Why can only 400 people at a time visit this paradise island in Australia?

At Lord Howe Island with about 400 people, located 600 km off the east coast of mainland Australia, the beaches are empty. The only sounds on a walk through its rainforests and mountains come from the wild life .

The place looks like a destination ripe for overtourism, with green mountains, pristine white-sand beaches, and clear blue waters teeming with colorful fish. The secret to this landscape is a tactic used in few other places: limit the number of tourists who can visit the island to 400 people at a time .

“It’s what’s not here that provides this experience — that’s why it’s so unique,” ​​he said. Lisa Makiiti a sixth-generation islander who runs the boutique accommodation Bowker Beach House . There is “value in having a place in the world that works in reverse to all other tourist destinations. It’s not bigger, better, or more.”

For over 40 years, Lord Howe implemented a limit of 400 tourists at a time, setting the number of beds available for visitors . This was for protect the many endemic species unique to the region, which helped the island gain recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage in 1982.

While the number was arbitrary, maintaining that guideline minimized environmental impacts and created a “one visitor for every resident” experience, he said. Darcelle Matassoni a sixth-generation resident who works for the Lord Howe Island Council, the region’s government.

Unsurprisingly, this means it’s hard to get there; Makiiti says Bowker has reserves until 2026 . Round-trip airfare to Sydney, Australia, can cost upwards of $666, and in the peak summer season, accommodation for two people can range from $200 to over $3,000 per night.

“Alien” concept

These policies demonstrate a “desire to ensure that nature prevails,” he said. Dean Hiscox which runs Lord Howe Environmental Tours. Over 85% of the island is still covered in its native forest, and around 70% is in a Permanent Park Reserve, meaning all development is prohibited. Residential settlement covers 15%.

Visitors often wonder if there is pressure for more urban development, but at Lord Howe, that is an “alien concept,” Hiscox said. After all, even the local community is limited due to housing rules . Many residents are descendants of the original settlers who arrived in the 1800s.

“Those families that have been here for five, six, seven generations have always recognized how special their way of life is here,” he said. Ian Hutton a naturalist and photographer who has lived on the island since 1980. “There is a strong generational feeling of protecting your island.”

Nature like nowhere else in the world

Life on Lord Howe is “like living inside a documentary by naturalist David Attenborough,” Hutton, who is also curator of the Lord Howe Island Museum, said on his website.

Although it has only approximately 11 kilometers long the island is teeming with unique plant and animal species found nowhere else. The rainforests are filled with climbing plants, orchids and birds. At the top of the Mount Gower – one of the most popular hiking trails on Lord Howe – lies a rare and endangered cloud forest. The island’s most famous endemic export is the seeds of the Kentia palm, the world’s most popular indoor plant.

On the coast, people can walk past breeding colonies of the Providence Petrel, a gray and white seabird with a slightly curved black bill that breeds mainly on Lord Howe. The birds swoop down when called and are so friendly to humans that people will hold them.

Much of the charm is the proximity to nature. Beaches are just a few minutes’ walk or bike ride from the lodges, making Lord Howe “the easiest vacation,” he said. Anthony Riddle a sixth-generation resident who co-founded the Lord Howe Island Brewing Company and the Lord Howe Island Distilling Company.

“You get on a boat for just five or ten minutes and you’re on the main reef. If you try to do that on the Great Barrier Reef, you could be on a boat for three or four hours and still not see as much as you see here,” Hiscox said.

About 500 species of fish, as well as starfish, urchins and crabs, inhabit the world’s southernmost barrier reef, right next to the island, according to Hutton’s website. One of the best places for diving is Ball’s Pyramid, the largest sea rock formation in the world, which lies 22 kilometers southeast of the main island and is surrounded by caves and abundant waters – as well as having rare sea creatures.

Just like the residents of Lord Howe, visitors care about preserving the island’s nature Hiscox said. Tour guides are always explaining this tradition of sustainability to their guests, but they don’t have to do much to convince them of its importance.

“We just explain it to them,” Hiscox said. “We tell the story of what’s special about Lord Howe Island. You have a captive audience who have the same philosophy and want to know more about it. It’s like speaking to the converted.”

Many visitors continue this passion by participating in local conservation programs. The Island Council has implemented a paid weed eradication program, and Hutton runs weed removal ecotours and citizen science campaigns.

