North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), colloquially Straddie or North Straddie, is an island that lies within Moreton Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, southeast of the centre of Brisbane. Originally there was only one Stradbroke Island but in 1896 it split into North Stradbroke Island and South Stradbroke Island separated by the Jumpinpin Channel. The Quandamooka people are the traditional owners of North Stradbroke island.
The island is divided into four localities: Dunwich, Amity and Point Lookout are small localities centred on the towns of the same name, while the remainder of the island is in the locality of North Stradbroke Island. All the localities are within the City of Redland.
At , it is the second largest sand island in the world. On the island there are three small towns, a number of lakes and beaches along most of the seaward coastline with rocky outcrops at Point Lookout. An Aboriginal presence on the island has been long and ongoing, resulting in a successful native title determination. Tourism is a major and growing industry on the island. The island has been the site for sand mining for more than sixty years. Tourism and currently mining are the island's main industries.
Geography and ecology North Stradbroke Island is the second largest sand island in the world. North Stradbroke, South Stradbroke and Moreton Island act as a barrier between Moreton Bay and the Coral Sea.
The island is about long and wide with an area of roughly and a maximum elevation of . The climate of North Stradbroke Island is sub-tropical with warm, moist summers and mild winters. Average annual rainfall is and mean annual maximum temperature is .
The population of the island at the was 2026, comprising 883 in Dunwich, 678 in Point Lookout, 348 in Amity, and 117 elsewhere on the island. The number of people on the island swells significantly during the holiday season. The island is only accessible by vehicular or passenger ferries leaving from Cleveland.
There are three townships on the island. Dunwich is the largest and has most of the island's services including a school, medical centre, local museum and the University of Queensland's Moreton Bay Research Station. Point Lookout (referred to locally as "the point") is on the surf side of the island and is the major tourist destination in the holiday season. The third is Amity Point which is much smaller and a popular fishing spot on the island. Flinders Beach is a small settlement of mostly holiday houses located on the main beach between Amity and Point Lookout.
The whole of the island is part of the Redland City local government area, and is incorporated as part of Division 2.Divisional Boundaries 2011 . Redland City Council. Retrieved 21 February 2012. The two largest lakes on the island are Brown Lake and Blue Lake.
In January 2014, about 60% of the island's bushland was consumed by bushfires, later to regenerate.
Beaches
Five main beaches provide fishing, surfing and water opportunities on North Stradbroke Island. These are Main Beach which is long and good for surfing, Cylinder Beach which is a protected swimming beach with a smaller swell, Home Beach which is popular with swimmers, Frenchmans Beach/Deadmans Beach with rock pools but no lifesaving service and Flinders Beach which offers good swimming and beach camping. Main Beach is also the location of the entry to the Keyhole Track, which is one of the top 4WD tracks near Brisbane. The entrance is near Point Lookout to the south.
Lakes, springs and wetlands
North Stradbroke Island has over 100 freshwater lakes and wetlands and contains significant groundwater resources which are accessed by local communities and a sand mining company, Australia. In addition, a significant volume of groundwater is exported to the mainland. There is a higher number of wetlands that have been in existence since the last ice age than anywhere else on the Australian mainland. While there is the potential for expanded groundwater use, because so little is known about groundwater-dependent water bodies and ecosystems any expanded groundwater use is suspended. Dependent ecosystems include freshwater and estuarine wetlands, mangrove and paperbark communities, and surface-water fauna. Many of the wetlands are places for threatened migratory wading birds, including 34 species listed by JAMBA and CAMBA Moreton Bay Ramsar area, Marine, migratory (EPBC Act).
Blue Lake Blue Lake, one of the largest lakes on the island, is protected within the Naree Budjong Djara National Park and is of cultural significance to the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island. It is a spring-fed lake relying on the stable aquifer feeding it. This stable hydrology means it has been untouched by climate change and appears to be in the same condition as it was 7,500 years ago. Blue Lake has been an important climate "refuge" for the freshwater biota of the region, and with appropriate management, the lake could continue relatively unchanged for hundreds, possibly thousands of years to come.
Brown Lake Brown Lake is a perched lake which retains its water due to a layer of leaves lining the lake floor and is of cultural significance to the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island. The precipitated matter eventually forms an impermeable layer, preventing water from percolating to the water table.
Eighteen Mile Swamp
The Eighteen Mile Swamp is the largest of its kind in the world and, in particular, is a fine and extensive representation of a coastal freshwater swamp. It is unusual for its size and dimensions (very long and narrow), covering and is considered to be very young (500–6,000 years) compared with similar swamps. On 27 March 2011, the area was declared a national park, named Naree Budjong Djara National Park, My Mother Earth, by the Quandamooka people, the traditional owners of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), who are engaged in its joint management with the Queensland State government. The wetland is in close proximity to the extensive Enterprise Mine.
The Eighteen Mile Swamp is home to many endangered, rare species, including the vulnerable Cryptocarya foetida whose habitat is the notophyll vine forest found at the foot and lower slope of parabolic high dunes on the west of the wetland. These high dunes on the west of Eighteen mile swamp provide excellent examples of long parabolic dunes migrating across North Stradbroke island from the south-east to the north-west. This migration has buried earlier positions of the west coast escarpment to form complex hydrological systems with the ancient dunes (estimated at up to 300,000 years old). No comparative examples of the phenomenon are seen on Moreton and Fraser Islands.
