The Queens’s Commonwealth Games Baton visits the Great Barrier Reef

Quicksilver
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:33:41 +0000
Great Adventures, Green Island, Green Island Resort

Great Adventures had the honor of hosting the Queen’s Baton to Green Island to showcase to the world the Great Barrier Reef, an icon of Australia. The Baton is on a 190,000 kilometre journey to 71 Nations and Territories that make up the Commonwealth Countries before arriving in Glasgow next year for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Quicksilver Group Managing Director Tony Baker said "Great Adventures diver Craig Hardes took the Queen's Baton to a coral garden at Green Island, an idyllic tropical sand cay on the Great Barrier Reef. We are very excited about our role in the Queen's Baton Relay and it brought back memories of the Sydney Olympics when we hosted the Olympic Torch in a world's first taking it underwater on its relay around Australia."

The Baton was received and carried onto the vessel by Brian Cave, General Manger Operations and on arrival at Green Island General Manager Green Island Resort, Sue O’Donnell travelled through the rainforest before handing to Craig for the vision of the Great Barrier Reef.

Craig Harders a long term Great Adventures employee said “It was a highlight and an incredible privilege to be able to hold the Queen’s Baton and represent the Great Barrier Reef an icon of its journey around Australia.”

The Baton was designed in Glasgow and holds the Queen’s message which is inscribed on a parchment and contained in a transparent cylinder within a pure titanium latticework frame and illuminated from within. At the Opening Ceremony, The Queen will read the message and declare the games open.