Gorge Walk Stradbroke Island

Point Lookout is a headland, small coastal town and locality on the eastern coast of North Stradbroke Island, Redland City, Queensland, Australia. Point Lookout is Queensland’s most easterly point. The headland is an ideal location for land-based seawatching in Australia.  Humpback whales can also be seen from here as they migrate along the east coast of Australia.

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Indigenous tribes have lived on the island for at least the last 40,000 years. They have a rich and lasting culture that still survives today. Captain James Cook passed by North Stradbroke Island in 1770 and named the island’s north eastern point “Point Lookout”. The Quandamooka people have lived on or around Southern Moreton Bay for tens of thousands of years. Archaeological evidence dates occupation of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) back to at least 21,000 years ago. Many tribes mingled on Minjerribah and local people identify the Noon…..

Those early, idyllic days came to an end once war broke out and in 1943, a Japanese submarine torpedoed the hospital ship Centaur off North Stradbroke Island where 368 lives were lost.  Point Lookout was the site of an American radar station during WW II with a radio direction finder constructed in 1942 at Point Lookout at what is now Tramican Street,by the American armed forces. Later the RAAF took over the operation, which was moved to Point Lookout headland. https://stradbrokeisland.com/about-stradbroke/island-history/

Peace resumed and in 1964, Straddie really took off for tourists as the first drive-on / drive-off barge from Cleveland to Dunwich commenced.

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Currently the Gorge walk is closed to the public….I was able to walk part of the way to where access is blocked. Travel to Lookout Point by bus and return by bus too. Whales can be seen from the gorge as they pass on their way north, and then return in a few months time. There are plenty of places for lunch and a great ice cream shop too, as well as trendy clothing boutiques and a well stocked chemist.