Green Island

From the Reef Fleet Terminal in Cairns Marina it's a around an hour by boat to Green Island. Most visitors go there to snorkel in the shallows and see their first glimpse of coral reef. It's a good introduction to coral, and because you can just wade in off the shore it's fun to do with kids. Many people come away disappointed because the coral isn't great compared with the outer reef but for me what makes the island special is the sea grass, which attracts hundreds of green turtles, mostly beautifully patterned juveniles around the size of a boogie board. The sea-grass beds surround the island but tourists tend not to explore them because, from the shore, they look a bit green and boring. But spend an hour or so finning around the shallows, moving slowly and not flapping about too much, and you'll see turtles and many of the ray species.

If you do see large rays, they are likely to be stingrays but don't panic, they are used to people and not at all dangerous as long as you don't jump on them. My six-year-old daughter Charlotte saw her first turtle here and hasn't stopped talking about it since. Wear sunscreen and a stinger suit … you'll look like a cross between Nora Batty and Wonder Woman but it's better than a sting from a jellyfish.
• Queensland government: Green Island National Park
• Sea Grass Watch (downloadable PDFs)

The Low Isles

There are several habitats packed into a small area on the Low Isles and all of them are wildlife gold. Several boats run day trips from Port Douglas to the two neighbouring islands that make up the Low Isles. The largest is Woody Island, which is mostly mangrove and uninhabited, but the main attraction is Low Isle. It is straight out of Robinson Crusoe: you can walk around the whole island in a few minutes. For wildlife watching you can do a lot worse than sit anywhere on the beach, watch the sea and let the wildlife come to you.
The schools of baitfish attract lemon sharks right into the shallows. These are proper sharks, about a metre and half long and it is great to see them so close, and as with all the sharks on the reef there is no need to be fearful of them. You will also see needlefish zipping through the baitfish and leaping into the air while beating their tails against the surface – it's almost like they are flying. The resident ospreys hunt just off the beach, plucking fish from the sea right in front of you. The snorkelling is fantastic here as well: turtles, parrotfish and reef sharks if you are lucky.
• Sailaway Port Douglas cruises
• Quicksilver cruises

Mangrove boardwalk, Cairns Airport

I'm not going to lie to you; mangrove swamps are teeming with mosquitoes, smell of rotting vegetables and are so humid your knees sweat. Personally, I think these irritations are worth it to see one of the most incredible ecosystems on the planet. There are plenty of great mangroves around Cairns but the most accessible is two minutes' drive from the airport. Access is free, and a raised boardwalk means you don't need to get muddy. Take the road towards Cairns Airport from the Captain Cook Highway (Sheridan Street). About halfway along on your right you will see a parking bay and signs for the mangrove walk. The wildlife here is all in miniature, but amazing nonetheless. Lie on the boardwalk, keep still and watch the mudskippers – incredible little fish that walking using their fins – fiddler crabs waving their brightly coloured claws like a thousand tiny flags, and telescope whelks browsing at a more leisurely pace. Mangroves are all about mud: they are brilliant and important to the reef, and the more people that see them the better.
• wettropics.gov.au

Heron Island

This small island is one of the best places to see what the Great Barrier Reef is all about. It's only 88m wide and 300m long and at low tide it is possible to wade out onto the huge reef top. If you keep to the sand between the coral you can walk from pool to pool without damaging the coral, and the wildlife is astounding. I saw a moray eel moving from one pool to another like some sort of marine python. Heron Island is a great place to see sharks, such as the weird and wonderful epaulette shark, that can walk around using its fins as feet and hunt in the rock pools. More familiar-looking blacktip and whitetip reef sharks cruise the channels. My two children (Charlotte, five, and Joe, three) snorkelled with lemon sharks here: they are too young to have been affected by all the Jaws nonsense and thought it was brilliant.
One little-known treat is a giant Queensland grouper that lives under the main jetty: it's more than two metres long and looks like a double mattress. These are the biggest bony fish on the reef, and this one is so huge our cameraman saw it swallow a whole ray. Seeing that is worth the trip alone, but I could spend years on Heron Island and never get bored.
• heronisland.com

Fogarty Park, Cairns Esplanade 

Not one but two great wildlife spectacles occur at dusk right in the centre of Cairns. Flying foxes roost in tens of thousands in the trees along the seafront next to Fogarty Park, the main municipal park. It is amazing to sit in the public barbecue areas and watch so many of these giant bats landing in a single tree. I watched this many times and I never have worked out how they all squeeze in there without the tree collapsing or any of them falling out. In the same area and in some of the same trees are the smaller but no less spectacular painted lorikeets. They are stunning to look at, in indigo, orange and green, but make a hell of a noise. I suggest taking steak for the barbecue and ear defenders.
• cairnsesplanade.com.au

