Experience Four Wheel Drive Moreton Island Tour: Wild-Life And Adventure In QLD, Australia

Sixty kilometres north-east of Brisbane lies the large sand island named Moreton Island. The island is an attractive and popular destination for many tourists. Activities available for visitors including off-road driving, fishing, dolphin spotting and whale watching (in season), and camping. Several operators provide a Moreton Island tour, often starting from Brisbane city centre.

Moreton Island (170 sq. Km.) is long and thin. It is 38 kilometres long, lying in a north-south axis, but just 8 kilometres wide at the widest point. It lies off the coast of Queensland, 58 kilometres to the north east of the capital, Brisbane.

The only rock outcrop on this island of sand is Cape Moreton at the north eastern tip of the island. The lighthouse there was built by convicts. Captain James Cook, the British explorer, sailed past here in 1770. Believing that the area was part of the Australia mainland he named the point Cape Morton (the spelling changed to Moreton later, apparently through a transcription error). In 1799 Matthew Flinders discovered that it was actually an island.

The island has some extremely large sandhills. Mount Tempest (280m) is the highest coastal sandhill on earth. Nearby is Storm Mountain, which at 264m is almost as large. The only other place on earth with coastal sandhills of comparable size is Iran.

Moreton Island is known (through the excavation of shell middens) to have had a human population of aboriginal Australians, for at least 2000 years. European settlement commenced in 1848, and is restricted to four small settlements along the more sheltered, western side of the island. Tangalooma is the largest of these habitations. There used to be a whaling station here. The area lies on a migration route for humpbacked whales, and every day up to eleven whales could be killed and processed. Whaling continued until 1962. Now the site is the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Reserve, and it hosts a Marine Education and Conservation Centre. There are some wrecked ships just offshore here, which are home to some interesting marine life. Diving and snorkelling are therefore popular tourist activities at Tangalooma.

Tangalooma settlement is the main landing point for visitors to the island. There are passenger and vehicle ferry services to Lytton and Pinkenba, both of which are near Brisbane. As there are no sealed roads on Moreton island only off-road vehicles are suitable. Some tours and taxi services operate using these vehicles from Tangalooma, and also from Bulwer, which lies to the north. Visitors can bring their own off-road vehicle, and they may drive and/or camp in restricted areas. Obtain permits on the mainland before arrival.

Moreton Island Tours are available from a number of operators including Goanna Adventure Tours, Hooked on Moreton Tours and Australia Day Tours. The first of these operators offer 1, 2 and 3 day tours to Moreton Island and Fraser Island. The one day tour departs from Brisbane. If you are already on Moreton Island you can join the tour at Tangalooma Wrecks.

Travellers in the tour party will enjoy and experience a wide variety of sights and activities during their trip. It should be possible to spot a number of marine species, including turtles, dugong and wild dolphins. Humpbacked whales may be seen during their migration season. The tour is by four wheeled drive vehicle, and will pass through the eucalyptus forests, and desert areas of Moreton Island before reaching the Eastern Beach and the Pacific Ocean. Tour activities include sand boarding and tobogganing on the sand hills, and guided snorkelling in the Tangalooma Wrecks (supervision by professional guide).

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