Do you want to take your family camping on Bribie Island (Wongaroo)? Maybe you camp with your family regularly and you're looking for a new location or you're new to family camping?
Either way, Wongaroo (Bribie Island) is an easily accessible sand island not far from Brisbane. With no boat or barge to get there, just a drive across a small bridge from Sandstone Point, and you are on Bribie Island. It's a short drive through the town on the sealed roads, with several sandy trails and beach drives to enjoy beyond!
The entry road turns to sand and dirt, and after letting your tyres down, it's a pretty gnarly sand track between the bitumen and the beach. If you're going to get bogged anywhere, it's here! Make sure you get a vehicle access permit first!
With two sides to the island, the west side is sheltered, facing the calm waters of the Pumicestone Passage, which can get quite bad for sandflies and mosquitoes, and it has three campsites. The east side is open camping, facing the Pacific Ocean, so the breeze off the island helps a little to keep the bugs at bay. Although, as we found on this trip, the march flies were prolific!
There are twenty-one campsites along the eastern beach, each individually tucked in behind the sand dunes. There are no toilets, showers or running water, so you need to be self-sufficient with all those things. Drive further up the beach and there's Fort Bribie Day Use Area, which does have drop toilets and an outdoor shower.
The Jeep Wrangler was just big enough to hold everything our family of four needed for the weekend! We put one of the rear seats down flat and fitted our two double swags, esky and clothes, etc.
We took a weekend to camp with our kids on the beach side of Wongaroo (Bribie Island) and here are our top five things to do there:
1- Bribie Island Town
Bribie Island has a couple of quaint little townships with local fish and chips shops, ice-creameries and a great second-hand bookshop, with a vast selection including kids' books. We always leave with at least one book each!
The Kenilworth Bakery, which we visited on our camping trip with the Nissan Patrol Warrior, also has a branch here for their famous doughnuts.
2- Visit the military posts
At the furthest north point you can drive on the beach on the east side of the island, are the military outposts/coastal defence bases left over from World War II.
They were built to protect Australia's east coast from Japanese submarines but only ever fired for target practice. We saw similar military installations at Rous Battery on our family camping trip to Moreton Island with the Nissan Patrol Warrior.
There are multiple buildings here that were once home to cannons and ammunition that are disappearing into the Pacific Ocean.
It’s a fascinating and eerie atmosphere, as dead trees surround them and litter the beach like tombstones.
Once camouflaged in the forest, the beach has eroded, and you can see the forest floor and tree stumps where the trees used to be.
Tree roots and staircases make for great play for the kids, and for those a little older, the signs about the history of the area are interesting to read.
3- Campfire Damper Cooking
The nighttime is magical on Bribie Island. There are a lot of mosquitoes and March flies on Bribie, so it’s a good opportunity to light the campfire as the sun goes down and keep those bugs at bay.
If your little ones like to go heavy on the marshmallows, then try a damper recipe instead – our kids and their friends all loved to help make the mix.
After wrapping it around sticks, we toast it slowly over the fire. Then we added Nutella or jam to them, and the kids devoured them!
Sitting around the campfire with friends and family, toasting marshmallows and chatting about the day, is one of my favourite pastimes.
4- The wildlife
Bribie Island is home to so many animals, including wild pigs! I wasn’t expecting this, but it was quite a funny change! Ranging in size from enormous wild boar-like adults to cute little piglets, they wandered into camp and made off with any food that was left out. You have to put your food and bin away in your car at night and day – or if the pigs don’t have it the brush turkeys and ibis will!
Sea Eagles soar overhead, and the kangaroos and wallabies hop around the undergrowth with their joeys hopping in and out of their pouches.
The bird life is abundant on Bribie Island too. Yellow robins twit around in the bushes, and the honeyeaters enjoy the dune flowers while goannas make their way around the ground and climb the trees hunting for eggs.
Look closer at the trees, and the kids can collect the cicada shells once they've left them!
5- The beach
Whether it’s driving on the island's inland tracks or up the beach, it’s one of the best ways to spend some of your day on Bribie. The Jeep Wrangler is undoubtedly a capable off-roader for adventures with your family but it did seem to struggle on sand. We needed to use low-range to confidently drive around lots of areas of Bribie Island. During our visit the sand was deep and chopped up in a lot of places. With care and momentum we always got through.
The ocean is beautiful on the east coast of Bribie Island and walking through the dunes into the beach first thing in the morning to start your day with a swim is the best feeling for you and your kiddies.
As it's so easy to get to and close to Brisbane, the beach can be very busy with vehicles full of daytime visitors, so you do need to watch the kids carefully. The good news is, the dunes are fun for the kids to slide down…
… and it's great at sunrise.
Be the first to comment