Cape York paradise at Portland Roads
You can Fly into Cape York and spend some time exploring. There is heaps to see in just one area. Explore the Iron Range National Park, Chili Beach and Lockhart River area from Portland Roads.
To encourage people to visit Portland Roads Beach Shack during the wet season, we have negotiated deals with Skytrans and Lockhart River Car Hire so that our customers can get discounts when booking through us.
There is some quite interesting history in the naming of Portland Roads (Cate will write an a post on this soon). The ‘Roads’ is short for Roadstead which is an old nautical term for shelter.
We often have boats, yachts and ships moored in our sheltered bay. Everything from sports-fishing (Nomad Sportfishing), motherships from Seaswift, to passing yachts. We also have huge container ships further out to sea.
Some of our groceries are delivered by the Emu Bay – the ship moors every two weeks during the prawn season. We also can get gas and fuel.
I’d never heard of nurdles before – it’s a beautiful sounding word but unfortunately has sinister connotations.
Nurdles at Chili Beach Cleanup 2011
Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets (usually under 5 mm diameter) used as the main raw product in the manufacture of plastic products.
They are one of the main sources of marine debris.
Nurdles resemble fish eggs, absorb toxins and there are billions of them out there (some estimate there are more the 120 billion kilograms with about 50,000 nurdles per kilogram).
Heidi from Tangoroa told me that they once collected 6,600 nurdles in 1 sq m of sand in WA
Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society has more information in their pdf Fact Sheet on Nurdles
I learnt about nurdles while attending the annual Chili Beach Cleanup in July 2011. It was a great time with many interesting people attending.
They included students from Lockhart State School, residents of Lockhart, Portland Roads and Restoration Island, Kawadji-Kanindji Rangers, Jen Goldberg from Ghostnets, Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society, Sheils Barra from Cook Shire Council, Barry Murray from Rio Tinto, National Parks Rangers and various travellers.
Anna and Matt and Ronya, Lotta and Torben
Anna, Matt and their 3 children Ronya, Lotta and Torben were wwoofing on Restoration Island whilst on a holiday around Australia.
They are from Denmark in WA were they own Windrose B&B which is being managed by a friend from Germany whiile they are travelling around Australia.
They had just spent a week or so with Dave on Restoration Island, and as he was coming in for the cleanup they decided to join him.
The Kawadji-Kanindji (Land & Sea) Rangers – Claudia, Caroline, Denis and Neil, had previously cleaned another section of Chili Beach on the weekend. They had worked with Andy Baker, the QPWS Ranger, Jen Goldberg from Ghostnets and Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society. It was great for these people from different organisations to be able to work together with the common goals of removing and cataloging the marine debris. The Kawadji Kanindji rangers are keen to continue doing marine debris clean-ups and monitoring of the area.
Neil, Andy, Claudia, Denis, Caroline, Heidi
The Ghostnets website says “Formerly known as the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme, GhostNets Australia is an alliance of 22 indigenous communities from coastal northern Australia across the three states of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland. The programme was established in 2004 with funding from the Australian Government. Since its inception the programme has supported Indigenous Rangers to remove over 7,500 ghost nets of varying sizes. This has resulted in recovery of a proportion of the trapped wildlife, particularly marine turtles (52%), and the prevention of the ghost nets from returning to the sea, continuing their destructing life-cycle. Less than 10% of these nets have been attributed to Australian fisheries.”
And from Heidi’s website:
“In 2004 Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society was founded by Richard and Heidi Taylor. Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society is run as a non-profit organisation with the goals of:
– creating awareness in the community of marine environmental and conservation issues through marine environmental science projects; and
– proactively participating in and organising marine conservation projects which address marine conservation issues.”
The litter over the three days included 81 bags plus a lot of larger items. It weighed 1171 kg in total.
The roughly 50 volunteers on Monday covered a distance of 1.24km over about 2.5hrs.
piece of fibreglass at the Chili Beach cleanup 2011
We found an incredible variety of debris: cans, paddle pop sticks, foil, bottles of all sorts, plastic bag remnants, hard bits of plastic, polystyrene foam, shoes, bleach/cleaner bottles, fishing paraphernalia, cigarette lighters, skincare bottles, toothbrushes, weather balloon foam and a huge piece of fibreglass from a yacht.
The bleach bottles are used in some coral reefs to kill fish – they are thrown (full) into the water with slits cut into them – and the bleach kills or stuns the fish for easy collection but unfortunately the coral gets killed in the process.
Some of the bits of foam collected were from weather balloons. In order to accurately forecast the weather, the Bureau of Meteorology sends up 2-4 weather balloons every day from every office around Australia. The balloons have an almost 1 square metre piece of polystyrene foam with a silver lining for the radar, a large ballloon and at night 2 AA batteries. All of these drop back to earth and cause a huge problem as debris. I believe the Bureau of Meteorology is working to lessen the impact of weather balloons on the environment.
Here is a link to the Cooktown and Cape York website with road conditions that are updated regularly
We have just done a trip up to the tip of Cape York and back so I thought I would share where is good to go. We had friends up from Canberra so it was a good excuse to explore.
Bramwell Station was a find, we took a wrong turn on the way to Bramwell Junction. They are nice people and have proper meals for a break from cooking or roadhouse food and spacious campgrounds with hot showers and a laundry. They ask how you like things cooked! And they are good at varying the menu for kids. Also good if you like to sit around and have a drink and a yarn and throw horseshoes.
