CAIRNS & GREAT BARRIER REEF GOOD TO GO Your Big Book Pack of Queensland your bags! travel ideas 292 things to do right now Islands Reef Beaches Outback It’s time Rainforest City escapes to explore Where will you go? like never before! What’s inside? Discover Queensland’s drives Pacific Coast Way Capricorn Way Holidays are good to go! Warrego Way Matilda Way Here in Queensland, there’s plenty to do. Overlander’s Way Map of Queensland Australia’s Country Way For endless travel inspiration, head to 3 Leichhardt Highway Savannah Way queensland.com. Don’t forget to sign up to the Adventure Way Islands and Beaches Great Inland Way Queensland newsletter for the latest news, info and travel deals. EXPLORE 4 Keep an eye out for the Good To Go stamp on Islands and Beaches Torres Strait queensland.com, which assures travellers that Queensland’s tourism operators are open and ready 6 DISCOVER Poruma Island Gold Coast Thursday Island to welcome guests, and have the required COVID The Whitsundays SAFE documentation. Welcome G Sunshine Coast Horn Island R Discover more at queensland.com Queensland is Good to Go and we are ready to welcome you to E 12 DRIVE A explore this wonderful Sunshine State that we call home. Pacific Way: Gold Coast – Mackay T Whether you decide to visit by road, rail or air, the best thing you B Great Barrier Reef A can do to refresh and rejuvenate following a tough year is to take a R Weipa holiday here this year. 14 EXPLORE R I It’s also a great opportunity to back our tourism businesses who Great Barrier Reef E R have also struggled due to the global pandemic. Haggerstone Island © Copyright Tourism and Events Queensland 2020. Opening dates for Cape York R businesses and locations featured within this book are subject to change. DISCOVER E 16 E We advise travellers to make their own enquiries prior to booking. Now that COVID-19 restrictions have begun to ease, it’s the perfect Cairns & Great Barrier Reef Peninsula F chance to reconnect with family and friends, and I encourage you to Townsville North Queensland Gulf of Lizard Island take some time out and relax on the beach, reconnect with nature Capricorn Carpentaria and go on bushwalks, snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, go sailing, Gladstone Cooktown meet the characters of Queensland’s Outback (including dinosaurs!) Bundaberg or explore the restaurants and shops of the cities throughout the DRIVE state. And in the Year of Indigenous Tourism, I also encourage you to 26 Pacific Way: Mackay – Cairns Port Douglas Double Island explore our ancient culture through a variety of indigenous tourism Palm Cove Green Island Fitzroy Island experiences around Queensland. Cities and Culture Karumba Cairns You can start your planning on the brand new, world-class Normanton Mission Beach EXPLORE Dunk Island Queensland.com – a newly launched platform to promote 28 Burketown Cities and Culture Bedarra Island Queensland to the world, designed to provide you with personalised Hinchinbrook Island recommendations of how you can best enjoy Queensland. 30 DISCOVER Orpheus Island Brisbane Magnetic Island Thank you for your patience and positive commitment to flattening Hayman Island Southern Queensland Country the COVID-19 curve. Now is the time to reward yourselves, your Townsville Daydream Island families and friends and enjoy everything Queensland has to offer. DRIVE Charters Towers South Molle Island 34 Airlie Beach Hamilton Island Food Trail: Brisbane - Southern Queensland Country Safe travels. Cloncurry Richmond Proserpine Lindeman Island Long Island Nature and Wildlife Mount Isa Julia Creek Hughenden Annastacia Palaszczuk Mackay Brampton Island Premier of Queensland GREAT EXPLORE GREAT Minister for Trade 35 DIVIDING Indigenous Experiences BARRIER REEF QUEENSLAND RANGE Moranbah It is important to remember that we are all in this together, and that it Pumpkin Island EXPLORE Winton is everyone’s responsibility to protect the community from the spread 36 Great Keppel Nature and Wildlife Yeppoon Boulia Island of COVID-19. We need to rapidly respond to outbreaks by testing and Barcaldine Rockhampton Wilson Island Longreach self-quarantining, so we can stop the spread. 