Your Great Barrier Reef A masterpiece should be on display but this one hides its splendour under a tropical sea. Here’s how to really immerse yourself in one of the seven wonders of the world. Yep, you’re going to get wet. southern side; and Little Pumpkin looking over its big brother’s shoulder from the east. The solar panels, wind turbines and rainwater tanks that power and quench this island are hidden from view. And the beach shacks are illusory, for though Pumpkin Island has been used by families and fishermen since 1964, it has been recently reimagined by managers Wayne and Laureth Rumble as a stylish, eco- conscious island escape. The couple has incorporated all the elements of a casual beach holiday – troughs in which to rinse your sandy feet, barbecues on which to grill freshly caught fish and shucking knives for easy dislodgement of oysters from the nearby rocks – without sacrificing any modern comforts. Pumpkin Island’s seven self-catering cottages and bungalows (accommodating up to six people) are distinguished from one another by unique decorative touches: candy-striped deckchairs slung from hooks on a distressed weatherboard wall; linen bedclothes in this cottage, waffle-weave in that; mint-green accents here, blue over there. A pair of legs dangles from one (Clockwise from top left) Book The theme is expanded with – someone has fallen into a deep Pebble Point cottage for the unobtrusively elegant touches, afternoon sleep. private deck pool; “self-catering” such as the driftwood towel rails The island’s accommodation courtesy of The Waterline and the pottery water filters in is self-catering so we arrive restaurant; accommodations Pumpkin Island In summer the caterpillars Feel like you’re marooned on an just the right shade of blue. with enough food for an army: are bespoke; harvest and shuck pumpkinisland.com.au nibble pockmarks into the island hideaway (above); hosts Hammocks and swing chairs supplies pre-ordered from your own oysters island’s tropical foliage; later in Wayne and Laureth Rumble share hang temptingly from trees, award-winning restaurant Secret You’ll find no pumpkins in the season they retreat into their their slice of paradise with guests the tideline just beyond reach. The Waterline at Keppel Bay the waters off Yeppoon in the cocoons, hanging like tiny white Marina and packaged by request. Southern Great Barrier Reef, just sausages from the trees; and in Inside the cold boxes we a low-slung wedge of land that’s early autumn – when the breeze discover fresh prawns, tropical From here we could launch shaped like a butternut cut in half blows warm and soothing across fruit, meze platters, salads, ourselves off the island in a Islands and laid out horizontally upon the the bay – butterflies emerge in scones, jam and cream, along Perspex kayak, exploring the sea. But this impersonator is in their thousands, decorating the with fat steaks that come reefs at a thin remove. We Want to truly unwind, far from civilisation? fact Little Pumpkin, a rotund island like confetti. straight from Banana Station, a could snorkel or paddleboard, For the ultimate escape, maroon yourself on one hillock tethered to Pumpkin It’s a 45-minute cruise from renowned Central Queensland go fishing or oyster harvesting of these little-known islands dotted off the Island itself by a ribbon of sand, Yeppoon’s Keppel Bay Marina beef exporter that permits just or follow the boardwalk to the coast of Queensland, suggests Catherine Marshall. which appears only during the across a choppy ocean and into one Australian outlet to serve Sunset Lounge, which sits on lowest tides. the calm embrace of Pumpkin its produce: The Waterline. the west-facing beach, ready The main island snakes squat Reef. It’s an unassuming view We’re staying in the most to capture those exceptional and narrow – just 150 metres at from the water: a scattering luxurious of the cottages, tropical sunsets. Or we could its widest point and 450 metres of beach shacks peeping out Pebble Point, which is located loll in the plunge pool on our at its longest – into the Keppel from behind the palm trees; in a secluded spot over the rise private deck, wondering how Islands region of the southern a headland rising in rocky, from the main beach with on earth this paradise was Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. volcanic aggregations on the a view of North Keppel Island. kept secret for so long. a stretch of sand-and-coral beach. treatment on the mainland. It’s a Baitfish cast dark shadows along reminder of the impact of human Smooth, timeworn boulders guide the waterline; stalking them habitation on the region and the the way to Nudey Beach (below) from the shallows are swallow- role that tourism plays in funding tailed dart fish, scissortail such conservation programs. sergeants and fusiliers with Here we meet Ella, a green butter-yellow tails. sea turtle named after the boat Guests kayak, paddleboard