Hawkings Point Lookout overlooking Nelly Bay, Magnetic Island
Many visitors to Townsville in north Queensland choose to daytrip to Magnetic Island — Maggie — just 20 minutes by passenger ferry from the mainland. However, Catherine Best discovered a few incentives to take your van and stay a while.
Barbie, the pot-bellied cane toad, was trussed in a lurid pink hair band and wriggling, her feet cycling the humid night air. The auctioneer put her on the ground and the toad leapt across the pavement to rousing cheers from the beer-swilling crowd.
This toad had form. A bidding frenzy ensued, and Barbie fetched a $120 wager, before being plopped into a plastic ring with seven other toads, each with a price on their heads. The auctioneer lifted the ring, and the toads scattered like dropped tennis balls into the whooping crowd. Barbie crossed the line first, earning the winning punter a tidy windfall on the first race of the night.
Barbie the cane toad before her race
The Cane Toad Races are a weekly tradition on Magnetic Island/Yunbenun. Held outside the Arcadia Village Hotel every Wednesday night, the races are about as rowdy as the sleepy island gets. Tourists wearing the uniform of the tropics — thongs, shorts and singlets — have been known to stump up as much as $400 for a toad. It’s a cash-only community event that’s been going for more than 40 years, raising more than $1.2 million for the Arcadian Surf Life Saving Club across the road at Alma Bay. For Maggie, an outrageously photogenic island just off the coast of Townsville, the toads might have been the isle’s only blight if they weren’t such lucrative fun.
Soak up the natural beauty of Alma Bay
While many visitors to north Queensland choose to daytrip to Maggie, just 20 minutes by passenger ferry from the mainland, the toad races are another incentive to stay overnight. And with a vehicle ferry, you can even bring your caravan and enjoy the castaway life with all the comforts of home. Three quarters of the island is national park, crisscrossed by hiking trails that link a handful of laid-back villages. Ringed by golden beaches pinched between dramatic granite boulders, Maggie is a curvaceous island of hoop pines and eucalypt forests, home to a thriving koala habitat and a fascinating military history.
Bringing your van to Magnetic Island
When I was a kid, it was customary to catch the passenger ferry to Maggie and hire a Mini Moke to scoot around the island. They came in an assortment of colours and decals and even had names. Nowadays, the hip way to explore Maggie is in pink, topless cars. But what a lot of people don’t realise is you can also bring your own car — and caravan — on the vehicle ferry. Ferries depart from the Magnetic Island Ferries terminal in Ross Street, Townsville, on the opposite side of the creek to the SeaLink passenger terminal. The ferry isn’t cheap, but if you plan on staying for a week (why wouldn’t you?), it’s an economical investment when you consider the money you will save on accommodation, caravan storage on the mainland and being able to self-cater. It’s also handy having your own set of wheels.
The Magnetic Island ferry terminal
Our journey with a 22ft caravan towed by a Ford Ranger (just under 15m total length) was priced at $855 return, including the driver and four passengers. When we arrived (20 minutes ahead of departure), we checked in and were ushered onto a weighbridge, grateful for the opportunity to recheck our gross combined mass (GCM) after a couple of weeks on the road. After our weigh in, we reversed into a heavy-vehicle waiting bay — a simple task as there was only one other truck — and waited to be directed onto the ferry. There are three lanes on the vehicle deck and the ferry has dual entry/exit ramps, so there’s no need to stress about reversing on or off the boat, unlike our Kangaroo Island/Karta Pintingga, SA, crossing a few years ago. Once parked up, we engaged the parking brake, disengaged the car alarm (the motion can trigger the sensor) and headed upstairs to enjoy a cuppa during the 40-minute crossing.
The ferry docks in Nelly Bay on Maggie’s east coast near the southern tip of the island, which is roughly shaped like Tasmania, but a fraction of the size at just 52sq km. The most challenging part of the journey is driving from the Nelly Bay Ferry Terminal to your campsite. While sealed and well maintained, the road is narrow, hilly and winding in places. Keep an eye out for native wildlife and hikers and try not to be distracted by those gorgeous coastal views.
Ferry crossing to Magnetic Island, Qld
Where to stay with a caravan on Maggie
There’s no official caravan park per se on Magnetic Island. But don’t let that deter you. Most campers stay at Bounce Magnetic Island (formerly Roamer), a popular backpacker’s village with budget villas and dorms, a wildlife park and a campground of sorts. There are a handful of powered and unpowered sites here, a pool and a restaurant famous for its Breakfast with the Koalas, but sites are limited and can be squeezy for big rigs. There are also a couple of Hipcamps.
We stayed at The Forts Hipcamp, a secluded property on the site of a former pineapple plantation at the northern end of the island. Owned by Kiwi-British expats Tee and Steve, the campground backs onto national park and is walking distance to Horseshoe Bay. After 14 years sailing around the world followed by a lap of Australia in their caravan, the couple was looking for somewhere to lay down some roots. They fell in love with Maggie and have been sharing their island home with caravanners and campers even since.
