A guide to the Great Beach Drive – one of Earth’s longest beach drives

Kristie Lau-AdamsBy Kristie Lau-Adams
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Discover a different side to Noosa on board the Great Beach Drive – one of Earth’s longest coastal paths.

The charms of Noosa are no secret, but did you know that just a few minutes north of town lies two UNESCO biospheres and a World Heritage-listed haven? The Great Beach Drive spans 380 kilometres of the most pristine and deserted beaches in Australia. All you’ll need is a 4WD (your own, or a hired variety) to unlock it all…

Great Beach Drive at Noosa
Noosa is the entrypoint of the Great Beach Drive. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

While many visitors to Noosa stick to Hastings Street or the beach, the resort town is built on the edge of a 4000-hectare national park which offers a wonderous escape from civilisation. Twenty minutes north of town, a vehicle ferry from Tewantin takes you into the wilderness, where the bitumen stops and the sand starts.

Queensland’s Great Beach Drive is one of the longest beach drives on Earth. Where it differs from other iconic ocean drives is that this one requires you travel almost entirely on the beach – from Noosa, right along K’gari (formerly Fraser Island), and beyond to Hervey Bay. It takes in two UNESCO biosphere reserves (this is the only place on Earth where two biospheres connect) and the largest sand island in the world.

Reading between the lines, expect to spy extraordinary marine life including sea turtles and whales, unique bird species, ripper surf conditions and natural beauty beyond belief. One thing before you get moving – jump onto the Queensland Government’s Parks and Forests site to secure vehicle and camping permits if you’re winging it away from a guided 4WD tour.

Noosa Epic Ocean Adventures
Explore the sandy wilderness of the Great Beach Drive from Noosa. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Stop 1: Noosa to Rainbow Beach

Noosa North Shore Car Ferries is located at the river end of Moorindil Street in Tewantin, about a 15-minute drive from Hastings Street, and it transports adventure seekers over to the North Shore where the Great Beach Drive kicks off. Once you’ve hopped off the ferry, say hello to Teewah Beach: the entrance to the UNESCO Great Sandy Biosphere. This natural marvel is home to more than 40 per cent of Australia’s bird species and more marine and fish biodiversity than that of the entire Great Barrier Reef. It’s a lush mass of tropical rainforests, beaches, and marine parks.

Teewah Beach: the entrance to the UNESCO Great Sandy Biosphere
Enter the UNESCO Great Sandy Biosphere at Teewah Beach. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland/ Ming Nomchong)

Staying behind the wheel, don’t expect tar roads on the Great Beach Drive. We drive through coastal forest until we reach a wide, deserted beach. Welcome to the highway where the speed limit is 80 kilometres per hour. Watch out for fishermen casting fishing lines by the shore’s edge, and campers crossing the sand highway for a dip. You can camp all along these foreshores.

Driving the Great Beach Drive
No bitumen in sight, just a great sandy expanse. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Pushing on, you’ll reach a rocky headland that Captain Cook named Double Island Point, and this is where you may even find Thor. Locals (and Instagram) reveal Chris Hemsworth holidays here with his family, and the man knows his waves: Double Island Point is one of Australia’s best point surf breaks.

Double Island Point Aerial
Double Island Point is a swirl of creams and blues from above. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

There’s a 150-year-old lighthouse up here and not much else. You can see forever, and come whale season, humpbacks travel just off the cape. There’s a dive site just offshore that’s home to the state’s largest colony of (harmless) grey nurse sharks.

Aerial View of Honeymoon Bay Great Beach Drive
Go for a dip at Honeymoon Bay on the northern side of the tip. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Drive to the northern side of the point and you’ll find one of the country’s top beaches, Honeymoon Bay. We pass thousands of blue soldier crabs beside a beach lagoon. Two old surfers ride waves that break slowly for hundreds of metres. For those of us who ever fancied a beach to ourselves, we’ve died and gone right to heaven.

