Peel Island

Gateway

Peel Island

Fifteen minutes east of Raby Bay and the water turns that impossible turquoise Horseshoe Bay is famous for. Peel is the closest thing Moreton Bay has to a proper island day trip: anchor in the shallows, swim, fish, and let the afternoon go nowhere. Just watch the tide, because the sand shelf runs 250 metres off the beach and it does not care how good your day was going.

Historic site

Peel Island Lazaret

Peel Island held Queensland's leprosarium for just over half a century. Patients were housed in separate compounds and the settlement operated as a closed community until it closed in 1959. Timber huts, the recreation hall and remnants of the water and drainage systems survive, and the site is one of the most intact of its kind in Australia. The lazaret area is protected and access is restricted. Check current conditions of entry before planning a landing.

Historic site

Platypus (1926)

A Clyde-built bucket dredger that spent forty-two years cutting channels from Brisbane to the Gulf, opening much of Queensland's northern port trade. She was decommissioned in December 1923 and deliberately sunk off Peel Island in October 1926 to shelter the lazaret jetty.