North Stradbroke Island: Brisbane island guide

BY Desta Cullen
australiantraveller.com

Don’t be fooled: North Stradbroke Island may sit just 30 kilometres east of Brisbane’s Cleveland but it feels a world away.

As we board the last evening ferry to North Stradbroke Island, I can’t help but feel a mixture of smugness and that heady holiday buzz, usually reserved for international sojourns. 

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In little over an hour, we’ll be plonking our bare feet onto the shores of the world’s second-largest sand island for a weekend of serious beach adventures. 

The fact that we’ve barely left Brisbane, and the full trip takes only two hours from the centre of the city, may go some way to explaining my current mood.

I’m not the only one that feels this way. The throngs of sun and surf-seeking visitors who regularly make the pilgrimage to the island community (home to 2500 lucky permanent residents) for weekend escapes vindicate my smugness.

We drive onto the ferry at Cleveland but you can just as easily walk on, hopping off at Dunwich on the western coastline, before hitting the East Coast Road to beachside townships Amity Point or Point Lookout.

Point Lookout is most popular, for its proximity to Straddie’s swim and surf beaches, The North Gorge Walk and plenty of great eateries.

Find your accommodation in the mixture of privately-owned beach shacks, self-contained apartments (we stayed at Samarinda Jewel by the Sea), resorts and camp spots perched on the road into Point Lookout proper – an ideal base for daytrips and island adventures.