Stradbroke Island Trip or a Few Days on Straddie. Part 1

The wonderful thing about having an overseas visitor stay, is that you get to do lots of things together as you 'show off' your home town/state/country. Well a combination of  her mother's memories of Stradbroke Island and the photos of the island on the Qantas ads in the US, meant that a visit to Straddie was on Adrienne's 'to do if possible' list. And DH and I volunteered to take her of course 😉. 

Stradbroke Island is just a 40 minute ferry ride from the mainland...

With the car parked on board it was time to adjourn to the onboard cafe...

The coffee, though served in paper cups, was excellent. 

The ferry docks at the Dunwich settlement on Stradbroke. Our accomodation was a house at Point Lookout, a 20 km drive  away. After arriving at the house, and unpacking the car, we checked out the house.

The views from the verandas...

Then, as Adrienne is a keen 'sunsets and sunrises' photographer, we then drove back to Amity another island community to take pics of the sunset.

On the way, we saw some wildlife...just by the side of the road...and a perfect photo opportunity for a visitor from overseas. Yep! A wallaby that seemed to pose for us! Lol

The sun was just near the horizon when we got to Amity and out came the cameras. I was wearing the moon boot as my ankle had swollen a bit the day before so I decided to sit on a seat to admire the view, rather than walk over the uneven ground.  So DH and Adrienne stood at the water's edge and I took photos of them taking photos as the sun went down. 

Next time I'll write about our busy second day on the island. 

Meandering around Moreton Bay; our cruising continued :-)

After we left the Brisbane River we entered Moreton Bay; a huge bay named by Captain James Cook on his 1770 voyage up the east coast of our continent. This bay is quite sheltered due to 3 large islands that are parallel to the coastline, Bribie, Moreton and Stradbroke. Then there are another 297 islands that dot this region. Some are inhabited but many are not and our cruise would now take us past, between and around many of these islands.

The Tangalooma Flyer which goes between Brisbane and the resort on Moreton Island 

On the mainland side (starboard)  we cruised past Wynnum and Manly, Wellington Point, Victoria Point, Cleveland and Redland Bay communities.

One of the first islands that we encountered in Moreton Bay was the infamous St Helena Island on which was built a penal colony for the 'worst of convicts' who endured a pretty horrific life. Escapes were thwarted by the sharks that were very plentiful in the bay. It is now a National Park and does a 'roaring trade' with school groups' excursions. There are also night time tours which are said to be quite scary, lol! To land on St Helena, you have to be part of an organised tour and they are very strict about this. (the company whose cruise we were taking are a group that take tours there) Now it so happens that on board with us that day, was a ranger and he took over the commentary as we went past St Helena island.

The ranger tells us about the harsh conditions that prisoners on St Helena lived under

He demonstrates a beating with a cat o' ninetails  on the  volunteer crewman. (it was made of rope not leather and he didn't really hit him :-) )

Our boat cruise went between St Helena and Mud Island and to the left (port) we could see the huge white sand dunes of Moreton Island where the Tangalooma resort is and gradually we drew near North Stradbroke Island. North and South Stradbroke Island together stretched all the way to Southport so it was on our port side the rest of the trip.

As we came towards Cleveland we passed a small island known as Peel Island. This was originally the site of  a quarantine station but from 1907-1959 it was a leprosarium, for the isolation and treatment of people who had contracted leprosy.

As we neared the Redland Bay area, suddenly there seemed to be islands everywhere; Macleay, Russell, Lamb and Coochiemudlo Islands are just some of the inhabited islands in this area. The channel is very narrow here and is marked with the usual red and green markers. (green marks the right side of the channel and red, the left side leaving the harbour/dock etc))

Macleay Island

Wynumn/Manly in the distance

Russell Island's electricity comes via pylons from the mainland...

Seabirds having a rest...

Many islands are mainly under water and have mangroves...

A trawler we 'met' not far from Stradbroke island...

A lovely 'wilderness' near the mouth of the Logan River

The southern end of North Stradbroke Island and the northern tip of South Stradbroke Island...

A close-up of Jumpin Pin between the 2 parts of Stradbroke Island (originally this was one island)

 Here is a map showing the island of Moreton Bay down to the southern tip of South Stradbroke...

In the next post I'll share some photos taken as we sailed towards the Gold Coast :-)

More of 'Cruisin' down the river...'

So to continue with all the sights we saw on Monday...

Firstly, this photo that DH took, just as we passed under the Gateway Bridge...a very interesting perspective I think...There are now 2 bridges; the duplication was called the Leo Hielscher Bridge...still the Gateway to me lol! 

 The next photo shows the cruise ship terminal. Apparently the really big cruise ships can't come into Brisbane as they don't 'fit' but we still get lots of cruise ships visiting just the same.

A bit more of the cruise terminal area...

A smaller ship docking...

 A few weeks ago DH and I went to Fort Lytton. The photo below is of the fort area from the river...

DH's has a telescopic lens, so the photos below get us a bit 'closer' to Fort Lytton 

A gun emplacement from WW2...

When I wrote about Fort Lytton I mentioned that for a number of years the land the fort is on was owned by Ampol and then Caltex Oil Refineries. This shot shows the now, Fort Lytton National Park, dwarfed by the Caltex Refinery. 

Another 'zoom in' on Fort Lytton...

These storage tanks looked like they covered a number of hectares on the north bank of the river...

Looking back up the river...the Gateway bridge is barely visible...

We're getting closer to the mouth of the river...

Looking south here I spotted a large building. It is Nazareth House which is in Wynnum a southern bayside suburb of Brisbane. I had never imagined I could see Wynnum from the Brisbane River.

 Nazareth House was originally a 'Boys Home' run by the Catholic Church. We found out on our tour of Fort Lytton, that older boys from this home were used as labourers on the building of the fort. It was been an aged care facility for quite a while now though.

I 'zoomed ' in on Nazareth House here,,,

This is an example of what is known as a supertanker...over 1000 tonnes.

This is an area of the port where 'robot' crane like vehicles unload and shift  containers. The tower-like building is where the robots are controlled by computer...

More ships being unloaded

The mouth of the river...

 In yet another post I will show photos of some of the islands that we sailed past as well as some scenes of the Gold Coast's Broadwater. We were in Moreton Bay all the time...this large bay runs from the Sunshine Coast down to the top of the Gold Coast.