Tangalooma

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Tangalooma is a resort on Moreton Island just off shore from Brisbane. Kate and I took a Saturday day trip out to the resort in early February, 2004 for a swim on the beach and a ride on the sand dunes.

People think of Brisbane as a coastal city but it's really a river city and down stream at the coast it's pretty mucky mangrove swamp shores. If you want to get to lovely sandy beaches you need to go further afield.

Nearby off shore are several large sand islands. Moreton Island is the largest, it's very long and quite narrow (perhaps 8 miles or so). It's a protected island (a national park) that's mostly forest with some very large bare areas that expose the sand dunes which form the island. I suppose all this sand washed down the river from the highland beyond Brisbane. The one and only resort is a very tiny portion of a very large island.

The Tangalooma Resort is on the Moreton Bay side (ie. the west side) facing towards the land rather than the sea. It's a pretty big resort, but we didn't get to see much beyond the beach and lunch at a dining hall. Down the beach to the north there's an artificial reef made out of sunken boats -- we didn't get down there this time.

The only way to get to the island is by boat. If you've brought a vehicle then you can drive around the island on the beaches. That's an oddly Queensland kind of thing -- cf. our trip to Fraser Island. We had arranged the visit through the resort and while there took a smallish 4-wheel drive bus adventure through the woods to the nearby sand dunes. At the sand dunes we climbed to the top and then slid down on "toboggans" --- really just a sheet of polished masonite. The climb up the dunes is quite a struggle. It's a good height and walking in sand isn't easy. The ride down the dunes is easy enough but do hold the front of you masonite up else you'll dig into the sand and get a mouthful. There were some folks who had their swimming glasses, that would work well to protect your eyes from the sand.

There's a dolphin feeding at the dock for the resort but it's done a dusk and our boat headed back earlier so we missed that. We're told the artificial reef has great snorkeling.

Here's a photo album of our day on the island. We had fun and will be back should there be another visit to this part of Australia.