Moreton Bay
Moreton Island
1 gateway, 2 campsites, 2 dive sites, 6 historic sites and 73 photographs.
Gateways
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Camping
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Campsite
Comboyuro Point Camping Area
Comboyuro Point is a large, shady campground on the western side of Mulgumpin (Moreton Island), within walking distance of Bulwer township, and it's one of the more sheltered options on the island since it sits on the calm bay side rather than the surf coast. There are 49 sites, all marked with totems and varying in size, and the surface is sand — so bring sand pegs. It suits tent camping beside the car, walk-in camping, camper trailers and large groups, with parking right beside the sites. Facilities are reasonable by island standards: water (needs treating before drinking), septic toilets, cold showers, rubbish bins and a portable toilet waste dump point. Open fires are allowed in existing fire rings when bans aren't in force, though gas stoves are recommended and you'd need to bring untreated firewood in; generators aren't permitted. Access is by 4WD or on foot, mobile coverage is poor and unreliable, and bookings open a maximum of six months ahead. Note this one is run by QYAC and not the same operator as the Straddie campgrounds — separate booking system and separate 4WD permit.
Campsite
The Wrecks camping area, Gheebulum Kunungai (Moreton Island) National Park
The Wrecks camping area sits beside a sheltered bay on Mulgumpin (Moreton Island), near the main barge landing for Moreton Island Ferries, which makes it one of the more accessible options on the island and the standout choice if you're arriving by boat or without a vehicle. There's a maximum of 21 totem-marked sand sites, though seasonal closures mean not all are open year-round. Importantly it's walk-in camping only: you park on the beach and carry gear a short distance to your site, and it isn't suitable for camper trailers. Facilities are decent for a national park campground, with water (treat before drinking), hybrid toilets, cold showers and rubbish bins, plus, unusually, a QldParks-Wifi hotspot. That last one matters because mobile coverage across the island is poor and unreliable, with better reception only near Tangalooma. Open fires are prohibited here, unlike Comboyuro, and generators aren't allowed either. It's a natural base for snorkelling and diving on the Tangalooma wrecks themselves, plus kayaking, swimming and fishing in the protected water. Bookings go through Mulgumpin Camping (QYAC), same as Comboyuro. Two current things to check: a park alert closing the Middle Road to Cowan township high tide access track through to 30 September 2026, and the Mulgumpin conditions report, updated 1 September.
Diving
2History
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Historic site
Aarhus (1894)
A Danish iron barque, 122 days out of New York with 15,760 cases of kerosene, struck Smith Rock off Cape Moreton on a February night in 1894 and sank in ten minutes. All fifteen aboard reached shore. The Marine Board blamed her captain, then turned on the pilot service that had left him waiting an hour for a pilot who never came.
Historic site
Fort Cowan Cowan
A World War II coastal defence position on the western shore of Moreton Island, built as part of the ring of batteries guarding the approaches to Brisbane. Gun emplacements, magazines and observation structures remain among the dunes. The site is unrestored and exposed. Concrete edges and open shafts are a real hazard, so stay on formed tracks.
Historic site
Sovereign (1847)
The paddle steamer Sovereign broke up on the South Passage bar in March 1847 with fifty-four people aboard. Forty-four drowned, in what remains the worst shipwreck of colonial Queensland, and the ten who lived were pulled from the surf by Quandamooka men who swam out to them. The loss closed the South Passage to shipping.
Historic site
St Paul (1914)
A French steamer out of New Caledonia carrying 2,371 tons of chrome ore struck an uncharted pinnacle east of Smith Rock within minutes of midnight on 26 March 1914, while steering towards the pilot boat. She went down bow-first in about five minutes and no boat was ever got into the water. Eighteen of the twenty-nine aboard died, the master among them. This is the only surveyed position published for any wreck on this rock. It was derived by GPS and lies about 1.2 km east of the gazetted position of Smith Rock, which fits the 1914 evidence that she struck a pinnacle east of the rock itself.
Historic site
Tangalooma Wrecks
Fifteen vessels were deliberately sunk here off the western side of Moreton Island to form a sheltered anchorage for small craft. The hulks now sit in shallow water close to the beach and have become one of the most visited snorkelling and dive sites in the bay, with the wrecks acting as an artificial reef. Access is by boat. The wrecks are close together and the surrounding water is shallow, so keep well clear of the hulls under power.
Historic site
Young Australia (1872)
An American extreme clipper, built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1852 as the Red Rover and renamed when the Black Ball Line bought her in 1861, she carried thousands of immigrants to Moreton Bay on some of the fastest runs ever made from England. On 31 May 1872, homeward bound for London with 812 bales of wool, the breeze died on her four and a half hours out of the anchorage. A heavy easterly swell laid her broadside on the rocks at North Point in fine weather and broad daylight. All thirty-one passengers and the crew were landed on the beach, most of the cargo was salvaged, and a small cannon off her deck is still in Brisbane. What survives lies in three to six metres of water in the surf zone and is progressively covered by sand.