Rainbow Beach Great Beach Drive
The world-renowned coloured sand dunes of Rainbow Beach are a sight to behold. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

The coloured sand dunes that continue north from here are world-famous. There are 72 visible colours in these enormous dunes that reside in Rainbow Beach, a sleepy coastal hamlet cut off from Queensland’s main highway. It’s a great hideaway for a Hollywood star because it works – we can’t find him.

Red Canyon Walk Rainbow Beach
Take time to explore the Red Canyon at Rainbow Beach. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Don’t miss Carlo Sand Blow while you’re here, too. The 15-hectare sand mass is best explored via its 600-metre nature walk, accessible at Cooloola Drive, which culminates in epic views across Cooloola Cove and the blue beyond.

Carlo Sand Blow
Explore Carlo Sand Blow via the 600-metre nature walk. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)
Carlos Sand Blow Cooloola Cove
The walk is rewarded with pic views across Cooloola Cove. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Stop 2: K’gari (Fraser Island)

Just north of Rainbow Beach, you’ll travel along the Great Beach Drive onto a sandy headland where a barge awaits. This is Inskip Point, the southern gateway to K’gari (Fraser Island), where its original inhabitants, the Butchulla community, gave it its name because K’gari means ‘paradise’. That it certainly is.

Inskip Point Queensland
A barge at Inskip Point will deliver you and your car to K’gari to continue the drive.

Once you’re off the barge, you’ll find a 4WD enthusiast’s fantasy. There are 123 kilometres of coastline to drive along, though you’re never on it long – there are too many things to look out for once you detour off the drive and into sand tracks through coastal forest.

Couple swimming at Lake McKenzie K'gari
The pristine waters of Lake McKenzie call for a swim. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Everyone knows Lake McKenzie. It’s the electric blue of a Bora Bora lagoon, minus the over-water bungalows. There’s also the nearby Wabby Creek, offering unrivalled solitude and 70-metre-high sand dunes. The Wabby Point Champagne Pools on Seventy-Five Mile Beach are non-negotiable. Frothing up bubbles, hence ‘champagne’, and warm water surrounded and protected by rock formations, it exudes total zen.

Lake McKenzie Aerial View
The electric blue of Lake McKenzie is irresistible. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

You needn’t rough it during this stretch of the Great Beach Drive. The four-star Kingfisher Bay Resort on K’gari’s west coast is a popular choice and looks across an inland waterway. Though you could camp instead – Inskip Point offers a sensational beach campsite.

Stop 3: Hervey Bay

Take a car ferry from K’gari across to the chilled-out seaside town of Hervey Bay as your journey along the Great Beach Drive winds down to a close. Hervey Bay is famed for its humpback whale sightings, so investigate your chances once you’re there and don’t forget that whale-watching season runs from July to October.

Whale Cruise Hervey Bay
In search of whales in Hervey Bay. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

You can also drive the empty roads between there and the quirky outpost of Tin Can Bay. It follows the Great Sandy Strait and there are sheltered bays and white sandy beaches all along the way. There are also dolphins and if you’re lucky, you might see a dugong.

Whale in Hervey Bay
Hervey Bay is one of the best places in Australia to spot whales. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

Great Beach Drive 4WD Tours

Not overly thrilled about working with maps, or don’t own a 4WD? Take a backseat, literally, by booking a 4WD tour led by an experienced guide to help you discover even more of the Great Beach Drive.

Driving Great Beach Drive
Join a tour and leave the driving to someone else. (Image: Tourism & Events Queensland)

An action-packed eight-hour tour crammed with highlights is on offer from Great Beach Drive 4WD Tours , which picks guests up from their accommodation in Noosa. There’s also a half-day tour departing Rainbow Beach with Surf & Sand Safaris , while K’gari Fraser Island Adventures offers multi-day 4WD tours with pick-up from both Noosa and Rainbow Beach, and Fraser Experience Tours offers several one-day tours, too.

