Broad Sound Islands National Park

Broad Sound Islands National Park consists of a scattering of rocky islands and coral reefs in Broad Sound – an enormous, shallow bay on the central Queensland coast roughly 150 km north of Rockhampton. Declared in 2000, the park’s aim is to protect critical habitats for shorebirds and marine life in this isolated gulf. The main islands in the group include Tern Island, Oyster Rock, and West Hill Island, among numerous unnamed islets. They vary from low mangrove sandbanks to larger outcrops with dry grassland and shrubland. At low tide, vast mudflats link some of the islands to the mainland, but at high tide they are completely surrounded by water.

This national park is extremely remote and undeveloped. There are no facilities or marked landing points. Reaching the islands requires a private boat or charter out of places like St. Lawrence or Stanage Bay. Even then, Broad Sound’s notorious 15-meter tidal range – one of the largest tidal swings in the world – makes navigation tricky. Very few recreational visitors attempt to land on the islands. As a result, the islands serve as undisturbed breeding grounds for seabirds and marine turtles. In summer, green turtles and flatback turtles haul up on certain beaches to nest. Throughout the year, various terns, reef egrets, pied oystercatchers and other birds roost on the sand spits and feed on the rich tidal flats.

For the adventurous birder or fisherman who does journey here, the experience is one of profound solitude. On a calm winter morning, you might hear nothing but the distant call of curlews and the soft lapping of waves in the mangroves. The surrounding Broad Sound waters are known for mud crabbing and barramundi fishing, but they are shallow and silty, limiting coral growth to a few small fringing reefs around the outer isles. Dugongs and dolphins occasionally wander into the sound’s seagrass beds, and saltwater crocodiles patrol the mangrove-lined creeks on the adjacent mainland.

Broad Sound Islands National Park is managed for conservation, with very light human visitation. Traditional Owners of the area maintain cultural connections with some islands. QPWS rangers conduct periodic surveys via helicopter or boat to monitor wildlife. But for the most part, the park is left to the forces of nature – dramatic tides that uncover endless flats by day and submerge them by night, sustaining the nutrient-rich ecosystem. In this way, the birds and marine creatures of Broad Sound have a safe haven, largely untouched by the development seen elsewhere on the Queensland coast.