Sniffer dogs

There are also rigorous biosecurity procedures in place to protect the environment from invasive species. Imports and visitors are screened — even by sniffer dogs. At the start of hiking trails, there are places to clean boots to prevent the spread of fungus. It’s a level of intense conservation that impresses people from the moment they step off the plane, Hutton said.

“Sniffer dogs check your luggage and [os visitantes] discover that dogs are not looking for weed a, but rather rats and frogs,” Hutton said.

The island has removed introduced pigs, goats and predatory feral cats, and new domestic cats have been banned since 1982. Animals used to combat invasive species have also been removed.

The only recent point of contention was a successful government initiative in 2019 to eradicate rats and mice, which were destroying native species. The initiative was widely supported, but the use of a chemical rodenticide and regular property inspections upset some.

After the rodents were wiped out, many threatened native species are now thriving. The Woodhen bird, one of the world’s rarest flightless birds, was nearly wiped out, but its numbers have increased tenfold since its eradication, Hutton said.

Despite efforts by the government and citizens to protect the island, many of the features are threatened by global warming . A long series of record-breaking air and ocean temperatures, fueled by climate change and the natural phenomenon El Niño, has caused several massive coral bleaching events and die-offs in the cloud forest. The increasing frequency of severe weather events means their future survival is “in the hands of the gods,” Hiscox said.

An isolated story

Today, Lord Howe is just a two-hour flight from the mainland, but historically, the island and its close-knit community were isolated.

For decades, the only way to get there was by seaplane . These “flying boats” began making regular flights to Lord Howe shortly after the end of World War II, and by the 1950s they were carrying passengers to and from Sydney six times a week, according to the Australian National Maritime Museum. Each trip took about three hours. For the locals, life back then was slow and unmaterialistic.

“There was no television, no internet, no telephones. We lived a completely free and natural lifestyle. Quite wild, I guess, but wild in a safe way,” Makiiti said.

“No shoes and everyone’s main priority was that you knew how to swim, but we just roamed the island in complete freedom and were out all the time fishing, swimming and just enjoying ourselves.”

After the government built an airstrip in the 1970s, the use of flying boats ceased. “Suddenly things sped up a bit,” Makiiti said. But in many ways, life in Lord Howe remains unchanged. Residents keep their doors unlocked and there is no mobile phone service outside of home Wi-Fi networks .

This isolation has created challenges, but residents have found unique ways to adapt. There is no high school, which means all children must either do distance learning or attend boarding schools on the mainland. Buying anything requires a lot of planning, as all imports, including food, must be brought in by the biweekly cargo ship. The cost of living is three times higher than on the mainland — an apple costs $2, and a gallon of gasoline and a gallon of milk each cost $2.66, Riddle said.

Many islanders have partially offset these costs by farming and gardening – in the island’s subtropical climate, they can grow almost anything from root vegetables to avocados, and have native crops such as wild lemons. There is also a system of bartering between people, free of charge.

“It’s a really nice aspect of a connected community, where you’re sharing everything and, When there is a lot of something, everyone benefits from it too. “, said Matassoni.

Sustainability in DNA

Despite the challenges, residents feel lucky to live the way they do — rejecting excess with a “reuse, reduce and care” mentality, Makiiti said. It’s a peaceful place where people spend their free time surfing, swimming and walking, and nearly everyone commutes by bike.

Respect for the environment is “instilled in us from a very young age,” Matassoni said, “because we are stewards of this environment.” Residents and visitors “are very conscious of simple things like not throwing an ice cream wrapper on the ground,” Hutton said.

About 80% of the island’s electricity is generated by a community solar grid Hutton said. Everyone is also required to separate their own trash and take it to the island’s waste management facility. Anything that can’t be reused, composted or recycled is turned into garden mulch.

“Nobody likes bureaucracy, but everyone understands that we do this to maintain our lifestyle and the environment as it is. They also understand that we are all very lucky to be here,” Matassoni said.

Makiiti says Bowker Beach House pays attention to the little details — the toiletries and coffee cups are reusable, and they even send coffee pods back to Nespresso. Eggs laid by the beach house’s chickens are placed in reusable containers.

The residents “always use the analogy that less is more “, Riddle said. “The longer we can keep the island more unique, the more unique we will be in the world.”

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