Magnetic Island Overview

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Magnetic Island, just offshore from the city of Townsville, Queensland, Australia in Cleveland Bay is a 52 km² mountainous island which has effectively become a suburb of Townsville having well over 2000 permanent residents. It is accessible from Townsville by ferry. Ferries arrive at Nelly Bay. There is a large 27 km² national park and bird sanctuary and excellent walking tracks can be taken between the populated bays and to a number of tourist destinations such as the World War II Forts.

The Island is a haven for wildlife and is 54% National Park which is mostly located on the steep hilly interior and rugged north western side.

One of the most distinctive features of Magnetic Island is the native Bush Stone-curlews - a bird with a piercing cry which has awakened many a visitor in the night when they are most active.

Koalas are relatively common on the Island and can easily be found on the famous Forts Walk.

The name of the island came about because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the ship's compass of Captain Cook as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770. People have since explored the island with magnets to verify the field that Cook experienced, but none have been discovered.

(We nicked all of that from Wikipedia as we couldn't be arsed to type it ourselves btw)

So...

We have spent the last couple of days at Base Backpackers on Magnetic Island. We have already explored most of what the island has to offer - there are free buses which tour the island allowing us to visit several of the small beaches and a the handful of shops that are on the island.

Last night was the monthly Full Moon Party here at Base albeit it was not attended by as many people as normal. Usually they have well over a thousand people, but last night was a relatively tame affair with about 400 people.

We did find the Dive shop's yesterday, as we were hoping to do some diving whilst here, but unfortunately the shore diving at the moment is pretty poor due to the amount of sediment being whipped up in the water, and the visibility is only about 1m apparently. We had also hoped to be able to go out to the wreck of the SS Yongala for our first wreck dive - but again there are 20-25 knots wind at the moment offshore and the Dive centre didn't recommend it.

The wildlife on the Island is genuinely amazing - one of the best things are the large white Cockatoo's that are native to the island and they just wander around looking all stroppy.

We have also seen Kookaburra's, parakeets and a whole range of lizards.

On Sunday afternoon we fly with Qantas down to Brisbane. Again the distance between here and BrisVegas really would eat into our available time in Oz so we are having to skip a few things!

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Comments

[cels and marie]

Brisbane
Hi Clare and Dan when you receive this you will have arrived at Brisbane ready for even more adventure. We're all well and enjoying your updates Love from Cels, Marie, Ashley and Adam