North Stradbroke Island: how to do Minjerribah properly

Getting your bearings

Minjerribah sits in Moreton Bay, east of Brisbane. You reach it from Toondah Harbour at Cleveland — about 45 minutes' drive from the CBD, or a straight run on the Cleveland train line. From there it's either a 25-minute passenger ferry or a 50-minute vehicle ferry across to Dunwich.

The island has three townships, roughly 20 kilometres apart and linked by sealed road: Dunwich where the ferries land, Amity Point on the northern shore, and Point Lookout at the north-eastern tip where the surf, the headland and most of the accommodation are. About half the island is Naree Budjong Djara National Park.

If you only take one thing from this guide: Point Lookout is where you're going. Dunwich is the arrival point, not the destination.

The ferries, and which one to take

Two separate companies run across from Toondah Harbour, and confusing them is the classic first-timer's mistake. Their terminals are close together but distinct, and they land at different jetties on the island.

SeaLink — vehicle ferry and passenger ferry

SeaLink is at 12 Emmett Drive, Cleveland, and lands at Junner Street, Dunwich. It runs both services, 365 days a year.

The passenger ferry takes about 25 minutes. Fares from 1 July 2026 are $13.50 one way or $23 return for an adult, $8.75 / $13.50 for children aged 5–14, $11.50 / $17.50 for students, and $6.75 / $11.50 on concession. Children under 5 travel free, and bicycles are free with a passenger ticket. If you'll be a regular, a 10-return multi-ticket is $140 for adults and a 30-return brings it down to around $6 a trip.

The vehicle ferry takes about 50 minutes and uses airline-style flexible pricing — off-peak sailings are cheaper, peak sailings are not. As at April 2026 a standard car starts from $83 one way, a large car from $90.50, a motorbike is $42.50, and a kayak or canoe is $20 including the passenger. Additional passengers in the vehicle start at $6 adult and $3 child; the driver and children under 5 travel free. A 3% temporary fuel surcharge applies on vehicle bookings.

Stradbroke Flyer — water taxi only

The Stradbroke Flyer (Gold Cat) is a different operator, based at 13–21 Emmett Drive, Cleveland, and landing at One Mile Jetty on Yabby Street, Dunwich. It carries passengers only. No advance booking is needed — you buy on the day at the office or on board, by cash or card — and it runs a free courtesy bus to and from Cleveland train station, which makes it the easy choice if you're coming out by rail. New fares took effect on 13 July 2026, so check their timetable page for the current figures.

So which one?

Getting around once you're there

You don't need a car. A local bus service meets the water taxis at Dunwich and runs to Amity Point and Point Lookout seven days a week, with stops less than a minute's walk from the jetties. Buy a single, daily or weekly paper ticket from the driver with cash or card.

Two catches. Go cards don't work — island bus services sit outside the go card network and need a separate paper ticket. And a return day pass is only valid back to the terminal you arrived at, so note which ferry company you came across with. Amity Point gets around five services a day, so check the timetable rather than assuming.

There's also a local cab service, and cycling is realistic if you're fit: Point Lookout, Amity Point and Main Beach are each roughly 20 kilometres from the jetty, while Brown Lake, Myora Springs and the golf club are much closer.

The three townships

Dunwich (Gumpi)

Where the ferries land and where the island's services sit — the bakery, the supermarket, the Minjerribah Camping office, the historical museum, the old cemetery, the Little Ships Club overlooking the water, and the University of Queensland's Moreton Bay Research Station. Most visitors pass straight through. It's worth an hour on the way out or back, particularly since QUAMPI opened here.

Amity Point (Pulan)

The quiet one, on the north-western shore facing Moreton Island across the Rainbow Channel. Calm water, a jetty, a boat ramp, dolphins that turn up regularly, and very little else — which is exactly the point. The deep channel runs close to shore, so it's a favourite for fishing straight off the beach or jetty. Swimming here needs care; this is a channel, not a surf beach.

