Where to Go - North Stradbroke Island : Beaches
Main and Cylinder Beaches
Main beach and Cylinder Beach are the most popular beaches at Point Lookout, patrolled from the Queensland September school holidays to the first weekend of May. Weekends and public holidays from 8am to 5pm (Sat), 8am to 2pm (Sun). Extended hours during peak periods are 8am to 6pm (Sat) and 8am to 3pm (Sun). A lifeguard service is provided during weekdays between September and April and seven days for all other periods of the year.
Main Beach
Main Beach stretches for 32kms of unspoilt sand, dunes and surf. Main Beach is always popular with boardriders and bodysurfers who enjoy the big swells. The waves are large and powerful and the views are spectacular. The headland is the best vantage point for watching the surfing action and spotting dolphins. Main Beach is best during northerly winds, when snorkelling and scuba diving is suitable along the north wall. Avoid Main Beach during southeast wind conditions and always be aware of strong rips and side currents.
Cylinder Beach
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Cylinder Beach is a picturesque cove between Cylinder and Home Beach Headlands. It is popular with families, due to its gentle waves and tidal beach lagoon, and its easy accessibility via a carpark situated only metres from the beach.
The waves at Cylinder are often smaller and therefore it is perfect for sun bathing and swimming during good weather conditions. However during strong southerly winds there is a side sweep which may carry you parallel to the beach. Cylinder Beach is also a favourite with surfers when the conditions are right.
History
Matthew Flinders, a passenger on a ship wrecked on Middle Reef in 1803, decided with some of the ship’s crew to row back to Sydney in a small cutter for help. Passing Stradbroke Island he sent some men ashore to fill the water barrels. They landed on Cylinder beach where some friendly Aborigines pointed to a spring in the corner of the headland and beach.
Cylinder Beach was first known as Hope Well, which confirms the location of the spring where Flinders’ men filled their water cask. The Aborigines associated the spring with the 1803 visit of the cutter Hope. The area was renamed Cylinder Beach in the 1930s when a shed was built near the spring to store the acetylene cylinders used to operate the newly constructed lighthouse. Its cement base, with indentations to hold the cylinders, is still there.
Flinders Beach
Flinders Beach is situated between Amity Point and Point Lookout. Flinders Beach has foreshore camping, and is accessible only by 4WD from Amity Point or Point Lookout.
Flinders and Main beaches are patrolled by roving rescue boat patrols and mobile 4WD patrols on weekends, public holidays, during Queensland Christmas and Easter school holidays.
Home Beach
Home Beach is accessed through a 4WD track, Adder Rock campground and a walking track from the main road. This beach provides an attractive spot for swimming.
Please note that Home Beach is not patrolled.
Home Beach is patrolled from Boxing Day to the end of Queensland Christmas school holidays, on weekends and public holidays from 8am to 4pm (Sat), 10am to 2pm (Sun) and during Easter school holidays 8am to 4pm (Fri to Sun) and 8am to 2pm (Mon) depending on conditions.
Deadman's and Frenchman's Beaches
Deadman’s Beach and Frenchman’s Beach are secluded spots, nestled between the North Gorge and Cylinder Beach. These beaches are great places to explore the rockpools where you can see small fish, anemones, shells and crabs.
Please note that there are no lifesaving patrols on these beaches. History
It is said that a 133 ton ship was wrecked during the night in poor weather in 1902 half a mile south-east of Point Lookout. The Prosperity was travelling from Sydney. She was carrying a cargo of sugar machinery for Mourilyon Harbour in North Queensland pieces of rusted machinery can still be seen wedged in the crevices of South Rock.
Frenchman's Beach
The captain and the four members of the crew managed to reach the shore and were cared for by Billy North who has a part of his cattle has a stockman’s hut head of the South Gorge Point Lookout. Billy who supplied meat to the Benevolent Institution was able to notify the authorities of the wreck and because of his well stocked hut, was able to look after the survivors until help arrived.
Unfortunately the cook and the mate were drowned. Some 50 years later in 1956 a skeleton and a leather boot were partially uncovered on Deadman’s beach. They were believed to be the remains of either the cook or the mate who perished as a result of the wreck.