5 Things I learnt with the Mazda BT-50 on Moreton Island with my Family

Our favourite family testing ground for any 4WD is Moreton Island (Mulgumpin)! So this winter we took the 2025 Mazda BT-50 off-roading and sand driving to see how it stacks up as a family steed and to see how packing the tray of a ute goes for a family holiday!

This five-seater dual-cab ute has just had an update and in this top-spec SP version with eye-catching Sailing Blue and black colour scheme is comes in at around $70K with the trailer brake controller and rubber floor mats fitted to this model. The man who guided us onto the Micat ferry even remarked “that's a tidy BT”!

Having packed the tray of the BT-50 full of our holiday gear and applied for a 4WD Permit we head off to the Port of Brisbane for the 90-minute early morning Micat ferry over to Moreton Island. One parenting tip for you- take a pack of cards or a craft activity for the kids to do on the way there.

Letting the tyres down on the boat ride we were pleasantly surprised by the addition of tyre pressure monitoring on the BT-50's media screen, which clearly displays the tyre pressure making deflating nice and easy. Also when re-inflating the indicators start to flash when you are nearly at the correct pressure and then turn solid and you hear an audible beep alert when you get to the correct pressure which are really helpful as you can see and hear both from outside the vehicle.

We're excited to dock, the views from the Micat as we approach Moreton Island are amazing! Looking down at the Tangalooma Wrecks we can't wait to get checked in to our villa and get into the water.

Slipping the BT-50 into 4H and turning off the traction control we are quickly off the boat and onto the sand. The BT-50 feels right at home driving on the beach and the shiny blue bodywork looks great against the ocean and sky.

1- Great off-road

The Mazda BT-50 had no problem taking us around the island. The 3.0 diesel engine felt like it had more than enough power with our family, luggage, beach gear and recovery equipment on board.

On the soft sand it made its way confidently through without any bogging.

A few days into our trip we got into the more gnarly rutted stuff on the way up to Mount Tempest. The BT-50 coped really well, crawling over the boulders and rocks that had been exposed by Cyclone Alfred a couple of months earlier, which I thought were going to be difficult it seemed to do with ease.

The more challenging drive and 1km uphill hike is well worth it for the 360-degree views from the top.

Mount Tempest is the highest point on the island and you can see all the way back to Brisbane on a clear day as well as the Glasshouse Mountains, neighbouring Stradbroke Island and beyond.

The flora and fauna on the walk up and down Mount Tempest is stunning, as you wind your way through grass trees, banksias and gum trees, with glimpses out to the turquoise ocean. The cooler winter temperatures and drier weather compared to our visit here in summer made it a very different experience and the bird life was so much more abundant.

2- Packing the Tray (with rubbish!)

Cyclone Alfred made landfall on Moreton Island and although the Gold Coast and northern New South Wales took the brunt of the weather front Moreton seemed to have protected the Sunshine Coast on the mainland from the worst of the wind, rain and ocean swell. On the eastern side of the island Alfred had left an obvious effect on Moreton.

The erosion on the Eastern beach is enormous. The beach and dunes have been washed away and at least a few meters of sand from the length of the beach with it, leaving towering sand dune cliffs.

Huge areas of rocks, trees and sand mounds are now along the beaches that we had no idea were buried in the sand all along. This made travel up and down the beach outside low tide times pretty tricky. Locals on the island told us the erosion had also exposed a whale carcass which had to be moved out to sea.

That's not the only impact. We were shocked to see the number of dead turtles and the amount of rubbish and detritus washed up on the beaches. It felt impossible for us to enjoy this paradise without helping in some small way, so we made a game of it. I gave the kids four ‘stops' each day. They could call out ‘Stop' at any point on our drive and we stopped the BT-50, opened up the tray and each collected as much rubbish as we could in our buckets and emptied them into the tray. I know it might not sound like the most fun holiday activity but try it! You can't live in this beautiful country and not care about the ocean!

Nature rewarded the girls for their efforts, finding Nautilus shells in amongst what was washed up!

As well as pumice stones as big as their heads!

