Guide to Gladstone Queensland Australia

The Gladstone region covers a long, lightly settled stretch of the central Queensland coast, from the industrial harbour city of Gladstone south to the surf at Agnes Water and the tidal reaches of Baffle Creek, inland to the cool plateau of Kroombit Tops, and offshore to the coral cays at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. It is the easiest place in Queensland to reach the reef without the crowds, and one of the few where the reef, a surf beach and a working port all lie within a couple of hours of each other.

Known For

• Heron Island and the southern Great Barrier Reef
• Agnes Water and the Town of 1770
• Gladstone Harbour and Lake Awoonga

Most of the region’s 65,000 people live in and around Gladstone, which grew from a quiet port into a centre for alumina, aluminium, coal and gas exports. Outside the city the country empties quickly. To the south, the Discovery Coast around Agnes Water and 1770 is all national park, cattle country and small beach settlements. Inland are forested ranges, a big barramundi lake and valleys with more cattle than people.

Offshore, the Capricorn and Bunker groups are true coral cays: low islands of sand and pisonia forest built on top of the reef itself. Heron Island has a resort, Lady Musgrave has day trips and a lagoon, and several others are open to campers who bring everything with them. Between November and April the cays fill with nesting turtles and seabirds.

This guide groups the region’s destinations by area, then covers what to do, where to stay and eat, when to come and how to get around.

Places to Visit

Gladstone City and Harbour

Gladstone sits on hills above one of Australia’s busiest bulk ports. Its waterfront has been rebuilt as parkland at East Shores and the marina, where the boats leave for Heron Island, and Tondoon Botanic Gardens is one of the country’s few all-native botanic gardens. Give the city a day or two for its lookouts, harbour, gallery and seafood.

Across the harbour, Curtis Island and Facing Island are a world away from the industry on the mainland: sandy tracks, beach shacks, turtle nesting and simple camping, reached by barge from the marina. West of the city, the climb up Mount Larcom is the best day walk in the district, with a view from the harbour to the reef.

Tannum Sands, Boyne Island and Lake Awoonga

Twenty-five minutes south of the city, Tannum Sands and Boyne Island face each other across the mouth of the Boyne River. Tannum has the patrolled beach, the esplanade and the holiday park; Boyne Island has the river parks. At low tide you can wade from the end of Tannum’s beach to Wild Cattle Island.

Inland, Lake Awoonga is known across Australia for its barramundi and is the district’s favourite picnic and camping spot, and Calliope has a historical village and some of the most popular free camping on the Bruce Highway.

Agnes Water and 1770

The Discovery Coast is the holiday heart of the region. Agnes Water has Queensland’s most northerly surf beach and a relaxed, low-rise town behind it. Six kilometres on, the Town of 1770 marks the place where James Cook first landed in Queensland, and is the base for reef trips and for the amphibious tours to Bustard Head Lighthouse.

National parks close in on both sides. Eurimbula National Park to the north-west and Deepwater National Park to the south have beach and creek-side camping and very few people. Further south, Baffle Creek is one of the least developed river systems on the coast, with Rules Beach at its mouth. On the highway, Miriam Vale is the turn-off for the coast, and tiny Turkey Beach is a fishing village on Rodds Bay.

Southern Great Barrier Reef Islands

Heron Island is the best known of the cays, with a resort, a research station and snorkelling from the beach. Tiny Wilson Island nearby takes about a dozen guests in safari tents. Lady Musgrave Island, at the southern end of the group, has a sheltered lagoon visited by day boats from 1770 and Bundaberg, and a small camping area.

For those prepared to be fully self-sufficient, North West Island and Masthead Island offer camping on uninhabited cays in the open season, and Fitzroy Reef Lagoon is a favourite anchorage for cruising yachts.

Ranges and Hinterland

Behind the coast the land rises to forested ranges. Kroombit Tops National Park is a high sandstone plateau with four-wheel-drive tracks, lookouts and the wreck of a Second World War bomber that lay undiscovered for 49 years. Below it, the Boyne Valley has four tiny townships, an old copper town and a rail trail through six tunnels. The granite peaks of Castle Tower National Park stand over Lake Awoonga.

Things To Do

Visit the reef

The southern reef is quieter than the reef off Cairns and the Whitsundays, and the coral is in good condition. The simplest way to see it is a day trip to Lady Musgrave Island from 1770, with snorkelling in the lagoon, a glass-bottom boat and a walk on the cay. To stay on the reef, book Heron Island or Wilson Island, or apply for a camping permit for one of the national park cays. Dive boats and fishing charters also run from Gladstone and 1770.

Watch turtles, birds and whales

Green, loggerhead and flatback turtles nest on the cays and on mainland beaches at Deepwater, Curtis Island and around Tannum Sands from November to February, and hatchlings emerge from January to April. The cays hold enormous colonies of black noddies and shearwaters from October to April. Humpback whales pass close to the coast and through the reef from July to October.

Surf, swim and paddle

Agnes Water is the place to learn to surf, with gentle waves and inexpensive lessons. Tannum Sands has calm, patrolled swimming. Round Hill Creek at 1770 and Wild Cattle Creek at Tannum are ideal for kayaks and paddleboards. Marine stingers are far less common here than in the tropics further north, but they do turn up in summer.

