy of Sciences about our reef islands collaboration with Indonesian researchers

Another fun thing about stingrays is the configuration of their gills and mouths. From underneath, stingrays look like cartoon faces.

Perhaps one of the most important contributions made by this book is its subversion of the conspicuous absence of women from much of the global history of coral reef science.

As we move between the islands, it is a thrill to step off the boat and discover what sort of a reception we will receive

Just over a kilometre from Port Kembla’s steel works and directly offshore from the sewage treatment plant is a setting that would rival any David Attenborough documentary.

Williams, Hamylton and Gibbs spent a week on the Central and Northern Great Barrier Reef in 2018On the boat they wrote a song about the Reef, and after the trip Kim wrote a second song about the Reef called Rock the Boat. Listen here.