Myora Springs and Myora Creek Swamp Myora Springs is a unique wetland site on the north west side of North Stradbroke Island, of particular cultural significance to the Quandamooka people as a sacred gathering site, and is also a declared fish habitat area. Myora Springs is known to be essential habitat for the vulnerable water mouse (Xeromys myoides) and the endangered swamp orchid (Phaius australis).
Lake Kounpee Another perched lake, Lake Kounpee was partially drained after sand mining operations breached the impervious layer in 1987. CRL spent over $300,000 in the 10 years following this in attempts to fix the damage, and now acknowledge they can not repair the damage to the lake – "turning a clear freshwater lake into a reedy waterhole".
Other lakes and wetlands Other perched lakes include Black Snake Lagoon, Ibis lagoon (whose melaleuca community is unique in structure and floristics from other melaleuca areas on the island), Welsby Lagoon, Native Companion Lagoon and the ephemeral Tortoise Lagoon within the Naree Budjong Djara National Park. Amity swamp suffered, in 1991, when up to 100,000 litres of diesel spilled from the sand mining company, Consolidated Rutile Limited [CRL]. This was not reported until 1994, the same year CRL was awarded a commendation in the inaugural State Government Award for Environmental Excellence. It was not until 1997 that the incident was acknowledged in CRL's Annual Report stating that the spill was expected to be cleared by 1999 – eight years after it occurred. The sand mining company was never fined by the Department of Mines and Energy for these environmental incidents and continues operating. Flinders Swamp and its drainage lines is home to the rare acid frog (Litotia cooloolensis) and the area includes habitats for relict populations of the burrowing skink (Anomalopus truncatus). The Keyholes are a series of clear, freshwater lakes at the northern end of the 18 Mile Swamp popular with visiting canoeists. As the Yarraman Mine is now operating close to these lakes, public access has been closed, as it is a prohibited mining area.
Fauna
North Stradbroke Island is home to rare, vulnerable, endangered and near threatened animals.
Examples include: Migratory wading birds, including 34 species listed by JAMBA and CAMBA Moreton Bay Ramsar area. Wallum froglet (Crinia tinnula): These occur at Dunwich, Amity, Yarraman Lakes, Blue Lake, Eighteen Mile Swamp, Brown Lake, Amity Swamp, Tortoise Lagoon and Flinders Beach Wetlands. Cooloola sedge frog (Litoria cooloolensis): These occur at Eighteen Mile Swamp, north of the causeway, Brown Lake, Dunwich, Point Lookout, Tortoise Lagoon, Blue Lake, Welsby Lagoon and Yarraman Lakes. The population of L. cooloolensis on North Stradbroke Island has also been called Litoria sp. cf. cooloolensis (North Stradbroke Is) and may represent an unnamed species endemic to the island, as it is genetically distinct and has a different mating call from the other population of L. cooloolensis on the Sunshine Coast. Nannoperca oxleyana (Oxleyan pygmy perch): There are two genetically distinct populations, east and west, but in very low abundance. The eastern population is at Eighteen Mile Swamp and Blue Lake, though only one specimen was collected there by McGregor et al. in 2008. The western population is at Little Canalpin Creek.
Flora There are 780 plant species recorded for the island, 599 native and 181 introduced species. Of these 14 species are classified as threatened or near threatened species under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992, two of them are endemic to the island.
Examples include: Notophyll vine forest on parabolic high dunes: These occur on the foot and lower slope of high dunes on the west of Eighteen Mile Swamp, Swan Bay area and are the habitat for rare and threatened flora including Cryptocarya foetida. Acacia baueri Bauer's wattle [vulnerable]: These occur in seasonally waterlogged sands in wallum areas such as Canalpin Swamp and Eighteen Mile Swamp. Durringtonia paludosa Durringtonia [near threatened]: These occur in Myora Swamp and Eighteen Mile Swamp, and, in 1993 Bostock and Thomas recorded the first specimens on NSI since 1935. Phaius australis swamp orchid [endangered]: These occur at Flinders Beach Wetlands, Myora and Eighteen Mile swamps. Thelypteris confluens soft swamp fern [vulnerable]: These occur found in permanently swamp areas associated with species of Baumea and Cladium at Flinders Beach Wetlands and Eighteen Mile Swamp. Arthraxon hispidus hairy-joint grass [vulnerable] may no longer be present on the island. Blandifordia grandiflora Christmas bells [endangered] Eleocarpus difformis underwater spikerush [endangered – endemic] Goodenia arenicola [presumed extinct] Olearia hygrophila swamp daisy [endangered – endemic] Persicaria elatior smartweed [vulnerable] Phaius bernaysi swamp orchid [endangered] likely to be a yellow colour form of P. australis, it is likely that no mainland populations remain of this colour form. Pterostylis nigricans brownhood orchid [near threatened] Schoenus scabripes bog rush [near threatened] Thesium australe toadflax [vulnerable]
History Indigenous inhabitants