Point Lookout (Mulumba)

The headland town, and the reason most people come. The closest ocean surf breaks to Brisbane, a run of separate beaches within walking distance of each other, the Gorge Walk, the whale-watching headlands, the pubs, the cafés and most of the accommodation. If you have one day, spend it here.

The beaches

Point Lookout's beaches sit in a row along the headland, each with a different character, and you can walk between them.

• Cylinder Beach — the family beach. Sheltered by the headland, gentler water, grassy foreshore, closest to the shops. This is where most people end up.
• Home Beach — long, west-facing, calm, good for a late-afternoon swim and a sunset over the bay.
• Deadmans Beach — small, pretty, tucked into the rocks, more of a suntrap than a swimming beach.
• Frenchmans Beach — quieter again, with rock pools at the northern end.
• Main Beach — the big one. Thirty-odd kilometres of open surf running south down the island's ocean side, with 4WD access. Serious water; not the place for small children.
• Flinders Beach — the northern strand between Amity and Point Lookout, also 4WD-accessible, popular for beach camping.

Walks and the lakes

The Gorge Walk

The best 90 minutes on the island, and it's free. A gentle 1.5-kilometre loop with stairs around the North Gorge headland at Point Lookout, on boardwalk most of the way, with interpretive signage as you go. From the clifftops you'll routinely see turtles, manta rays, dolphins and — in season — whales, often close enough that you don't need binoculars. Go early. The light is better and the boardwalk is quieter.

Kaboora (Blue Lake)

Inland, in Naree Budjong Djara National Park, reached by a roughly six-kilometre return track from the Blue Lake car park about nine kilometres out of Dunwich along Alfred Martin Way. The walk runs through wallum woodland, flowering heath and stunted eucalypts, past Tortoise Lagoon, to a perched freshwater lake fed entirely by the sand aquifer.

Do not swim in Kaboora. It's a place of deep cultural significance to the Quandamooka People — the name is often translated as "deep silent pool" — and Queensland Parks and the Traditional Owners both ask visitors to stay out of the water. Look, sit, listen, and leave it as you found it. Wear proper shoes, take more water than you think you need, and expect soft sand underfoot.

Mount Vane

The newest track on the island, designed and built by the Quandamooka People in partnership with Queensland Parks. It links the two existing Blue Lake tracks into a network of around ten kilometres and climbs to a lookout with 360-degree views over Moreton Bay, Eighteen Mile Swamp and south towards the Gold Coast. Allow a half-day if you're doing the full circuit.

Bummiera (Brown Lake)

Much closer to Dunwich and much easier to reach — a tea-tree-stained lake ringed by paperbarks, tannin-dark and shallow. It's also a women's place in Quandamooka culture, and access arrangements have changed over the years. Check current signage and park alerts before planning around it.

Whales

Point Lookout is one of the best land-based whale-watching spots in Australia, and you don't need a boat or a ticket — the headland does the work. Humpbacks pass on their northern migration through the middle of the year and again heading south later in the season, and the North Gorge headland puts you above deep water where they come in close.

This isn't a recent discovery. The Quandamooka People have watched this migration for tens of thousands of years; yalingbila, the whale, is sacred to them and connected to one of their two moieties. That relationship is now built into the island's visitor experience through Yalingbila Bibula at Mulumba, which tells the story of that connection and the headland's role in whale research.

Quandamooka Country

Minjerribah is not simply a national park with towns on it. It is Quandamooka Country, and understanding that changes the visit.

On 4 July 2011, the Federal Court made two consent determinations recognising the Quandamooka People's native title rights and interests over the island and surrounding waters. More than ninety per cent of Minjerribah is now under native title, and the national park is jointly managed by the Quandamooka People and Queensland Parks. The park's name, Naree Budjong Djara, means "My Mother Earth".

The second big change was the end of sand mining. Mining had run on the island for decades and was wound down through the 2010s, with the last operation ceasing on 31 December 2019. A rehabilitation agreement between the miner, the State and the Quandamooka People covers the surrender and restoration of more than 12,000 hectares — a multi-year program that is still underway, which is why some inland areas are closed for regeneration.