Fruit Bat falls is gorgeous and much easier to get to than Elliot Falls if you don’t want to tackle the corrugations of the Old Telegraph Track. Fruit Bat is pretty shallow, there are some rocks to get past when you get in but then you have sandy bottom so not too challenging with kids or older folk. It is one of the few places that you can swim without worrying about crocs.
Everyone you meet tells you something different about the road conditions since with 4×4 what is fun for one is a nightmare for another.
Someone told us that the first river crossing on the OTT was the worst and if we thought we could handle it then that was a good gauge to see if we wanted to continue or take the bypass road.
We looked at it and decided against it mainly because I was worried, Seamus would have loved to do it, though the vehicle is in need of repair. I didn’t want to risk sitting around for hours while boys dig and winch or worse lose travel days to repairs. Maybe one day he can do it with 4×4 enthusiasts and with no family tagging along. Later we ended up needing repairs anyway and nothing to do with road conditions.
I am glad we didn’t do the OTT, maybe the info was from last season. A family who just did it told us that the first one was not the worst, there were plenty more risky creek crossings and bad corrugations, they had 5hrs of hell! (the others had said 4hrs). Though Seamus wondered how experienced they were.
Hann River Roadhouse and campground has great burgers and meals. They are very customer focused. They have a resident Emu who was hand raised by the owner, he dances when she whistles! They also have a rainbow lorikeet that is a friendly clown that will climb up your arm, and some little fluffy chooks wandering around.
Near Seisia, near the tip, we stayed at Loyalty Beach. They have a restaurant at the end of the campground where you can get a table actually on the sand. So beautiful at sunset!
We were running out of time to see the tip before my friend had to get back to Weipa to fly home, so we took a helicopter flight around the tip – expensive but so gorgeous. An awesome way to do it and something I will definitely remember. You see all the islands around. You can also take a ferry trip to Thursday Island.
At Coen there is a campground with the turn off just out of town, there is a hand painted sign saying Bill’s Place or something, I am not sure of the name, maybe Bob’s place, it says 4U2camp. We didn’t go there, but were curious. Some friends stayed there since and said that it is great, with showers and toilets and his house made of bottles.
And of course there is our place at Portland Roads with amazing views of the water. You can visit Chili Beach, maybe go on a boat trip with us in a tinny, fish, experience the rainforest – we are surrounded by Iron Range National Park, Lockhart River Aboriginal Community including the Lockhart River Art Gang and an Aboriginal Culture Guide for hire.
Dave's place on Restoration Island viewed from Chili Beach
Portland Roads is the access point for Restoration Island which is just a quick boat ride across the water.
Restoration Island is listed in the Wwoofing directory. In February 2010 this Wwooofer called to find out if Dave was taking anyone. He said no since it was the wet season and he was going away, but after a chat about his skills they struck a deal for him to caretake his place while Dave was away for a few weeks!
He had an amazing experience, having this peaceful, tropical paradise all to himself for 7 weeks. White sandy beaches lined with palm trees backed by rainforest. Friendly neighbours took him fishing and he got to know the local aboriginal people from nearby Lockhart River. His adventure included experiencing a cyclone and being stalked by a croc. Cyclones are common in the wet season, a regular occurrence that the people of Cape York take in their stride.
Restoration Island is home to our neighbour Dave Glasheen. Dave gets media attention for advertising on RSVP for a mermaid to share his paradise home. The media are fascinated by his lifestyle living alone on this island, he would like a girl Friday, but he would prefer the news reports to help him find investors to develop the island as a tourist mecca.
Any development would be eco-friendly, preserving the beauty of this paradise. Dave is open to options but it could be an exclusive eco resort where visitors can enjoy the tranquility of a tropical island with access to the Great Barrier Reef as is Lizard Island.
For any prospective mermaids out there, there is some company at the small settlements nearby Portland Roads with about 10 houses, Packers Creek with about 5 and nearby Lockhart River which has a post office, supermarket and health centre. There is an airport at Lockhart River which flies out to Cairns 5 days a week.
Restoration Island looks across the water to the beautiful Chili Beach. A popular camping spot for people exploring the Cape in their 4×4.
The island has historical significance as the landing place for Captain Bligh in 1789. It was their first landfall after the mutiny on the Bounty at Tahiti where they were set adrift in a small boat. The name Restoration was appropriate since they were restored by the fresh water and feasting on seafood. Also the date was the anniversary of the Anniversary of the restoration of King Charles II.
See Daves site Restoration Island Blogspot
Well, we have been living on Cape York for 6 months now. Portland Roads is very special, but we haven’t really explored further yet. We have some friends coming up from Canberra soon, so now we are planning our Cape York adventure. We thought we would share our research here as it may be useful for those of you who like to travel the way we do.
This is the place we are were caretaking. We have the cottage halfway up the hill, and this is where the visitors stay. This video shows the stairs, the deck and the view from the deck
This video shows the bedrooms, the deck and the view
The Beach Shack accommodates up to 4 people with a double and two single beds. It is self contained with a bathroom and cooking facilities for self-catering. The living area is on a good sized deck with great views looking out over the Coral Sea. The house is set back from the road for privacy and sits high on the hill to catch the sea breeze. Portland Roads is in the Tropical Rain Forest of Far North Queensland, 600kms North of Cairns. Portland Roads is a great stop if you