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Moreton Island 21st – 29th September 2002 Participants
The sun was rising over Mt Dandenong on a cold, but clear Melbourne Saturday as we assembled at the “Rose Ave” meeting spot. The atmosphere was full of expectancy as we anticipated the long drive to Coonabarabran what lay ahead. We caught up with Trevor Adcock on the CB as we headed towards the city, finally “eyeballing” the trusty Toyota cruisin' up the Hume Highway. Our next CB encounter happened as we approached Tocumwal. This time it was with the Scheulerleins, who had departed the night before and stayed there overnight. Coonabarabran was much as usual, we enjoyed an excellent Chinese meal in town before turning in fairly early.
The
following day we continued the trip northwards, stopping for the obligatory
refuelling at Queensland prices in Goondiwindi ($0.82 per litre) and arriving in
Caboolture late afternoon. The convivial host at our motel provided us with
beers on the house, which was most welcome after two days behind the wheel.
Chris and Rod checked out the local nightlife as they collected pizzas for
dinner (Doc Martens, Yakka's and tattoos – and that’s the girls).
Monday morning was typical Queensland.
Perfect! We attended to last minute shopping before taking a leisurely trip to
the ferry terminal, where we had lunch while waiting for the ferry to arrive.
The ferry trip to Moreton Island takes two hours, which gave us time to get
acclimatised to the sub-tropical climate and reduce tyre pressures to 20psi. Getting on the ferry was quite interesting. Vehicles had to reverse up the steep, wet ramp so that they would be facing the right direction when they were dropped off on the Moreton beach.
Moreton is probably what Fraser was like 30 years ago. It is very similar to Fraser in shape and is about half the size. The eastern beach is the main highway and has very little traffic. There is little development and the main township, Bulwer, is a collection of corrugated iron sheds and holiday houses. We headed to the northern shore and set up camp on a spit of land at a promising site at Yellow Patch. The ocean was on one side and a tidal lagoon on the other. Unfortunately the site was rather exposed to the prevailing northerly wind and was home to a large quantity of sandflies. We moved camp to a beaut spot in the dunes on the eastern side of the island after a couple of days. This was far more sheltered and the fishing was very productive in the gutters along the shoreline. Bream, large flathead and whiting being the main species. We were within walking distance of a respectable loo and Blue Lagoon, a large freshwater lake. Our days were spent exploring the island and testing our sand driving skills in the very soft sand tracks. A most relaxing time was enjoyed by all and it was only too soon before we had to head back to the ferry pickup on the west beach to start the long drive home. Is Moreton better than Fraser? It's certainly worth the visit. There are plenty of great camp sites and the fishing is at least as good as, if not better, than Fraser. Some of the townships, particularly Bulwer, are rather scruffy. There's much less traffic and tourist pressure. The eastern beach is a delight with none of the traffic and tourist buses that ruin Fraser. There are no resorts that welcome visitors like Happy Valley and Eurong. The only resort on Moreton discourages day visitors. On balance, I think it needs another visit before too long to make up my mind. Some words on fuel consumption and tyres. All the vehicles performed exceptionally well on the long drive there and in the soft sand on Moreton. With the exception of Rod's 'Cruiser they were all shod with Goodrich All Terrains. The All Terrains definitely had the edge on Rod's OEM road tyres, even at 18 - 20psi. As expected, the diesel Patrol recorded the best fuel consumption, averaging 12.3 on the drive up and 13.4 on the drive back. We were pushing the speed a bit on the way back. A table of Rod's fuel consumption is shown below. Rod's Log
Overall Trip (15.59 Lt/100km
Excluding Moreton Island) Several new skills were learnt on the trip by many members:
Sun, sand, great fishing, stimulating conversation around the camp fire, some fine reds and good fellowship. What more can one say? Well we could mention the sandflies, but that’s just a distant memory. Picture Gallery Click on the thumbnail below to view an enlarged image - click on the back button on your browser to return to the picture gallery..
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