Travel & Holidays So we went to Heron Island last week.

Left the teenagers at home, but I told them anda few others I would send them a couple of emails if that was possible. It wasn't really - dodgy satellite wifi. Here is the first of the unsent emails.

heron island - Google Search


Arriving on Heron Island felt a bit like the opening scenes from Jurassic Park, except we were on a boat, not a helicopter, and there was nobody with us yabbering away like that slightly annoying Jeff Goldblum. The island is about 70klm off shore from Gladstone and it's a two hour boat ride. It's one of those big ocean going catamarans that makes the trip five times a week, and once out of that bleak and sprawling Gladstone harbour, it gets a bit of speed up. Close to Heron, it slows right down and there are shallow reefs everywhere and the water is that classic tropical colour we've all seen on TV a million times. A long time ago, they blasted a channel through the reef around Heron and made a little harbour with a timber wharf just off the beach on the mainland side of the island. When we approached the channel, everybody came up on deck to watch. The channel runs for a few hundred metres and there are plenty of rays and sharks that hang around in it. On the right hand side of the channel is a steel shipwreck. Decent sized boat - must be about 60 metres. It looks a bit ominous and helps with that Jurassic Park mood. I learnt later that that it was an 1880s navy boat and had foundered off Gladstone in 1943 and been bought later by one of the early owners of Heron. He had it floated and towed out to the island as a breakwater.

The birds also help with the Jurassic Park mood. They're everywhere. Tens of thousands of them. So many that I saw a few guests walking around with umbrellas to shield themselves from the ever present risk of being shat on. I guess any island in the ocean becomes a haven for birds. Some would be residents - the ones that don't seem to fly but scurry around in the leaf litter, for sure - and some would be migratory. I wonder if Heron is their destination or a stopping off point en route? I probably should have gone on that bird tour. The birds don't sleep, either. Well, if they do, they don't necessarily do it at night. I thought all birds slept at night? Maybe there are so many of them that they have to take it in turns to roost like 'hot bunking' submariners do. Heron is really all about the turtles, though. More about them later.

We were led off the boat and into a room where they gave everybody a bit of an overview of the island and how it worked. There was no 'check-in', but they told us our bags would be outside the door of our rooms in half an hour. They told us there were no keys because the doors had no locks but that wasn't a problem because no daytrippers are allowed on Heron. I could see the 'no locks' thing was giving the international visitors pause for thought.

The island is only 800 metres by 300 metres. That's at high tide. At low tide, there is knee deep water all around for about a kilometre in parts. It takes less than half an hour to walk around the island. We did it once - it's all the same. We had a go at walking through the centre of the island, too. It is very much the bird zone. The smell is over powering and there was a certainty of getting shat on and we didn't have umbrellas, so we didn't get far.

The 'resort' is on the north west shore of the island. It's where the short lived turtle soup cannery was in the 1930s. What an odd thing that must have been. Boy, it would have been easy to harvest those turtles.

Only 200 guests can stay on Heron, but they don't like to run it at capacity. The buildings seem to have been built around the 1980s - the pebblecrete around the small pool helped date it. Of course it has all been upgraded, but it's still only around a 3.5 star resort. People don't go to Heron for a 'resort' experience - it's all about the turtles. The bar was a nice place to sit and the dining room had open sides with netting to keep the birds out - sort of a reverse aviary experience. The food was about 3 star, but that's okay. The staff were young and mostly Aussie - they all said 'no worries' when thanked. They were friendly and helpful, which was nice. Sometimes the staff in more flash places can be a bit up themselves.

The island also has a research station. The biggest on any reef anywhere, I believe. It can host up to 100 people - students, scientists, film crews. We did the tour there and it was great. Sarah led the group. She's a young, good humoured and very earnest scientist. She took us around the research station and talked about the work that was being done and then we stood around a 'touching pool' while she hauled out long suffering starfish and crabs and things like that and talked about them. She put the starfish back in the pond upside down so we could see them right themselves agonisingly slowly - I guess starfish don't really have anything better to do so maybe it's a bright spot in their day. I found out later from one of the other guides that Sarah had her peak career moment a couple of years ago when she sat next to David Attenborough and ate popcorn with him while they all watched a film at the research station.