that lacerated his shell with and snorkel on the reef; they its propeller. “We call her Ella hike to the lighthouse or sip the fella because she’s a boy,” cocktails at the swim-up pool says volunteer Barbara Bartlett, bar; and at night they dine on invoking the feminine pronoun. beautiful dishes – seafood “Look how fat she is – she’s broth with crocodile tortellini, the most spoilt little diva paperbark-smoked swordfish on the planet!” and seafood platters – flavoured It has taken three years with native Australian plants for Ella’s shell to heal; in a few such as muntrie berries, weeks’ time the turtle will quandong and lemon myrtle. be released onto Flynn Reef, A short walk north of the 50 kilometres from here. It’s resort is the Cairns Turtle as beautiful as Fitzroy, Bartlett Rehabilitation Centre, where says, with pristine waters and sick and injured turtles are turtles aplenty. “We’ll cry happy dispatched after receiving initial tears when Ella finally leaves.” Barbara Bartlett with her injured Fitzroy Island The beachgoers are wearing Peak hour on Fitzroy Island (above); entirely of “sea bones” – coral for guests staying on Fitzroy charge, “Ella the fella”, at Cairns fitzroyisland.com modest stinger suits when we Nudey Beach’s “sea bones” are and shells warped and twisted Island; from here it’s just a Turtle Rehabilitation Centre visit (although unlikely, box a beachcomber’s delight by the churning ocean and the 45-minute trip by catamaran. (above); the reef is teeming with Nudey Beach is not a nude jellyfish and Irukandji jellyfish passing of time. Finally lifting Once a backpacker swallow-tailed dart fish (left) beach, warns the skipper on the can occur in the area and the our eyes from this mesmerising destination, the island was Fast Cat ferrying us from Cairns resort recommends wearing the collection, we see crystalline relaunched six years ago with to Fitzroy Island. We’ve rounded suits from November to May). waters framed by those boulders the construction of Fitzroy the volcanic headland south-east To get to Nudey, we must and, behind them, a soaring, Island Resort. Understated and of Cairns with its splintered walk for 20 minutes through mangrove-lipped rainforest. family-friendly, the apartment- rock face and livid-red striations a tunnel of rainforest, climb up Fitzroy Island has long hidden style suites have a view of the and have caught sight of Fitzroy and down moss-slicked rocks, in plain sight from travellers beach and smaller rooms face Island, a green “sponge” bobbing skirt waterfalls that trickle passing through Tropical North the rainforest-clad mountainside. on the sea. We can spy the spontaneously through the Queensland’s gateway city of It’s compact, too; the resort’s island’s cherished beach curving undergrowth and pass through Cairns. Though just a 45-minute footprint takes up just five per around its south-western rim. a channel delineated by boat ride from the mainland, cent of this rainforest reserve, “Please do visit Nudey Beach,” beautiful, timeworn boulders. it’s tucked secretively below the carving an inconspicuous wedge the skipper continues. “And wear And then it opens up before Cairns headland. But the trip to from the forest’s base, where appropriate swimwear.” us: a beach composed almost the outer reef is foreshortened it spills down the hill and onto Haggerstone Island haggerstoneisland.com.au Picture Haggerstone Island from above: it sits beneath a white-hot sky, an emerald droplet floating on a tie-dyed pool of milky white, translucent turquoise and cobalt blue. It appears below us like a trophy as we approach it in our tiny plane. The effort it takes to reach Haggerstone Island – a charter flight from Weipa or Cairns or, for the adventurous, a two-day journey by boat – is rewarded before we’ve even landed on the airstrip on nearby Hicks Island. Haggerstone Island is legendary among the few people who’ve heard of it. Located off the Cape York Peninsula in Tropical North Queensland, it is the quintessential desert-island fantasy, a speck of paradise inhabited by just a handful of people – those intrepid enough to set forth into the unknown, to leave the world far behind them. The visitors who’ve found their way here have in turn been inspired by the creators of this retreat, Roy and Anna Turner, who moved here 30 years ago and have managed to thrive on an island that seems to teeter Island life: Roy and Anna Turner on the very edge of the world. have raised a family and a resort In the years since they here (below); the two-day boat were dropped off here by barge, journey to Haggerstone Island the Turners have made small (right) ends here (above) incursions into the native foliage that strangulates the island, constructing their own range free; a wild pig fattens The two-bedroom House Mawu accommodation as well as himself on coconuts and other is the most luxurious villa on four unique huts for use by up nutritious cast-offs.