Happy New Year on NW Island, Queensland………
On the 30th December 2024 late in the evening, 35 of us loaded two weeks of camping gear, food and water for a remote adventure on NW Island. We departed Gladstone around 1am on the 31st December and arrived at the island at around 7.30am. The ferry (barge) landed on the beach and lowered the large front ramp into the sand. We then unloaded all of our equipment and spent the next few hours setting up our campsites.
NW island is on the Great Barrier Reef and is part of the Heron Island, Lady Musgrave Island group. There is no fresh water and it is a rookery for thousands of Noddy birds and Wedge Tailed Shearwater birds (also known commonly as Mutton Birds or Goony birds). The island is also a breeding rookery for the large Green Sea Turtles. The Noddy’s nest in the trees above the entire island and we needed to have tarps over our tents and kitchen areas due to the constant dropping of guano. The Mutton birds live in burrows where the chicks remained all day whilst the adults were out at sea fishing. They would return after dark to fed the chicks and leave again before sun rise each morning.
The sea turtles would come onto the beaches shortly after dark and move up to the dunes to lay eggs. They would return to the sea again during the night but we were very lucky to see the late ones in the early morning making their way to the water. In the late afternoon and after dark, turtle hatchlings would emerge from the sandy nest in large groups of up to 100 or so and make their way to the water. Not many survive to adulthood and are taken by sea gulls or other marine life once they re in the water.
We were on the island for 2 weeks and it was a truly amazing and wonderful experience. I can write a lot more but I wont. I have posted some of the hundreds of photos I took on the island and I hope you enjoy them…………………