The guests on the island were mostly Aussies, with a smattering of Americans. An American family were staying next to us in the beachfront villa we had. Doug wandered over and sat with me on our deck for a while one afternoon as we watched his kids play in the shallows. After chatting for ten minutes or so, out of the blue he paused and then said, 'Hey, I'm sorry about Trump.' It's like he had to get it off his chest. I said, 'No worries, Doug'. I asked him if they were spending long in Australia and he told me they were here for a month. I told him maybe he should get t-shirts for the whole family made that read 'I'm sorry about Trump.' I told him he could start a business selling the shirts at US airports for Americans heading overseas - I bet Trump supporters are less inclined to travel. That night we were in the bar and got talking to another American couple. After half an hour, she said, 'Look, we're sorry about that election'. I told her Doug next door to us might be getting some t-shirts made back on the mainland and she might be interested in them. I suspect that given the island is one where people go to dive and snorkel and look at turtles and birds they wanted people to know that they weren't aligned with the kooky far right in case they were asked to leave.

 

Sounds like the same amount of regret as the Brexit result.

 

Great summary! Very honest description. It's not the typical "resort" with staff at your beckon call it's more about the island and nature. ...the birds take some getting used to though.
We've been twice, gladstone locals gets locals rates We went a few years ago when the previous owners ran it but in not sure how much it's changed. I ate my boat fare in cheese though at the buffet!

And you can get a helicopter across instead of the ferry

It's a popular spot for scuba doobers to do their thing and a lot of the staff are there for the diving plus living on a freakin island! A good friend went over and ran the maintenence dept for a year or two, great experience but the isolation was hard, plus for the time off you get dumped in Gladstone! One extreme to another- island to industry

 

We went pre kids a couple of years ago. the scuba diving is in Cousteau's to 10 - saw Manta every dive (did 5 - we were only there four days) - turtles, sharks etc - we were there in April when the turtles were hatching - amazing watching the sharks cruise the lagoon dorsals in the air at mid tide

 

Me and my wife love going there. Its one of our favourite places.
We're contemplating trying it with 2 kids under 3 next year.... should be interesting.

The no locks got me at first too, so i locked everything of value in my bag (that I didn't want to keep bugging the staff for).

Food is a bit mediocre though.
The 1st time i went there i didn't realise there was only one restaurant (and the bar didn't serve food at the time), the price of food wasn't included in the package and i told them I would eat elsewhere - they replied "we're the only restaurant on the island" - We ate instant cup noodles that night. LOL

Does anyone know how Heron Island compares to Hamilton Island (mainly because of kids).

I love the exclusivity of the island and everything is so beautiful... those birds can be annoying at times. I also loved hanging out at the souvenier store because they had air con

 

Tell me how you get "local" rates.
Can i say i'm mates with @bob shovel ?
(Or will that end up attracting an extra premium?)

 

Just call the info centre and ask if there are any locals deals on don't mention my name or they might chase up the extra night accom i owe them! it's a very "queensland" island, they never got around to billing me

 

Depends which island but I'd say they would have kids clubs and detention centres for the little ones. But they are bigger and have more facilities

You need to take advantage of the under 2 free flight though then they go everywhere by road!lol

 

@bob shovel - do you have any recommendations on which islands?

Heron Island was great with 2 adults, but i don't recall much a child minding area.

 

Id need to jog my memory with a Google but id think Hamilton would be the safe default option. Otherwise you could do airlie and do day trip to the islands or head out as you like. You'd need to see what suits you guys

 

Hamilton has everything from very expensive (Qualia) to budget accomodation. There are people who live on the island, so it has food shops etc. There would be lots of things for little kids and you fly right to the island. I'd be going there, neK.

 

There were no helicopters while we were there, but seaplanes from Gladstone landed several times a day. There were two planes that flew daily. One was an older, larger one with a deep throbbing engine. It was great seeing it land on the lagoon out front at high tide.

I suspect there is a lot of staff turnover. It would be fun for a month or so, but the staff stay in dorms toward the centre of the island - the bird zone. One of them said that if they have a day off, they can catch the boat to Gladstone at 10am and come back at noon the next day, but as he said, 'then you're stuck in Gladstone overnight.'

 

The second unsent email. My girls are a bit annoyed now because I told them they really wouldn't enjoy Heron Island. This one will annoy my fishing friends.


Snorkelling is a big thing on Heron. So is diving, but snorkelling is so much easier and anybody can do it. And there is plenty to see when snorkelling, even just off the beach. There are schools of large fish that cruise the beach as the tide comes in, along with the sharks, rays and turtles. We took snorkelling gear with us. It wasn't so much about saving money, more about having it on hand whenever we wanted to wander into the water.