Crystal Cascades

This is a real "locals" hangout. The only way to get there is by taxi or car. (Drive to the suburb of Redlynch, and follow the signs to Crystal Cascades.) From the Red Beret Pub, the swimming hole is about 10km away. We used to take the kids swimming here all the time to cool down in the heat. It is a stunning gorge in the jungle with fast-moving water and some deep pools to swim in. Even in hot weather it is much quieter than more famous swimming spots. The one local reptile you won't find here is the saltwater crocodile – that is a very good thing. The unwritten law of swimming in the Cairns area is that you don't swim anywhere unless signs or locals tell you it's safe. This is a great place to see giant orb weavers. These harmless and stunningly beautiful spiders are the size of your hand and look like enameled broaches. Even more impressive, they build webs that are just about big enough to play badminton over. The jungle around the river is a good spot to see one of Australia's largest lizards: the lace monitor. Don't wander off the paths because it is easy to blunder into a stinging tree, which is much more painful than walking into a patch of nettles.
• cairnsattractions.com.au/a_crystal-cascades.php

The jungle

It is said that the 32,7000sq km of rainforest in tropical north Queensland is the oldest continuous jungle on earth. It is the only rainforest in Asutralia and some plants here have been around for 135 million years. Every time we explored we saw something different, from huge pythons stretched across the road at night and Boyd's forest dragons clinging to ancient trees to giant jungle cassowaries and enormous saltwater crocodiles. Get the best out of it by joining a tour around Cape Tribulation. The crocs are the largest reptiles on earth: stop off to spot them on the Daintree river.

At the Atherton Tablelands around Lake Eacham the forest changes completely. In our time here we saw carpet pythons, pademelons, possums, sugargliders and my first platypus. The incredible Cathedral fig (which is signposted from Lake Eachem) is a giant strangler fig that has taken over its host and grown to gigantic proportions. It is said to be the inspiration for the giant tree in Avatar. We filmed Monty [Halls] here and David Attenborough has also filmed here, so it is a local personality in its own right.
• daintreerainforestinformation.com

Minke whales

Every year, seven-tonne dwarf minke whales travel up to the reef. The really special thing about this is that they are attracted to people. The whales will hang about if there are snorkellers in the water, and it is not unusual for the whales to come to within a metre or so and look you right in the eye.

You shouldn't do this without expert guidance, and there are rules and etiquette to follow – most obviously not to touch the whales – but really anyone can do it as long as they can vaguely float. It is one of the most amazing and accessible wildlife experiences I have ever had.
• marineencounters.com.au; mikeball.com/minke-whale-expeditions; aroonaluxuryboatcharters.com.au

Lizard Island

It doesn't take too long to work out why Captain Cook chose the name. Large yellow-spotted monitor lizards frequent the paths around the island. They will move off if you get too close but otherwise are pretty much oblivious to people. There is great diving of all kinds nearby – the most famous being Cod Hole. The one place no one seems to dive is Watson's Bay, mostly because the reef proper is close by, but we found some real wildlife gems on the seabed here. It is hit and miss, as with a lot of lagoon diving, but across the relatively barren seabed you can find underwater life congregating around a single structure such as a sea anemone.
• Queensland government: Lizard Island

The wreck of the SS Yongala

I've seen some pretty amazing dive sights in my life but the Yongala is up there with the best. She sank in 1911 with the loss of all aboard, creating one of Australia's most intriguing maritime mysteries: she lay undiscovered for more than half a century. Now she is in 30m of water and can be reached in 45 minutes by fast boat from Alva Beach near Townsville. In just a single dive along her hull I saw Maori wrasse, bull rays, eagle rays, trevally, Spanish mackerel, two species of sea snake, a loggerhead turtle, a Galapagos shark, a bull shark and about a thousand other fish. It's a good job divers can't talk underwater because otherwise all you would hear on the wreck would be a constant string of amazed expletives as they encounter the next wonder. The currents don't make this an easy dive site but once you are on the wreck you can just drift along and try not to swallow too much water when you start gibbering into your mouthpiece.
• yongaladive.com.au

The first episode of Great Barrier Reef will be broadcast on BBC2 at 8pm on 1 January. For more information go to experiencequeensland.com/ GreatBarrierReef