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This uninhabited coral islet is home to Cossies Beach, once crowned Australia’s most beautiful beach, and the shimmering turquoise lagoon that surrounds it. A narrow ribbon of bleached-white sand curves beneath swaying casuarinas and coconut palms, framing water so clear it seems to glow from within.

Beyond the shallows lies the famous Rip, a natural channel where the lagoon’s still turquoise gives way to a rushing current, drawing snorkellers into a drift dive above coral bommies alive with reef sharks, turtles and dazzling shoals of tropical fish. The island’s only structures are simple wooden pondoks, a barbecue and composting toilets, keeping the setting utterly wild.

Reachable solely by boat from West or Home Island, Direction Island rewards the journey with a rare sense of remoteness, part of the tiny Cocos (Keeling) atoll suspended in the eastern Indian Ocean, where Malay-Australian island culture and untouched marine wilderness meet in quiet, timeless harmony.