There is a also a 'semi-submersible'. It's really just a boat where you sit down in the hull and look out through windows as it cruises out of the channel and into the deeper reef zone. It's not a thing for the claustrophobic or those prone to sea sickness or with an aversion to bad jokes. Alex was our guide on that. He had the rehearsed patter and jokes that all people doing that sort of thing day after day need to have, but he knew a lot about everything we saw. Boy, there were a lot of fish out there. Every time I have seen that sort of thing, it amazes me how the fish all seem to get along. I used to think that if you were a small fish, any big fish that came near you had one thing on their tiny mind. I wonder whether there is, say, an hour every tide change where all bets are off and the fish all go for eachother. Maybe it happens at night?

I wasn't as interested in the pretty fish as I was in the ones that I knew tasted good. I spotted a couple of coral trout. Alex did too. He caught my eye and I knew in that instant that he was a fisherman. I nodded. Then we saw a barramundi cod and immediately looked at each other. When we got off the boat, I asked him quietly and a bit conspiratorially whether there was a fishing trip off the island. He looked around and nodded. He told me I could book it at the little office where people hire scuba and snorkelling gear. I went there and waited till there was just me and the staff. Then I sidled up to the counter and asked quietly if there was a fishing trip in the offing. I felt like people would have back in the 60s asking the newsagent about the magazines he supposedly kept under the counter. At 11am the next morning I was on a fishing boat with half a dozen like minded guests comfortable with their position at the top of the food chain and some staff who I suspected weren't naturalists.

I had a chat to one of the deckhands about where we were headed. 'Just outside the green zone,' he said. He explained that Heron Island and the reef around it is a 'green zone'. That means no fishing of any description. Then he said with a smile, 'but we know exactly where the green zone ends, and the fish don't'. We probably anchored about a metre past the green zone. I've never caught so many fish in such a short time. I've fished Swains Reef, about 160klms off shore and other places, but they weren't a patch on this. We caught three sharks, which we let go, of course. Then a big Spanish mackerel. My suspicions about the deckies not being naturalists were confirmed when they brought out a lump hammer to enthusiastically dispatch the Spanish mackerel. We caught a dozen emperors that we kept, and more that we let go. We caught a coral trout each, and let some big breeders go. And we caught two big barramundi cod. They are protected, so they stayed in the water. All of that in a couple of hours.

I asked the deckies whether back on the island the naturalists associated with them. One of them said, 'Well, a lot of them like eating nice fish. So they'll be pretty friendly tonight.' On the way back to the island, the deckies asked each of us in turn what our room number was, how many people in the room, and what time we had booked dinner for. So that night, all of us 'hunters' got to eat some great fish prepared by the kitchen while everyone else had the expensive three star buffet meal.

 

I've been there 3 times, this is the first ive heard of the fishing trip!

Mind you, I don't fish at all, but the idea of being able to eat fish instead of the buffet and save some $$$ appeals to me

 

And i think you're generous in giving that buffet 3 stars. Lol

 

I sensed one of the four resident boats tied up at the jetty was used for fishing. The fishing trip was not free, of course. It was $115, so no saving on meals. But it was money well spent.

 

Qualia is outstanding.

Had a great time.

Well worth it.

 

The last of the belated emails.

It's all about the turtles. There is a turtle talk that they say is mandatory for all guests, but most people would want to do it anyway. We've all seen the turtles on the TV dragging themselves up the beach to lay, but there are a few rules that people need to obey. You can't walk in front of them, for instance - they've apparently got pretty good eyesight and it puts them off their game. And no lights are allowed in front of them because it can disorientate them. If they get spooked, they'll head back to the water without laying. But it's fine to hang around the business end of a laying turtle and even use lights, which seems a bit intrusive to me.

The peak laying season is from November through to the end of January, so we were smack bang in the middle of the season. But I didn't really expect to see any turtles. I thought it would be like those fishing trips where locals say, 'Ah, you should have been here last week....'