The Forts Hipcamp campsite
The campground has eight sites including three that accommodate vans, but the operators prefer to limit visitors to three groups at a time to keep things intimate.
“We like to keep it family orientated, rustic and low-key, not like sardines in a tin can,” Tee said. “We try to moderate it so that everyone feels like they’ve got the right atmosphere going on.”
Our site was nothing short of idyllic. Our caravan door opened onto a terraced outdoor space furnished with hammocks, beanbags and raised bench seating set around a campfire. Enveloped by banana plants, palms and native forest, the campground even had a sleeping koala in the treetops when we arrived. Also on site was a (cold water) bush shower, a shipping container where guests are invited to contribute to an evolving mural, and a chook pen. This was where our kids spent much of their time — cuddling a clutch of newborn chicks and picking up the hens, who were free to roam during the day. Tee has a wealth of insider tips and will happily share her favourite things to do and eat on the island.
Inside the chicken coop at the Forts Hipcamp campsite
Best things to see and do
Just up the hill from the Hipcamp is The Forts Junction — the starting point to several walking trails including the popular Forts Walk. This 5km return trail passes through a thriving koala habitat, World War II relics and scenic lookouts before stepping down to secluded Florence Bay. Built by soldiers in 1942 when the island was a strategic defence post, the trail offers some of the best vantage points on the island and almost guaranteed koala viewing (we saw three, but Tee says if you don’t see 10, you’re not looking hard enough!). The track passes through the remains of the old barracks before climbing a ridgeline, where we startled a clutch of microbats in the old ammunition store, before exploring the gun emplacements, artillery post and signal station, swept high on the hillside.
The Forts Walk
The view from the old artillery command post
Gun emplacements on The Forts Walk
The Forts Junction is also the starting point for the walk to Arthur Bay (1km), a dazzling beach with a lively fringing reef. Here, we picnicked in the shade of casuarina trees overhanging the sand, watched as our three kids leapt off boulders into the water and snorkelled along the reef at the northern end of the bay. Maggie is home to 23 bays and beautiful beaches, and the best (and most secluded) are arguably reached on foot. To save the exertion, you can also join a tour with award-winning family-owned company Aquascene Magnetic Island, which offers snorkelling trips with Master Reef Guides, as well as cruises circumnavigating the entire island.
Arthur Bay is a 1km walk from The Forts Junction
Arthur Bay
Each of the four main villages — (from north to south) Horseshoe Bay, Arcadia/Alma Bay, Nelly Bay and Picnic Bay — has a town beach. Picnic Bay also has a beautiful lookout where you can climb (1.6km) to the top of a granite tor at Hawkings Point Lookout and enjoy sweeping views north across the island. Geoffrey Bay (in between Nelly and Alma) has a snorkel trail where you can pick up a waterproof map from the nearby surf shop and follow the four buoys to see 100kg clams, kaleidoscopic corals, the 1890 SS Moltke wreck and the propeller of a WWII American aeroplane. Return at night to see the resident rock wallabies come out to feed by the rocks at the site of the old vehicle ferry ramp.
Rock wallaby at Geoffrey Bay
Horseshoe Bay is fringed by a cafe strip and a handful of boutiques and is a great spot for enjoying fish and chips and a cold beverage at sunset, if you’re not weirded out by the shrieking curlews. The beach has a stinger net and offers good shelter from the wind if an easterly is blowing. Our favourite town beach was Alma Bay, fronted by a large grassy foreshore where an arc of golden sand dissolves into azure water funnelled between two granite headlands. We loved this beach, and not just because of the cane toads, whose Wednesday night dash contributes to the vitality of the surf lifesaving club.
Horseshoe Bay is a great place from which to explore the island
Travel planner
How to get to Magnetic Island
Magnetic Island is 8km off the coast of Townsville, about 1350km north of Brisbane. Book your ferry in advance with Magnetic Island Ferries and have your combined vehicle and caravan weight and length ready.
Best camping spots on the island
Book one of three caravan-suitable campsites at The Forts Hipcamp. Hosts Tee and Steve will meet you by the roadside as you make your way north from the ferry, so you don’t miss it. Their property is only eight minutes from the Nelly Bay Ferry Terminal. You must be self-contained; however a water hook-up is available. If you’d prefer power, a pool and restaurant, try Bounce Magnetic Island (formerly Roamer/Bungalow Bay Koala Village).
Hawkings Point Lookout overlooking Nelly Bay
Getting around the island without your car
If you want to have a night out at one of the pubs in town and not worry about driving, or are planning an extended walk between villages, jump on the public bus. Buses run between Picnic Bay and Horseshoe Bay roughly hourly, servicing all the villages in between, and are dirt cheap. Head to the Visit Magnetic Island website for more information.
Catherine Best is the author of Ultimate Caravan Trips Australia
Spotting koalas along The Forts Walk
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