There was no ripple of warning across its famed passage of azure waters.

Out of the blue in September last year, the Whitsundays—Queensland’s iconic archipelago of 74 tropical islands—was hit by its biggest property wave as a run to paradise began from Australia’s Covid-gripped capital cities.

At the northern end of Hamilton Island a $6-million deal was sealed, sight unseen, by a southern buyer for Lotus House, a four-bedroom hilltop residence overlooking the verdigris depths of the Coral Sea.