“Rock the Boat” by the Blue Spotted Rays

The Great Barrier Reef is Australia’s bellwether for climate change. If coral has colour, it is healthy. If it is bleached white, we know that sea surface temperatures are too great for corals to survive. The Reef is a vast economic enterprise, bringing millions of tourists to Queensland to experience this ailing marine wonderland. It is also the gateway to international waters, where coal is shipped offshore to distant countries.

Mapping the Islands: How Art and Science can Save the Great Barrier Reef is a transdisciplinary collaboration between artists Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein, coastal geomorphologist Sarah Hamylton and human geographer Leah Gibbs, all passionate advocates for the Reef. The collaborators explore how different disciplines can work together to build new bodies of knowledge.

Williams, Hamylton and Gibbs spent a week on the Central and Northern Great Barrier Reef in 2018, visiting four low-wooded islands on the research vessel the Kalinda. They did aerial drone surveys, underwater surveys, and land-based surveys, using arts and sciences methods. Music and writing are bringing the participants together to find ways of engaging audiences with the Reef. On 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.

The band The Blue Spotted Rays were formed from this experience, along with Rafael Carvalho, Mystery Carnage and Lucas Ihlein. This group of six amateur musicians went on to record the two songs and release a vinyl single. You can listen to the original song by Kim Williams, Rock the Boat, by clicking on the band phorograph above.