38 DISCOVER Heron Island Mackay Blackwater Queensland hotspot declarations and border restriction changes Emerald Lady Musgrave Island Fraser Coast Blackall Gladstone are made regularly – the best way to keep up to date is to visit the Bedourie Lady Elliot Island Queensland Health Border Restrictions page. www.qld.gov.au/health/ Outback Bundaberg conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/public- Windorah Hervey Bay Fraser Island health-directions/border-restrictions EXPLORE 42 Birdsville Maryborough Current COVID-19 hotspots are listed here www.qld.gov.au/health/ Outback Charleville Roma conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/ Noosa DISCOVER Kingaroy Sunshine Coast hotspots-covid-19 44 Quilpie Outback Queensland Maroochydore Dalby Caloundra DRIVE 46 Toowoomba Moreton Island Leichhardt Way and Adventure Way St George Brisbane North and South Thargomindah Stradbroke Islands Cunnamulla Warwick Goondiwindi Stanthorpe Gold Coast 2 | queensland.com GETTING PEOPLE STANDING Islands and Beaches ON BOARDS IS ALL IN A DAY’S How to get here from WORK FOR KELLY DELANG. Top luxury South Australia 5 resorts With Queensland open and ready for visitors, you’re invited to come here to re-connect with loved ones in favourite places, explore new ones, and have all the 1 wonderful experiences you’ve been dreaming about. Lizard Island, From Adelaide, dozens of domestic flights are available Cairns & Great every week with Jetstar, Qantas, and Virgin, so you can fly Barrier Reef. directly into Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Cairns. Wherever The signature daily hustle your chosen destination is, you’ll be exploring our vast at Lizard Island is a slow and beautiful backyard in a matter of hours. float over the spectacular Yet, there’s no denying that euphoric feeling of freedom fringing reef just footsteps when you hit the road, so why not drive your own way from shore or a quest for across Queensland? From the South Australian town of a secluded beach. Innamincka, cross over the Queensland border and track along the Adventure Way. Passing through Noccundra, Thargomindah, Cunnamulla, St George, and Toowoomba, you’ll experience a diverse mix of outback and city on your way towards the riverside capital of Brisbane (read Riding to the top more on page 30). 2 The Darling, Gold Coast Eager to see more of Queensland? From Brisbane, get of the class Lavish furnishings in a onto the Pacific Coast Way and explore coastal havens, hinterland towns, and major cities all along the east coast calming palette are the to Cairns (read more on page 12). perfect tonic for a skyline view that excites the heart. If you’re chasing a different Queensland experience, change direction in Cunnamulla and set your GPS along Surfing is arguably the Gold Coast’s greatest natural asset and the Matilda Way to take in the extraordinary Outback. For most people, the saying goes it lures tens of thousands of nature lovers into the water day in Stretching up to Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria, visit that a bad day surfing is better day out. 3 unique attractions (read more on page 43) and discover It is so good, in fact, that the 16km section of breaks between qualia, The Whitsundays unspoilt natural sites along the way. than a good day working. Snapper Rocks and Burleigh Point has been named the 8th If luxury was served on To ensure you’re good to go, we recommend planning and World Surfing Reserve (WSR), a title that comes in recognition a silver platter, qualia booking your holiday ahead of departure so you’re able to Most people don’t happen to be Kelly Delang, a former of an unbeatable combination of perfect point breaks and the would be the main do all the wonderful things on your wish list. With so much champion schoolgirl surfer who dices her summer days home grown world champions who live there. On a good day, course garnished with to see and experience, it’s time to explore like never before! doing both: teaching kids and grown-ups of all ages how to you may be able to spot the likes of Fanning, Parko, Occy and jaw-dropping views over surf in the morning and then going for a solo paddle near her Steph Gilmore. All travellers should check the Queensland Health’s Border the Coral Sea. Burleigh home after lunch. Restrictions page to ensure that they are up to date with the An elite surfer in her teens, Kelly gave up the dream of joining latest entry restrictions and quarantine requirements: For this 27-year old Gold Coaster, nothing compares to the ranks of these champions after relocating from rural NSW www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus- watching someone take their first wave. “Part of surfing is the to pursue a career in exercise physiology. “I got to a point in covid-19/current-status/public-health-directions/border- initial realisation for the love of the ocean. If I can help people my life where I had to make a decision between competitive 4 restrictions to find that very first rush of adrenalin – to find that froth that surfing and a career. I chose the career and went to Griffith Bedarra Island Resort, makes them happy – then I’m also happy.” University to do exercise science”. At time of printing: Cairns & Great Barrier • All travellers arriving to Queensland must complete a Kelly works for Get Wet Surf School on the northern end of the In between teaching newbies to surf, she also works as a Reef With just ten border pass: www.qld.gov.au/border-pass Gold Coast.