Five new Queensland island tours
From rehabilitating injured turtles to exploring a working pearl farm, Queensland’s new excursions have something to suit all tastes.
With over 900 isles off its coast, Queensland is the perfect setting for a tropical island adventure. But if you are short on time, these day trips will have you island hopping - even if you only have a weekend to spare. From rehabilitating injured turtles to exploring a working pearl farm, Queensland’s new island tours have something to suit all tastes.
1. Taribelang Bunda Overnight Cultural Experience, Lady Musgrave Island
Step on to the three-level pontoon moored next to the coral reef-fringed Lady Musgrave Island and you’ll be immersed in nature. Here, on the southern Great Barrier Reef, colourful fish and grazing turtles swim in sheltered waters, while shearwaters fly in wild arcs against a clear blue sky.
Now you can deepen your understanding of this pristine environment with the Taribelang Bunda Overnight Cultural Experience, a three-day retreat where you can learn more about Aboriginal culture and history from the traditional owners of the Bundaberg region.
Guests stay on the pontoon and dine on three-course dinners featuring bush tucker ingredients. Activities include an outer-reef snorkel safari and guided island tour. It is held on selected dates throughout the year; $3325 for two adults (twin-share in glamping bed).
2. Wunyami Cultural Walking Tour, Green Island
Before embarking upon the Wunyami Cultural Walking Tour on Green Island, my guide encourages me to smear clay from the 180-million-year-old Daintree Rainforest up one arm. This simple act, says Blake Cedar Kynuna, will connect me to country.
“(We’re) blessed to be in such an ancient place and continuing these traditions,” he says. Given that this 12ha coral cay was once considered sacred and used only for initiation ceremonies, he then performs a traditional cleansing. “It’s so we have no unwanted visitors following us home, because it’s the place of spirits,” Kynuna explains.
Wunyami is Green Island’s Indigenous name. Though it’s small, there’s plenty to explore. This tour reveals ancestral stories shared by the GuruGulu Gunggandji people (Yarrabah) and the Gimuy Yidinji people (Cairns), encourages visitors to sample bush tucker and reveals how the First Nations people of this area read the changing seasons. One hour, adults $39.
3. Wildcat Mackay Islands Tour
Cockermouth, Keswick, St Bees, and Scawfell. They’re the Queensland islands off the coast of Mackay that you’ve likely never heard of, but Wildcat Mackay’s award-winning debut in 2022 has made them (along with former hotspot Brampton Island) newly accessible to those without a private boat.
The operator’s full-day Islands Tour takes a custom-built catamaran and heads out to a handful of the nine continental islands within the South Cumberland Islands National Park, which are thrumming with marine life and serve as rookeries for flatback and green sea turtles.
The tour operators also promise access to “secret, hitherto unexplored spots”, with ample opportunities to snorkel on the fringing Great Barrier Reef, paddleboard in sheltered waters, and explore walking trails on these idyllic dollops of sand.
Tours depart the Mackay Marina Village Friday to Sunday and include everything from food to fins; adults $199, children $169.
4. Marine Conservation Program, Fitzroy Island
We’re snorkelling over Fitzroy Island’s fringing reef when marine biologist Molly McCannon points to a parrotfish, then puts her hand to her ear to listen. The fish chomps down on coral with an audible crunch. Afterwards, when it excretes a white cloud, McCannon is elated, signalling for us to resurface. “You have just witnessed the birth of sand,” she says.
That half of this continental island 45 minutes off the coast of Cairns is comprised of parrotfish poo is one of many fun facts divulged during Fitzroy Island Resort’s full-day Marine Conservation Program. Introduced in late 2022, it lets guests contribute to local preservation efforts.
We start at the island’s Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, helping to feed three injured turtles, clean their tanks and even administer physiotherapy.
After lunch, our role in the water is to participate in the Eye on the Reef monitoring and assessment program. Held Mondays, $199 a person.
5. A Strait Escape, Torres Strait Islands
As our 36-seater plane starts its descent, puffy clouds part to reveal aquamarine seas dotted with islands fringed by white sands. It’s a sight that brings to mind The Maldives, but we’re actually flying over Queensland’s northernmost frontier, just off Cape York, peering at some of the 270-plus Torres Strait Islands. And there’s no swimming here, due to the presence of crocodiles.
A Strait Escape is a three-day tour to this remote archipelago that launched last year. Departing Cairns, and visiting Horn (Ngurupai), Thursday (Waiben) and Friday (Giralag) Islands, it takes guests on a journey through ailan kastom (island custom) via art, dance, food and storytelling.
Points of interest include Horn Island’s Torres Strait Heritage Museum, Thursday Island’s Gab Titui Cultural Centre and the region’s last remaining active pearl farm on Friday Island. Strait Experience offers other tours that visit Masig Island and Pajinka (the mainland’s northern tip). Two nights, from $3464 a person, twin-share.
