Moreton Island Holiday or Day Trip - Australia
Tangalooma Resort, Bulwer, Cowan and Kooringal on Pristine Moreton
Moreton Island, mistakenly referred to as Morton Island or even Tangalooma Island, just off the Queensland coast, 75 minutes from Brisbane, is a large sand island that offers everything from activities at Tangalooma Resort to relative isolation at the tiny settlements of Bulwer, Cowan Cowan and Kooringal.
Moreton Island Statistics
Moreton Island is only 35 kilometres from Brisbane, and is 38 km long and 9 km across at its widest. It has a wide range of wildlife habitat including forest, heath, swamp, lagoon and dunes and, according to Australian Explorer, boasts the highest vegetated coastal sand hill in the world – Mount Tempest at 280 meters high. Moreton Island is 98% national park – that is, only the three tiny settlements are excluded.
Green Turtles and Loggerhead Turtles nest on the beaches between November and February. Thousands of migrating birds from the Arctic tundra and Siberia swoop in between September and April. Dolphins, dugongs and humpback whales (June to October) can also be sighted.
Tangalooma Wrecks
Prior to the installation of a Moreton Island light house in 1857, there were numerous shipwrecks, as Moreton Bay, the entrance to the Brisbane River, was notoriously difficult to negotiate. However, according to See Moreton Island Tours, the Tangalooma wrecks, are not marine disasters but 15 old boats scuppered to make a safe artificial harbour and breakwater.
Nestled in n 2-10 metres of water, with a visibility of 8 metres, the wrecks make a great snorkel and dive site. They are teeming with a wide variety of marine life.
Day trips to Moreton Island
Several companies run day trips from Brisbane for snorkelers, divers and sand-boarders. Micat offers a day trip which includes city pickup, travel, sand boarding on the sand hills and snorkelling around the wrecks (equipment provided) for $150 per adult. Sunrover Tours offers a 2-day overnight camping experience for $195 per adult.
It is also possible to simply take one of the barges across Moreton Bay and create a self-conducted holiday. The visitor needs to be aware that there are no sealed roads, and only 4-wheel drives (SUVs) are permitted on the island.
Camping on Moreton Island
Visitors who want to take their own or hired vehicle require a Vehicle Access Permit (VAP) which costs $37.10 and may be obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency EPA Customer Service Centre - (8.30am-5.00pm Mon-Fri)160 Ann St, Brisbane. (07)3227 8185, or from the two barge operators (Kooringal Trader and Moreton Venture) who take the vehicles across from Brisbane.
Visitors who want to camp rather than use rented accommodation also need to obtain a camping permit from the EPA. Camping fees are $4.85 per person per night or $19.40 per family per night.
Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort
Most tourists head for Tangalooma Resort, a mid-point on the island and close the the wrecks. Overnight guests of the resort participate in the wild dolphin feeding for which the resort is famous (See below for details). The resort offers excellent accommodation and many water- and land-based activities.
However, holiday makers that want peace and quiet, the sense of island isolation and the enjoyment of a pristine national park, might choose one of the small settlements on the island where good long-term holiday accommodation is available.
Kooringal on Moreton Island
The small township (if it could be called that) of Kooringal is a collection of 150 houses with a general store which has a restaurant attached. It is also possible to obtain locally-grown oysters and fresh seafood here. If the visitor has a 4-wheel drive vehicle, Kooringal can be reached by road from Tangalooma.
Otherwise, Kooringal is reached in a rather roundabout way by the Kooringal Trader, a barge that makes a beach landing so that vehicles and passengers can trundle off.
However, the visitor must first get to Stradbroke Island on the Stradbroke Island ferry (Toondah Harbour, 3 Emmett Drive, Cleveland - Brisbane suburb), and transfer from that landing point at Dulwich by bus or taxi to Amity Point, from whence the Kootingal Trader makes two trips per day, (9:30 and 15:30). Check connections and plan carefully to avoid disappointment.
Accommodation Moreton Island - Kooringal
There are several beachside holiday houses that accommodate large families. Contact Moreton-Central.com for details. Visitors should bear in mind that this is a real ‘get away from it all’ experience. Facilities at Kooringal are very limited – just a store/restaurant.
Moreton Island Accommodation - Cowan Cowan and Bulwer
These two settlements on Moreton Island are even smaller than Kooringal and can be reached by Micat vehicular ferry (14 Howard Smith Drive, Port of Brisbane) to Tangalooma. Both settlements have holiday accommodation but no services and the visitor really needs his or her own transport. For accommodation, try Cowan Cowan Realestate.com and Moretonventure.com (the operators of Micat ferries) for houses in Bulwer.
Moreton Island is an astonishingly remote environment for tourists and interstate visitors to experience – astonishing because it is only an hour from Brisbane and accessible even for a day trip.
Suite101 also has facts about Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort
MOreton Island Dunes
|
Tangalooma Wrecks
|
Wrecked Dredge
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Travel
Latest Articles