Fish

Gladstone is mud crab country, and the harbour, the Narrows, the Boyne and Calliope rivers, Rodds Bay and Baffle Creek all produce barramundi, mangrove jack, bream, whiting and crabs. Lake Awoonga is one of Queensland’s great barramundi lakes. Offshore, the reefs hold coral trout and red emperor. Check marine park zoning before fishing anywhere near the cays.

Explore the national parks

Eurimbula and Deepwater have coastal camping, Kroombit Tops has mountain scenery and history, and Curtis Island has long beach drives. Most park tracks need a high-clearance four-wheel drive, and all camping must be booked ahead with Queensland Parks.

See the harbour at work

From Auckland Hill and Round Hill lookouts, East Shores and Spinnaker Park you can watch coal ships, gas tankers and tugs moving through the channel. Harbour cruises run on some days, and the Brisbane to Gladstone yacht race arrives each Easter for the Harbour Festival.

Follow Captain Cook

Cook anchored in Bustard Bay on 23 May 1770 and landed the next day near the present village of 1770. A cairn marks the spot, the headland lookouts take in the bay he named, and the 1770 Festival each May re-enacts the landing.

Where To Stay

Gladstone has the widest choice of hotels and motels. Oaks Gladstone Grand Hotel and Rydges Gladstone are the main hotels in the centre, with Harbour Sails Motor Inn, the Gladstone Reef Hotel Motel and Auckland Hill Bed and Breakfast among the well-regarded smaller places. Rooms can be tight midweek when the industrial plants have maintenance crews in town. If you are catching the morning ferry to Heron Island, stay near the marina the night before.

On the reef, Heron Island Resort has about a hundred rooms, and Wilson Island has a handful of tents. Camping on Lady Musgrave, North West and Masthead islands is by permit, with seasonal closures for nesting wildlife.

Campers are well served. Lake Awoonga has a caravan park and the free Boynedale Bush Camp, Calliope has riverside camping, and there are national park sites at Eurimbula Creek, Wreck Rock and Middle Rock in Deepwater, on Curtis Island and at Kroombit Tops. Workmans Beach at Agnes Water is a low-cost council camp. The townships of the Boyne Valley welcome self-contained travellers.

Eat & Drink

Seafood is the thing to eat: mud crab, prawns, scallops and reef fish, much of it landed in Gladstone. In the city, Rocksalt Bar and Grill is the best-reviewed restaurant, the Queens Hotel is a popular pub for a meal, and there are cafes and bars along Goondoon Street and by the water at East Shores and the marina.

At Agnes Water, the tavern on the hill is the local pub, and the shopping village and beachfront have cafes, bakeries and a few small restaurants. At 1770, The Tree has the creek-side deck for sunset and the marina cafe covers breakfast and lunch. Tannum Sands has a hotel and esplanade cafes.

On the highway, the roadhouse at Miriam Vale is known for its mud crab sandwiches. In the hinterland and the small beach villages, a pub or a general store is usually the only choice, and hours are short. Campers heading to the national parks and the cays need to bring everything, including drinking water.

When To Visit

The region has a mild, dry climate by Queensland standards. Winter, from June to August, brings clear days in the low twenties, cool nights and the whales; it is the busiest time for caravans and the best for walking and four-wheel driving. Spring is warm and dry, with seabirds arriving on the cays.

Summer is hot and humid, with most of the year’s rain falling between December and March, and it is turtle season. The sea is at its warmest and clearest for snorkelling from about October to May. Cyclones are uncommon this far south but can disrupt boat trips, and several island camping areas close from late January or mid-October until Easter.

Getting There and Around

Gladstone Airport has flights from Brisbane that take a little over an hour. Queensland Rail’s tilt trains and the Spirit of Queensland stop at Gladstone and Miriam Vale on the Brisbane to Rockhampton line, and long-distance coaches serve Gladstone and Agnes Water.

By road, Gladstone is about 550 kilometres north of Brisbane and 110 kilometres south-east of Rockhampton. The city is 20 to 30 minutes off the Bruce Highway, reached from Benaraby in the south or Mount Larcom in the north. Agnes Water and 1770 are 57 kilometres off the highway from Miriam Vale, or can be reached from Bundaberg by a shorter back road through Rosedale. Allow an hour and a half between Gladstone and Agnes Water.

You need a car to see the region, and a four-wheel drive opens up most of the national parks. The Heron Island ferry, the Curtis Island and Facing Island barge and the camping transfers to the cays leave from Gladstone Marina; Lady Musgrave day trips and the LARC tours leave from 1770. Boats do not run every day and are cancelled in rough weather, so build a spare day into any plan that depends on one.

History

The region is the country of the Bailai, Gooreng Gooreng, Gurang and Taribelang Bunda peoples, whose connection to the coast, the islands and the ranges goes back thousands of years. James Cook landed at Bustard Bay in 1770, and Matthew Flinders charted and named Port Curtis in 1802.

In 1847 the British government tried to found a new colony of North Australia at Port Curtis; it lasted a few months. A town was surveyed in the 1850s and named Gladstone. Gold was found at Calliope in 1862, cattle stations spread through the valleys, and for a century the port shipped beef and little else. From the 1960s the alumina refinery, coal exports, the aluminium smelter and finally the gas plants on Curtis Island turned Gladstone into one of the country’s major industrial ports, while the coast to the south stayed almost as Cook saw it.