About North Stradbroke Island - Caring for Straddie
North Stradbroke Island is a special place. Help protect it and you will enjoy the island’s natural beauty every time you visit. To make your stay more enjoyable and protect this beautiful island, please observe these simple guidelines.
Care for lakes and streams
Because the lakes and waterways of Stradbroke are not regularly flushed, they are particularly sensitive to pollution and an artificial increase in nutrients.
- Powered craft are not permitted on Brown Lake, Blue Lake or the Keyholes: People found operating powered craft on any lakes are liable for prosecution.
- Never use soap, toothpaste, or detergents in the waterways as these promote the growth of algae and affects the purity of the water and aquatic life. Take water at least 50m away from the shore to wash dishes or yourself.
Care for the dunes and beaches
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Dunes and beaches can be extremely fragile. The sparse and inconspicuous dunal vegetation is often all that is stopping the dunes from becoming mobile and moving inland. To drive a 4WD on the beach at Stradbroke, you must obtain a permit first. Stradbroke Island Tourism can organise one for you. Ph: (07) 3409 9555.
- Be aware, the rules of the road apply to all beaches on Stradbroke.
- Enter and leave the beaches at designated beach access points only.
- Slow down when passing people on the beach.
- Use formed tracks only and never make new tracks – reverse back along the track by which you enter rather than turn on the dune.
- Avoid driving on the beaches within two hours of high tide and where possible drive on the section of the beach between the low and high water marks.
- Always consider other beach users, stay alert and drive carefully.
- Respect resting sea birds by slowing down. The beach is their habitat.
When camping on the beaches:
- Use existing marked camp sites – choose a site where you will not need to dig a trench, flatten vegetation, or break overhanging branches.
- Do not camp within 50m of streams or waterways.
- Use the toilet facilities, where provided, but if camping without toilet facilities, bury toilet waste in a 200mm hole at least 50m away from a waterway or campsite or frontal dunes. Do not empty chemical toilet into the composting toilets at Flinders Beach as this will kill the bacteria within the composting chambers – rendering them inoperative.
- Take your rubbish with you and dispose of the rubbish or litter at home or at the designated waste disposal sites.
- If fishing, bury fish remains 300mm under the sand below high water mark.
- Preferably use fuel stoves. If a fire is necessary, always keep it small and, where possible, light fires where it is already cleared of vegetation, on the site of a previous fire.
- Do not collect firewood from the beaches or dunes.
- Always observe fire bans.
- Extinguish all fires before leaving.