We returned on the 7th of November having spent 10 nights at this wonderful place; no wonder the locals want to keep it a secret! Many of the threads I read for research about Moreton contained replies and follow-ups about the plagues of sandflies and monster tiger sharks and that it would be a horrible place to visit LOL
The price to go there is a little prohibitive; the ferry cost,
camping fees and vehicle permit fees for 4 adults, 2 kids (one under 5 was free) and 2 vehicles amounted to $766.70. Spreading that cost over 10 days isn’t too bad but I was amazed at the amount of people that came and went for only a few days while we were there. The ferry was $190 return, vehicle permit was $37.10 and
camping was $3.50 per person, so a weekend for two would be $241.10. If you tow a trailer I think it was an extra $160.
It has been mentioned before that there is no fuel available anymore, but as an update, the Micat newsletter mentioned discussions with the council to be able to supply small containers of fuel for emergency situations. There is no plan to re-open the service station. This is a bit of a bummer as there is also a rule that you are not permitted to carry more than 50 litres of fuel in approved containers in any developed
campsite (does that mean you can carry more than 50 litres in unapproved containers? LOL). The definition of a developed
campsite is unclear; even
the beach camping has bollards around the perimeter, if these are considered ‘developed’ then basically it means all campsites. This is part of the vehicle permit. So if you plan to stay there for 10 nights or more you need to be frugal with your driving. Before going to Moreton I filled the sub
tank and main
tank of the 80 series in Murwillumbah. I didn’t keep a record of km’s travelled etc, but
Brisbane isn’t that far and while on the island we camped at Ben-Ewa and did three touring trips; across Middle Road up to
Blue Lagoon and Honey-eater Lake across
Blue Lagoon-
Bulwer Rd and back down the Western beach. 2nd was across Middle Road down the Eastern beach and across to Kooringal and return. The 3rd trip was up to Cape Moreton via
Bulwer and
North Point. There were ice runs every second day up to
Bulwer which isn’t far. By the time we drove back onto the ferry I had run the sub
tank down to the empty line but before the fuel light came on and the main
tank was down to just above the ¼ line. If I had filled up at the servo before leaving
Brisbane it would have made a difference but even so, if you wanted to stay there for a fortnight or more your driving would be limited.
High tide on day one was when we got off the ferry just before 10am and by the last day it was late in the afternoon getting back on the ferry so most of our driving was done in soft sand. No boggings though; on the trip over I let the tyres down to 18 psi and have always found using low range in the diesel in 2nd and 3rd the least troublesome unless of course it is easy going then high range works fine. I eventually let the tyres down to 15 and thought it didn’t seem to make much difference until I realised after a few km’s I still had the handbrake on LOL . Saw some boggings but pretty sure they were all due to high tyre pressures. One bloke got bogged coming down from the inland track onto
the beach; how you get bogged going down
hill is beyond me. Worse still there was a vehicle in front of it and one behind it with snatch straps attached; I left that one alone….
Having been to Fraser Island a few times I would say that Moreton is better. But that is my opinion; less tourist buses, less hired troopies blocking the tracks, the campgrounds were pretty tame on the weekend and there is a limit to numbers camped at any one time. We were camped not far from the ferry landing point and every day we would see the off-load of vehicles and no one would enter our campground and it seemed they disappeared and we virtually didn’t see anyone else other than a few others camped at the same campground unless we went to the
general store or on the weekend.
Moreton has a bit of everything for everyone; there is a resort to stay at or visit, loads of wildlife, beautiful scenery, snorkelling, fishing, calm waters for families, history etc. A magic place that I would definitely return to.
Here is a glimpse of what you are missing....
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Did I mention the plagues of sandflies and the monster tiger sharks? LOL
regards
Brian
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