North Stradbroke Island is the second largest sand island in the world (after Fraser Island, which we were later to visit), but unlike Fraser it has a tarmac road infrastructure (sealed roads) to support the mining activity that takes place on the island for minerals such as silica.
We loved ‘Straddie’! Having arrived in Brisbane at the beginning of our 4 week Australia trip this was our first step out of the city. North Stradbroke Island is a short trip from Brisbane, but feels very removed from the Queensland capital.
Unlike some of the resort islands we visited later in the trip Straddie was a real place with real people doing real jobs and we were blown away with the beauty of the small corner of the island we were able to see on our day trip.
Getting to North Stradbroke Island
Getting there was very simple from Brisbane. From Central station take the train to Cleveland. It’s not far but does call at each stop along the way, so takes a little over an hour. At Cleveland come out of the station and turn right onto the main road bus stop where a shuttle bus will take you to the ‘North Stradbroke Flier‘ water taxi. Pay on the boat at an extremely reasonable $20 return and sit back and enjoy the ride. A different ferry for cars is also available.
Buses on North Stradbroke Island
The ferry will take you to Dunwich. From here we took the bus (which is timed to connect with the ferries) to Point Lookout for $10 return (cash only). The other route is to Amity (bus change required) which unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit.
Point Lookout
At the North West tip of the island is a string of beutiful beaches either side of a breathtaking boardwalk route around the dramatic rugged coastal scenes of Point Lookout. Whilst I was taking the photograph featured on this post we saw many whales just offshore on their annual migration north (this was in early July) before following the ‘gorge walk’ and taking the many steps down to Frenchmans Beach which we had almost to ourselves – and a Kangaroo.
Whales – Kangaroos – Huge surf – after a day in the city we now felt like we’d arrived in Australia!
On the trip back on the bus I was talking to a regular visitor to the island who was telling me about how he sometimes takes his 4×4 to the island where you can drive the entire length of the island along the beach on the west side and camp in the dunes which sounded like a great adventure, but for now it was back on the Straddie Flyer and back to Brisbane.
We all loved North Stradbroke and would definitely recommend it as a great day out (start early from Brisbane – door to door it’s at least two hours), or better still take a few days and get to see more of the island or maybe look at the 4×4 hire option with some camping. We would of happily traded one of our nights in Brisbane with a night on the island.