What replaced mining is, deliberately, tourism built on Quandamooka culture. The camping operation across the island is Quandamooka-owned. QUAMPI, the first Indigenous-owned and operated arts and culture centre on Minjerribah, opened at Dunwich in 2025 overlooking Deanbilla Bay, with a gallery, workshop and performance spaces, an Elders space, a café and a shop. The annual Quandamooka Festival — dates move, so check with QYAC — is now centred there, and traditionally opens with a Welcome to Country and a smoking ceremony marking the whale season.

Camping and 4WD

Camping across the island is run by Minjerribah Camping, the Quandamooka-owned operation, with grounds at all three townships. At Point Lookout the sites are at Adder Rock, Home Beach and Cylinder Beach, all within walking distance of the sand, and the range now runs from unpowered sites through powered sites to eco shacks and glamping tents. Naree Budjong Djara National Park has its own camping areas as well, with permits required.

For beach camping on Main Beach or Flinders Beach you'll need a 4WD and a vehicle access permit, sold by Minjerribah Camping for either one month or one year. Buy it before you arrive if you can. The beach driving rules matter:

• 60 km/h maximum on the beach
• No driving for at least an hour either side of high tide
• Drive between the low and high tide marks, and drop your tyre pressures before you start
• Dogs are allowed at the Flinders Beach and Main Beach campsites only — both 4WD access

Day trip or stay?

A day trip works. Catch an early water taxi, bus straight through to Point Lookout, do the Gorge Walk before the heat, swim at Cylinder Beach, eat lunch on the headland, and take a mid-afternoon boat back. You'll be home for dinner and you'll have seen the best of it. That's the single most efficient day out from Brisbane, and it's why we get asked about it constantly.

Two or three days is better. It gets you a sunset and a sunrise, an inland day for Kaboora or Mount Vane, and enough slack to do nothing for an afternoon — which is rather the point of the place.

Five days or more is what you want if you're bringing a vehicle across, because it's what justifies the ferry cost, and it's what lets you get out to the beaches and the far side of the island properly.

What it costs

A worked comparison for two adults and two children aged 6 and 9, one day, return.

The point that table makes: Straddie is a cheap day out if you leave the car behind. The expensive part is the vehicle ferry, and almost everything worth doing at Point Lookout is free once you're there. If you do bring the car, stay long enough to use it.

When to go

Winter, roughly June to September, is our pick. Mild dry days, low humidity, whales offshore, far fewer people, and walking weather that summer simply doesn't offer. The water is cooler but perfectly swimmable for most.

Spring and autumn are the sweet spots for warm water without the crowds. October and March–April are reliably good.

Summer is beautiful and busy. School holidays and long weekends fill the accommodation, the vehicle ferry books out, and parking at Toondah Harbour becomes genuinely difficult. If you're going in January, book the ferry weeks ahead and start early.

Whatever the season, arrive at the terminal with time up your sleeve — SeaLink suggests 30 minutes before departure, and parking at Cleveland can eat all of it in peak periods.

Visiting respectfully

None of this is complicated, and all of it matters.

• Don't swim in Kaboora (Blue Lake). It's asked of visitors for cultural reasons and it's clearly signed.
• Stay on marked tracks. Wallum heath is fragile and much of the inland is under active rehabilitation.
• Observe closures and park alerts rather than working around them.
• Take your rubbish off the island. Waste management on a sand island is a real constraint.
• Buy local where you can — the camping, the culture centre and a growing share of the tourism operations are Quandamooka-owned, and that's the whole design of the island's post-mining economy.
• Give the wildlife room, especially dolphins at Amity and nesting shorebirds on the beaches.

Questions we get asked

Keep planning

Official sources: SeaLink ferry fares, Stradbroke Flyer timetable and prices, Naree Budjong Djara National Park and QYAC.