I know for a lot of families you consider a family dual-cab ute like the Mazda BT-50 or an off-road SUV like the Ford Everest or Isuzu D-Max. We have been to Moreton Island in a lot of different vehicles and one of the things I like about having a ute is the ability to keep all the sandy or dirty stuff in the tray rather than having to bring it inside the car. I'm not sure I'd have felt the same about loading the boot of an SUV with beach rubbish as I did with this ute for example.

The tray of the Mazda BT-50 was really useful for our rubbish collecting as we knew it wasn't going to make the inside of the vehicle dirty. We could section off the tray using our Maxtrax and sand boards too and it is quick and easy to open and close the retractable cover too.

The local mainland Mazda Aspley has his advert up to help you out if you decide the Mazda BT-50 is the Island Ute for you!

No trip to Moreton Island is complete without snorkelling at the Tangalooma Wrecks, so we popped our inflatable paddle boards in the tray to take the kids over to the wrecks on and once we deflated them using the internal 12V socket, the paddle fold up to fit easily into the tray (knowing we could just hose it out to clean it afterwards).

In the winter the water is crystal clear and from the paddle board the kids could see straight in at all the different stripy tropical fish around the wrecks and corals.

The tray's tailgate also makes a great picnic bench and changing station when you've got small kids!

3- Interior space for families

The Mazda BT-50 interior has ample space with our family of four onboard. (Along with our daughter's soft toy collection!)

The Mazda BT-50 is a five seat dual cab ute that can have two child seats installed in the back, one in each of the outer seats. See the full Mazda BT-50 review here.

We have one child seat installed forward facing in the back for this trip and we have great legroom in the front for hubby who's 186cm tall so it works well for tall families.

I LOVE driving off-road and when I'm in the driver's seat my very tall nine-year-old daughter can fit behind me with oodles of legroom!

There are some handy interior features. We loved the hook on the back of the front passenger seat. My youngest likes to hang her kindy bag on there for normal everyday school runs and on the island it became our goggle hook so we could always find them!

The double glove boxes were also useful to keep all paperwork, keys etc in the bottom one and the top one became our cameras and phones storage when we jumped out to go swimming!

4- Wildlife

If you are here June to November you may be lucky enough to see the humpback whales migrating from the cold Antarctic waters to the warmer waters off north Queensland. Driving north along the eastern beach…

…to the most northern point on the island to the Cape Moreton Lighthouse.

Where you are rewarded with a glorious view down into the clear turquoise water below and see the turtles and whales swimming below.

We found the navigation maps on the media screen helpful on Moreton Island so we could navigate around the island and see where the tracks were we needed to take.

We stop in at Castaways at Bulwer for an ice cream after our Mount Tempest walk.

They have a great menu, good provisions and a few things for the kids to play on, our families favourite is the rope swing!

5- Sight seeing

The Mazda BT-50 was so nice to drive around the island. We couldn't stay put for very long and we enjoyed the drives as much as the destinations.

A drive down to the furthest south point at Kooringal gave us a little show of the local wildlife.

As it was low tide we got to drive around the very south of the island which is usually cut off by the tide and we could see across to Amity point, and the northerly tip of Stradbroke Island.

Time for a quick pub lunch of fresh seafood at the Gutter Bar in Kooringal! Normally we stop in at the Oyster Farm but it was out of season for the native oysters so Moreton Bay Bugs and Prawns were on the menu instead… delicious!

It was just the right time to drive up the western beach heading into sunset, it is magical! Everyone can see well out of the BT-50 with great visibility for rear passengers as well as the adults up front. Heading through the mangroves which give Moreton Bay its beautiful clean turquoise waters.

We emerge out onto the open beach.

Which is glorious.

We stop for rubbish collection and enjoy the nature along the beach too…

… starfish small…

… and big.

The girls find interesting shells…

…and thousands of soldier crabs patrol the shoreline.

The drive up the south western beach is special. It's remote.

You never know quite what you are going to get. This trip the nice flat hard sand is a joy to drive along in the BT-50 but it gives way to very soft and chopped up sand the closer you get to Tangalooma Resort.

You have to take the Tangalooma Bypass track when coming up from the south west and this is renowned for getting bogged on. We were pretty nervous to take the BT-50 along there as there are a lot of deep soft sandy areas and you have to pass other vehicles which can be tricky however the BT-50 coped really well with it. Having it in 4L it had no worries at all even when taking in up onto the deeper sand banks a couple of times to let other cars pass.