North Stradbroke Island

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. It is known colloquially as Straddie.

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 townships on the island. Dunwich is the largest and has most of the island's services including a school, medical centre, local museum and university marine research station. Point Lookout (referred to locally as 'the point') is on the surf side of the island and is the major tourist destination in the holiday season. The third is Amity Point which is much smaller and a popular fishing spot on the island. Flinders Beach is a small settlement of mostly holiday houses located on the main beach between Amity and Point Lookout.

The only public hotel on the island was at Point Lookout. After it was closed in January 2006 for re-development, the new Hotel has re-opened. In the same month a young woman swimming at dusk off Amity Point, was mauled by three bronze whaler or bull sharks and 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) water bodies 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.

Straddie is located on the outer edge of Brisbane's Moreton Bay, and a variety of whales pass close by this Queensland island and shelter just off the many beaches and in Moreton Bay itself. After a brief rest the Humpbacks, Southern Wright and occasionally Blue Whales move on to their Hervey Bay and Whitsunday breeding grounds.