If you’re planning a trip around South East Queensland, or wondering about spots to get out of Brizzie for the day, you might be wondering: is Bribie Island really worth visiting? It often gets overshadowed by bigger-name tourist traps in its vicinity, like the Sunshine Coast or Moreton Island, but this little slice of paradise which hugs the Queensland coast, has a charm all of its own. There are many types of wildlife present on the island. Kangaroos, wallabies, emus, various snake species, green tree frogs and according to Wikipedia, dingos, can often be seen venturing from the national park into the surrounding suburbs.

Pumicestone Passage, located between the island and the mainland, is a protected marine park that provides habitat for dugongs, turtles and dolphins. There are also extensive mangrove forests in this area, abd further from the beaches, eucalypt forests, banksias and heathlands provide habitats for 350 species of birds.

 My last visit to Bribie Island was nearly thirty years ago when I took my kids up to visit their aunt, uncle and cousins (who no longer live there) in the sparsely settled ‘suburb’ with the funny name of ‘Bongaree’. It was a quiet town on the Pumicestone Passage side of the island facing the mainland. It had very few facilities, in fact, my sister-in-law worked at IGA, the only supermarket on Bribie back then. The settlements of Bongaree, Bellara and Woorim were each surrounded by pristine seaside scrub and deserted beaches. They were not all joined together as they are now; nor were they part of Moreton Bay Council, and Banksia Beach and White Patch did not exist. The most exciting thing to do on the island was take a drive down the bush track to Buckley’s Hole Lagoon and watch the birds. The northern part of the island is still National Park.

Buckley’s Hole Conservation Park Lagoon (we didn’t get there this trip but there’s a proper hide there now apparently. I’d never have dragged my husband away.)

Bribie Island’s name came from a corruption of a mainland word for it, Boorabee meaning koala. However, the correct Joondaburri name for the island is Yarun. It is the world’s fourth-largest sand-barrier island (after Fraser Island (K’gari), North Stradbroke (Minjerribah) and Moreton Island). It is made up of two main dunes and runs for over thirty kilometres south from Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast. In January 2022, the ocean broke through the narrow spit of the island 2 km from the northern tip (due to Cyclone Seth culminating with a king tide). This event created a new passage 200 metres wide, which is of concern to the people of Golden Beach on the mainland.

Cargo ships steam past Bribie into the Port of Brisbane, and once, when we were staying at Caloundra and I was fit, my cousins and I swam across to the uninhabited northern tip where the break occurred. The more usual way to reach the inhabited southern end of Bribie is to cross the 800-metre-long bridge across the peaceful Pumicestone Passage from Sandstone Point at Caboolture. Did you read that? Bridge=Accessibility. You don’t have to catch a ferry. If you want, however, to visit some peaceful parts of the island, and camp on the beach, you will need a four-wheel-drive. We don’t have one.

Bribie Island Bridge over Pumicestone Passage

When my husband, who works in Brisbane, was granted a holiday for the ‘Ekka’ (Brisbane’s equivalent of Sydney’s Royal Easter Show) we decided such an opportunity should be spent exploring somewhere peaceful rather than be squandered on a screaming, surging showground, so we headed to Bribie. It’s under two hours from Ipswich and about 45 minutes north of downtown Brizzie (although not on Ekka People’s Day afternoon when the road out to Caboolture slowed to a crawl). Despite the crowds, it was a perfect day to visit. I like cooler weather, and the mosquitoes and sandflies for which the island has quite a reputation, are not as swarmy as they are in Summer. Actually, I didn’t get bitten at all. There was a clear view as we drove across the bridge, of the Glasshouse Mountains to the west.

Bribie is now a haven for retirees, and looks somewhat like Ballina, Hervey Bay and the Sunshine Coast. Rather sad, even though we’re not too far from joining the wheelie-walker set ourselves. I guess they don’t get out walking as much as the island deserves. Golden sands and lovely plants.

As we drove in past McDonalds and several supermarket strips, we decided to go first to the Arts Centre. From the outside, it doesn”t look much, but it is huge and the quality of the artworks is excellent. There was a well-patronised exhibition by local artists in the Matthew Flinders Gallery and we had trouble choosing our favourite artworks to put in the ‘people’s choice’ competition box. Out the back, there are gardens with more art installations and the artisan worksheds are strewn over several acres. There’s also a cafe which was chockers with arty farty pearl-clutchers, all looking animated and happy. Photos were prohibited inside, so you might have to go there yourself if you’re an art-lover.

Outside, we set off down a deserted walking trail through a native fauna scrub. It would have been a lovely, peaceful meditative walk except for the duelling mowers on the verge of the nearby road. The birds had all flown off to quieter realms.

We went next to the butterfly house (open Wednesdays and Sundays only and staffed by volunteers) and walked into a garden wonderland of flying butterflies! Around 700-1000 butterflies are housed in an outdoor sanctuary where they are safe to fly, feed, breed, lay their eggs and continue their magical life cycle. We were handed a pamphlet to explain which species we were seeing. Several are butterflies I’ve seen in the garden at home. And the hubs was given a swatch of fluorescent yellow lycra because the bfs like to land on it.

There’s a nursery where you can buy butterfly-attracting plants and at the butterfly breeding lab viewing area you can see the volunteers at work, looking after the eggs and chrysalises and feeding the hungry caterpillars.

For lunch, when near a beach, you can’t beat fish and chips. To tell the truth, the Oyster Shed would’ve had me, but Hubs hates seafood unless it is wrapped in crumbs and deep-fried. We had a ripper meal at Pigface near Woorim Beach. They do gluten-free batter! And you get to choose your species of fish. I had gluten-free coral trout with chips and salad. My belly thanked them!

Afterwards we took a long relaxed snuff of sea air at Woorim beach, looking out towards Moreton Island.

So peaceful considering it’s the beach from which a 17-year-old girl was taken by a shark in February. There now appear to be baited drumlines out beyond the short surf break to catch sharks. Even though there were no flags up, people, including children, were swimming.

We also wandered through St Vinnie’s and a huge accumulation of bric-a-brac clutter in Busy Fingers. The Sexy Hot Nerd bought me some hole punches for my pressed-flower craft and we saw a nest of baby birds in a pot plant which fulfilled the mandatory bird-watching component of the day.

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