North Stradbroke Island Totally Explained

Everything about North Stradbroke Island totally explained

North Stradbroke Island is an Australian island in the state of Queensland, 30 km southeast of the capital Brisbane. Before 1896 the island was part of the Stradbroke Island. In that year a storm separated it from South Stradbroke Island, forming the Jumpinpin Channel. The island is about 38 km long and 11 km wide.
The permanent population the island is quite small, but the number of people on the island swells significantly during the holiday season. There is no bridge to the island and the only access is by vehicular or passenger ferries leaving from Cleveland.
There are three main settlements on the island. Dunwich is the largest and has most of the services including the school. Point Lookout is on the surf side of the island and is the major tourist destination in the season. The third is Amity Point and is much smaller and a popular fishing spot on the island.

History

The native name for the island is Minjerribah but in 1827 Captain Henry John Rous, who had the title of Viscount Dunwich, commander of HMS Rainbow the first British ship of war to enter Moreton Bay, named the island after his father the Earl of Stradbroke, the town after his title, the entrance channel after himself and even gave his boat a guernsey with the naming of Rainbow Beach.
Stradbroke Island's most famous local was Oodgeroo Noonuccal, formerly known as Kath Walker, the Aboriginal poet and native-rights campaigner. She was one of the prime-movers of the movement that lead to the 1997 agreement

between the local government council and the aboriginal people of the area claiming rights over the island and parts of Moreton Bay.

Mining

During the 1960s sand mining operations began mining the islands frontal dunes. Mining moved into the interior of the island in the late 1960's and increased in scale and size. As an alternative, development of the island for seaside residential use was mooted and in 1970 a bridge from the mainland via Russell Island was under serious consideration by the Queensland government. The Queensland government also proposed a large scale redevelopment of the island in the mid 1980's which would have seen the population of the island increase 10 fold. This proposal was never followed through when the incumbent government lost office.
However, the understanding of the island's environmental and native heritage value was on the rise. In 1991 the Australian Government and sand mining companies ACI and Consolidated Rutile Pty Ltd attempted to reach an agreement on surrender of some or parts of mining lease tenements to form a national park. Half of North Stradbroke Island was to become a National Park in return for a guarantee that mining could continue for the life of several mines in high grade areas ¹. The agreement was never signed by either of the mining companies nor the government and hasn't been progressed to this day. Mineral sands and silica sands at Myora Mine, near Dunwich, are currently being mined from the surface while rutile, zircon and ilmenite are dredged from the Yarraman Mine on the north of the island and the Enterprise Mine on the south of the island by Consolidated Rutile Limited .

Settlement

The island has the region's oldest archaeological site at Wallen Wallen Creek near Dunwich. Research at the site has provided evidence of human activity beginning at least 21 000 years ago. More aboriginal shell middens can be found scattered behind the sand dunes along the main beach.
More recently, there were some incidents in late 2003-early 2005 in which groups of youths came to Stradbroke (in September and December) for the purposes of partying and for schoolies week. This led to minor conflict with local residents. An upgraded police presence in 2005 saw Stradbroke return to relative calm. Since January 2005, there have been no incidents. Bold text helloBold text

Attractions

The only public hotel on the island was at Point Lookout. However in January 2006 it was closed for re-development. In the same month a young woman swimming at dusk off Amity Point, was mauled by three bronze whaler or bull sharks and later died in a nearby hospital.
   North Stradbroke Island is known for its long clean white beaches in the east, its peacefulness due to a long isolation and its rich diversity of nature varying from whales passing Point Lookout to the many wild orchids in the interior of the island.
   The island has numerous freshwater lakes including; Ibis Lagoon, Black snake Lagoon, Welsby Lagoon, Lake Kounpee, Brown Lake and the beautiful Blue Lake situated in Blue Lake National Park. There are a number of man made (mining) waterbodies including the Key Hole Lakes, Yarraman Lake, Herring Lagoon and Palm Lagoon. In some areas there are extensive swamplands such as the long Eighteen Mile Swamp and another behind Flinders Beach. Other notable features of the island include Adder Rock between Amity and Point Lookout and on the southern tip of the island is Swan Bay and an area of very large sand dunes.
   The island is managed and administered by the North Stradbroke Island Water Resource Coordination Group and the Department of Natural Resources and Water .

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