Las distintas series de la Contabilidad Nacional de España

The elaboration of ways in which the Reef has been reproduced and replicated is an indication of its status as a fetishised commodity. The endless production of

photographs and the creation of aquariums also leads to the production of the hyper-real (Eco 1986). Effective mimetic technologies produce a hyper-reality in Reef experiences in which the copies appear more authentic than the original. For many snorkellers and divers the experience of entering the underwater world of the Great Barrier Reef is reminiscent of the aquarium, so that in relating the thrill of her first dive on the Great Barrier Reef, Karen Miller recalls that “[t]here were many mixtures of parrotfish and butterfly fish, which always remind me of aquarium fish” (Miller 2001). This inversion of the role of copy and original, between the aquarium and the Great Barrier Reef, is further sublimated in the example of ReefWorld.

ReefWorld is a self-contained aquarium centre. Like many modern aquariums, it offers a viewing chamber, souvenir shop, kiosk and dining. It is a little more unusual in that visitors are provided with sundecks and a facility to actually swim with the exhibits. At ReefWorld you can do almost everything that you can do in a city aquarium. But you can also do more. You can take a helicopter ride to gain a controlling aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef and you can sit in the comfort of a semi-submersible boat and view a wall of coral. All this is possible because of the extraordinary fact that ReefWorld is situated on Hardy’s Reef on the Outer Great Barrier Reef (Figure 1).

Plate 62: ReefWorld offshore pontoon, Hardy Reef

© Fantasea

ReefWorld (Plate 62) is a large offshore pontoon, and shares some similarities with theme parks such as Disney World (see for example, Eco 1986; and Berleant 1997 for an aesthetic analysis of Disney World). It is different in that time intrudes and there are real dangers associated with the Outer Reef. Pontoons act like small islands and offer a sense of security to what otherwise would surely be recognised as a foolhardy activity; plunging into the depths of the ocean. “Walking on the pontoon is comparable to walking on land, and the structure allows easy access to all activities” (Pure Pleasure Cruises 1999). People can swim along the coral wall at Hardy’s Reef, and there are ropes to guide them. This provides a sense of security and containment, as well as a necessary safety measure. Visitors are advised to stay within this vicinity and lifeguards keep a lookout for anyone straying too far. Strong currents are a real threat and deaths in

similar enclosures are reported in the media from time to time. But in theory visitors are at liberty to explore any part of the Reef. Only one area is declared a no-go zone. Snorkellers and divers are requested not to swim in front of the glass wall of the underwater viewing chamber.

On one end of the pontoon is a darkened auditorium with rows of benches where visitors can sit in dry comfort and watch the world of fishes. This is like many theatres in aquariums built on land. The water through the window is a luminous blue from the daylight that streams through from the surface. It is at once very familiar and very different and seems to represent a moment in which mimesis and alterity blur. At one level the rule about not swimming in front of this chamber appears to simply ensure that fish are not chased away by divers and snorkellers, and to guarantee the presence of fish on the outside of the chamber. However, there is another interpretation. Schools of fish flow all around the snorkellers and divers swimming along the edge of the wall and some, like the maori wrasse, Wally, seem to actually seek visitors out, having become accustomed to them. At other less elaborate pontoons such as that at Kelso Reef off Townsville there are no such restrictions and fish appear to be unbothered by people in the water. As Love (2000: 6) says “fishes move largely indifferent to human intrusion”. So the presence of an occasional snorkeller is unlikely to scare away all the fish. It is more likely that the prohibition on people in this area of the ReefWorld pontoon is aimed at enhancing the sense of Nature. It also enhances the sense of the aquarium.

The Outer Barrier Reef is regarded by many as the most authentic part of the Great Barrier Reef and is promoted as providing visitors with a ‘genuine’ Reef experience. It is for this experience that people must travel beyond the mainland city aquariums. This is what it is all about: the vastness, the vivid colours, the swirls of corals and ribbons of blue, the depth of water beyond the security of the coral wall, the vast and infinite phenomenon, all out of reach of land. ReefWorld achieves this through mimicking the mimesis of the aquarium. It is a brilliant case of what Taussig has described as “an almost drug-like addiction to mime, to merge, to become other – a process in which not only images chase images in a vast, perhaps infinitely extended chain of images, but one also becomes matter” (1993: 43). For ReefWorld is not simply a facility in which people can view the ‘real’ thing. It has captured essential elements of the modern day aquarium in its construction, presentation and associated amenities. It has also captured

many of the other elements of a Great Barrier Reef experience that include a range of historically constituted activities such as sunbathing on islands, climbing down into the underwater observatory, viewing corals from a glass sided vessel, taking helicopter rides and learning to scuba dive and snorkel. ReefWorld is therefore a simulacrum of several simulacra.

ReefWorld is another expression of Taussig’s observation that more than ever mimetic technology has led to an excess that results in mimetic faculty and mimetic historical product turning on one another, so that the self is no longer separable from its alter (1993: 252). The effectiveness of the aquarium or the pontoon as a copy of the original depends on both copy and contact and is not dependent on realism alone (Taussig 1993: 10-11). Rather, the aquarium encapsulates the sublime, and transforms that which is beyond human comprehension into a package for consumption. The original experience of the Great Barrier Reef is thus likened to an aquarium.

ReefWorld’s ascendancy lies in its mimesis of the original and its copies. It brings together all aspects of Reef visitors’ history in a space that could constitute the original. The original has been observed, copied and sampled, taken away, and then brought back to the authentic location in which it originated; transformed, enriched and more

powerfully authentic.