Airlie Beach, Queensland
Encyclopedia
Airlie Beach is a town in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, the suburb of Airlie Beach itself had a population of 2,751. The greater Whitsunday region had a population of approximately 31,000

Airlie Beach is one of many departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. Near latitude 20 degrees south
20th parallel south
The 20th parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 20 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America....

, Airlie Beach, Proserpine and the nearby Whitsunday Islands
Whitsunday Islands
The Whitsunday Islands are a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, situated between just south of Bowen and to the north of Mackay, some north of Brisbane. The island group is centred on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial...

 enjoy a tropical climate and lifestyle.

The Whitsunday Islands
Whitsunday Islands
The Whitsunday Islands are a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, situated between just south of Bowen and to the north of Mackay, some north of Brisbane. The island group is centred on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial...

, named by James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

 in 1770 are a sailors' paradise. Cook named the islands as he believed he passed through the area on the Christian festival day of Whit Sunday. It is now widely accepted that he didn't actually pass through on this date, as he had failed to take into account the yet to be brought into existence International Date Line
International Date Line
The International Date Line is a generally north-south imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, passing through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that designates the place where each calendar day begins...

 à la Phileas Fogg
Phileas Fogg
Phileas Fogg is the main fictional character in the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days.Fogg attempts to circumnavigate the late Victorian world in eighty days, or less, for a wager of £20,000 with members of London's Reform Club. He takes the wager and leaves with Passepartout,...

.

Each year the residents of Airlie Beach celebrate The Blessing of the Fleet on Whit Sunday or Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...

 Sunday.

Airlie Beach is a tourist destination, extremely popular with backpackers. Its beach is small and the sea is inhabited by marine stingers, the box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri
Chironex fleckeri
Chironex fleckeri, commonly known as sea wasp, is a species of Box jellyfish found in coastal waters from northern Australia and New Guinea north to the Philippines and Vietnam. It has been described as "the most lethal jellyfish in the world", with at least 63 known deaths from 1884 to...

) from November to May. In order to provide somewhere for the visitors tourists to swim, the local council, has built a small - medium sized swimming lagoon on the foreshore, similar to the lagoon found in Cairns
Cairns, Queensland
Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...

. The Airlie Beach Lagoon is 4,300 m2 and 4.5 million litres of fresh, self chlorinated water.

Airlie Beach has long been considered the best departure point for excursions to the Great Barrier Reef and sailing holidays. Sailing amongst the calm, protected waters of the Whitsunday Islands is an experience on many traveller's lists of top things to do in Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is easily accessible from Airlie Beach, with an array of different types of tours available. The official Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO) for Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays is Tourism Whitsundays.

History

It is almost certain that the town was named for the parish of Airlie
Airlie, Angus
Airlie is a civil parish in the Scottish council area of Angus. It is the seat of the Earl of Airlie, and the location of Airlie Castle. It comprises Craigton of Airlie, Baitland of Airlie and Kirkton of Airlie...

, in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, as the name was suggested by the chairman of the former Proserpine
Proserpine, Queensland
-External links:* * * * *...

 Shire Council, who was born in nearby Montrose
Montrose, Angus
Montrose is a coastal resort town and former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. It is situated 38 miles north of Dundee between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers...

, Scotland. The official name was Airlie from 1936 until 1987, when it became Airlie Beach.

Busking

Busking was freely practised in Airlie Beach up until April 2008 when local busker Andrew Finlay was arrested for "Begging In A Public Place". The matter was dismissed by Judge Atholl Kennedy and since then a Facebook page was created to make busking legal in Airlie Beach. After a tide of public support and media focus, busking was made legal in june 2010 through an Adopted Draft Policy created by Whitsunday Regional Council.
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