How to find Queensland’s authentic heart from a Bribie Island beach house
While Brisbane city boasts trendy new eateries and night-life, the real treasure lies an hour away where old timber houses by the seaside offer an unexpected slice of paradise.
They say you should never buy an old Queenslander … but given the chance, should you stay in one? My word you should.
A true Queenslander – the house, not the person – has high ceilings, timber floors and casement windows you can throw open to let in the evening breeze. It sits on a big block, with a veranda open to the sea.
There aren’t as many of these glorious homes as there used to be (“Can’t stop progress!” builders would say as they took to them with a bulldozer), but you’d be drawn-and-quartered if you tried to demolish one these days.
They are perfectly adapted to the Queensland climate. The best ones come with corellas in the frangipani trees. You can find them on Airbnb, but the one we stay in is chosen for us by the good folk at Bribie Island Holidays.
We’ve planned a weekend in Brisbane, but rather than stay in the city we dive out to Bribie, which to some Brisbanites seems a mad thing to do. Bribie is where they might have spent summers as kids, after one of those endless “Are we there yet?” rides in the back of Dad’s hot Falcon.
Bribie Island is in fact only an hour from the airport, and it feels like a different world. There is plenty of accommodation, but the Queenslander we stay in, on Woorim Beach, is one of those houses where you walk in and your mouth drops open because it’s so perfect.
We arrive just as the dark clouds of a tropical storm roll in. Fat drops of rain explode at our shoes as we race up the stairs. Straight away, we want to feel the boards beneath our feet. I’ve forgotten how lovely it is to stay in an old timber home, where all the doors are a bit wonky. The natural materials give everything an organic feel, so much better than a concrete hotel in the city.
Still, we head to Brisbane for a big-city lunch at the hot new restaurant Marlowe, which everyone in the capital is talking about.
The restaurant opened in September. It’s housed in an original Art Deco apartment block, built in 1938 on the corner of Merivale Street and Fish Lane in South Brisbane. The building used to be called the Marlowe Flats, and many of the glorious features – the fancy ceilings, the timber staircase – remain intact.
The owners take care to “honour the bones” of the old dame, leaving even the sunrooms in place, so the restaurant works now like a series of dining rooms, with staff moving between them. Punters wander in saying, “Hey, that used to be my bedroom!”
To create the menu, Marlowe’s co-owner and executive chef Ollie Hansford pores over old Australian recipe books of the type you might have had in your childhood kitchen.
He wants to tap into nostalgia while using mainly Queensland produce, only from farmers he knows. You can choose free-range chicken from the Scenic Rim, yabbies from a small pond on the Fraser Coast, and creme fraiche from a family-run dairy. The food is excellent, but what makes Marlowe sing is the ambience. There’s warmth and love built into the walls of the building. They’ve nailed the atmosphere: nobody’s rushing you, the sides are generous, the steaks are huge, they use “good plates” and “the good cutlery”, and if you get the lamb roast they bring the gravy in a proper boat.
We return to Bribie.
Besides being a seaside playground for ’70s kids, it was also a strategic defence post during World War II. The army built bunkers on the island to repel Japanese submarines. As it turns out, no shots were ever fired in anger, and it was apparently quite boring to be stationed there. Rumour has it that troops would sometimes strip off, seal their clothes into old milk cans, swim across to Caloundra in the nude, get dressed, take a lady dancing, and swim back again.
Eighty years on, the old concrete bunkers are sinking into the sea, so if you want to see them you may have to move quickly. The best way to get a good look is to book a four-wheel-drive bunker tour with the knockabout Jason Brown, who has lived on Bribie since he was a boy.
Jason meets us on the ocean access track, which is easy to find. Four-wheel driving along the sand is always pretty special. We see kangaroos and a goanna on our way to a tea-tree lagoon. Jason has kayaks in his trailer, which he puts into the water for us. We paddle out on the mirror-calm water, which is bronze-coloured from all the tea-tree tannins. You can swim in the lagoon; after bathing, your skin will be as soft as silk.
Jason prepares a seafood spread for his guests, which he serves on the side of the four-wheel drive. We have Moreton Bay bugs, prawns, cheese and plenty of tropical fruit. A practised hand, he sets the beach chairs up with one flick of his wrist. The ride back is heaven for a twitcher: we see sea hawks, kites and pied oystercatchers among the dunes.
We sleep that night in the old Queenslander, cooled by ocean breezes. At some point, I wake to rain going like the clappers on the corrugated-iron roof, and a kookaburra hails the dawn. It’s absolutely magic.
Checklist
Getting there: Bribie Island is about a 60-minute drive from Brisbane Airport, depending on traffic.
Eat: Marlowe (105 Melbourne St, South Brisbane; marlowebne.com.au) is a contemporary restaurant set over nine rooms in a heritage-listed Art Deco building. Try mains like stuffed chicken breast with mushrooms and sherry sauce ($52), spiced pork chop with caramelised apple, garlic, and hazelnut jus ($50), and coral trout wellington ($75).
Stay: For the quintessential Queensland experience, book Queenslander accommodation via Bribie Island Holidays (bribieislandholidays.com.au). Houses from $515 a night.
Do:Check out the WWII bunkers of Bribie Island. The guys from G’Day Adventure Tours will look after you. gdayadventuretours.com
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