So after dinner and a few drinks in the bar on the first night, I went for a walk by myself on the beach in front of our room. The moon was up, and so was the tide. I turned right, and about 10 metres along the beach there was a track in the sand leading from the water. It was straight, and regular. It looked like a machine had made it - a big machine, because it was close to a metre wide. It was odd to see it on sand that had been smoothed by the sea. I flowed the track up into the scrappy vegetation beyond the high water mark, and there, in a big saucer shaped hollow was a turtle shuffling around. It was huge - the size of a small fridge. And heavier than a fridge. Being an obedient guest, I had gone to the turtle talk and learnt that they can grow up to 5 feet long and weigh 300 kilos.

First they dig themselves the big saucer shaped depression in the sand. It can be half a metre deep. They do it with their flippers. Their flippers are made for swimming, not digging, so it's a staggeringly inefficient exercise. Then with their back flippers, they dig a hole maybe a foot deep. When that's done, they lay around 100 eggs. Then they fill in the hole, pat it down, and throw sand around and shuffle about to disguise the nest. The whole thing can take up to four hours. Then the poor things have to get themselves back in the water and out over the reef before the tide drops.

I didn't hang around but walked further along the beach. There must have been a dozen turtles that came up on a 200 meter stretch of beach that night - I even saw one unknowingly dig up the nest of another turtle. Or maybe it was hers - they go through the whole egg laying thing about 5 times spaced fortnightly. Next time I hear someone complaining about childbirth, I'm going to tell them they're lucky they're not a turtle.

I'm a believer in evolution, but for these huge animals to have to haul themselves up a beach was nuts. It was as crazy as if evolution had conspired to make it necessary for a cow to give birth up a tree. And if it was 'intelligent design' at work, it was pretty dopey. Maybe there was a work experience kid on duty in the design office that day.

I crouched behind one of the turtles as she neared the end of her digging and had a breather. Another guest appeared beside me with her bloke and she started giving me a whispered commentary. I said, 'You know they can't hear very well?' She ignored me and kept whispering - might have been a sort of reverential thing. Maybe she was trying to sound like David Attenborough with that whisper he has. Still, she seemed to know a fair bit. I asked her how long she had been on the island. 'Yesterday', she said. She must have really paid attention in the turtle talk and done some swotting afterwards. I smiled. It was like ancient turtle knowledge being passed down from guest to guest.

There were young people wandering around with clipboards and head lamps checking tags and clearly feeling pretty pleased with themselves. Most were uni students collecting data for researchers - a much better gig than doing data collection in a lab. They checked the tags on the front flippers and noted on paper the turtle number, date and time. And they were happy to answer questions - though my turtle whisperer had told me and anybody in earshot all we needed to know.

About 2.30 in the morning, I was woken up by a sort of slapping sound. Well, more precisely Lisa was woken up by the slapping sound so I was inevitably woken up next. It was a rhythmic 'slap, slap, slap'. I didn't imagine Doug and the missus next door would have been into anything kinky with two little kids in the same room, so I was mystified. Lisa got up and looked out the door to the beach and there, about two meters from our deck, was a turtle doing her thing. She was facing away from us so we sat on the deck and watched and coped a bit of sand. She was at the camouflaging stage and throwing a fair bit of sand around - the slapping was the sound of her front flippers hitting her shell as she pulled sand around her.

Then it was time for her to head back to the water. She would have already put in maybe four hours work and the tide was on its way out. I felt a bit sorry for her as she hauled herself out of that hole. I felt even more sorry when she looked like she was taking a circuitous route to the beach. Their eyesight might be okay, but I'm not sure they think too far ahead. It looked for a while like she was going to get stuck in a tangle of scrub, but she got around it. Everything happened in slow motion. She did maybe a dozen steps (or drags) and then had a breather. Then another dozen. We were following and quietly urging her on, 'Right. Turn right. No, no, that's left....'

She eventually started heading down the beach but the outgoing tide had exposed a knee high rock platform between her and the water. When she got to it, she stuck her head up, and put it down again. I wondered if she was thinking, 'Bugger. I stuffed that up.' Eventually, she turned right (the direction we were urging her to head) and headed off. She had a 50 metre crawl in front of her before the rock shelf ended and she would be able to take a left turn and head down to the water. I saw her trail when it was daylight and was pleased to see she had made it into the water and wasn't stranded high and dry on the reef. If that happens, they have to wait a whole tide change in the sun before they can get away.

We'll go there again one year - maybe later in the season so we can see the laying and some turtles hatching and making that mad scramble down to the beach before the birds eat them.

 

I saw one today in the wilds of Sydney Harbour