Kristie Lau-Adams
Kristie Lau-Adams is a Gold Coast-based freelance writer after working as a journalist and editorial director for almost 20 years across Australia's best-known media brands including The Sun-Herald, WHO and Woman's Day. She has spent significant time exploring the world with highlights including trekking Japan’s life-changing Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage and ziplining 140 metres above the vines of Mexico’s Puerto Villarta. She loves exploring her own backyard (quite literally, with her two young children who love bugs), but can also be found stalking remote corners globally for outstanding chilli margaritas and soul-stirring cultural experiences.
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What it’s really like to stay on the world’s largest sand island

    Kassia ByrnesBy Kassia Byrnes
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    Exploring the world’s largest sand island starts with the perfect K’gari homebase.

    The morning light is still soft, but it’s already a perfect sunny day. We left our K’gari homebase at Kingfisher Bay Resort  with our guide, Peter Meyer, at 9 am to make the most of our time to explore all that the world’s largest sand island holds. The size of K’gari is hard to grasp until you arrive here. This is no sandbar. Stretching 120 kilometres, unique lakes, mangrove systems, rainforest, 75 Miles of beach, historic shipwrecks, small townships and even one of Queensland’s best bakeries are all hidden within its bounds.

    But first, one of the island’s most iconic sights: the pure silica sand and crystal clear waters of Lake McKenzie.

    Laying eyes on it for the first time, I’m finally able to confirm that the photos don’t lie. The sand is pure white, without the merest hint of yellow. The water fades from a light halo of aqua around the edges to a deeper, royal blue, the deeper it gets (not that it’s particularly deep, six metres at most). The surface remains surprisingly undisturbed, like a mirror.

    Arriving with our guide before 10 am means that no one else is around when we get here. Which means we have the pleasure of breaking the smooth surface with our own ripples as we enter. As a self-confessed wimp with chilly water temperatures, my fears are quickly assuaged. Even in the morning, the water stays around 23 degrees – perfect for lazing about all day. But we have more sights to see.

    Exploring K’gari

    ariel of in lake mckenzie on k'gari fraser island
    Relax in the warm waters of Lake McKenzie. (Image: Ayeisha Sheldon)

    This was the Personalised 4WD tour offered by Kingfisher Bay Resort, and my absolute top pick of experiences. Over the course of the day, we had the freedom to create our own bespoke itinerary (plus a provided picnic lunch along the way), with an expert guide who had plenty of stories and local expertise to give context to what we were looking at. From the history of the SS Maheno shipwreck, which survived the First World War only to be washed ashore by a cyclone in 1935, to a detailed description of how an island made of sand could sustain such diverse flora.

    If it’s your first time to K’gari, the Beauty Spots Tour is another great option. Departing daily from Kingfisher Bay Resort (you’ll start to notice a trend, as many of the tours do start and end here), an air-conditioned, 4WD bus takes guests to the island’s most iconic locations, including the best places to swim, like Lake McKenzie and Eli Creek. The latter offers a gentle current, perfect for riding with a blow-up tyre out towards the ocean.

    The next day, for a look at a completely different side of K’gari, I joined one of Kingfisher Bay Resort’s Immersive Ranger-guided tours to kayak through the mangroves of Dundonga Creek. This long, snake-like stretch of creek winds its way inland from the ocean outlet we entered by, at times too narrow for three kayaks to be side-by-side. Small insects buzz from leaf to leaf, while birds call overhead. Occasional bubbles indicate we’ve passed some fish that call this place home.

    kayak tour through the mangroves at k'gari island
    Learn about the island’s mangroves from your Ranger. (Image: Reuben Nutt/ TEQ)

    If kayaking isn’t for you – or if, like me, you simply want more – other ranger-led experiences include nature walks and a dedicated Junior Eco Ranger Program for kids ages five to 12 (these run every weekend, and daily over the peak December holidays). Just ask for a timetable of upcoming tours when you check in.

    While during whale season, Hervey Bay Whale Watch & Charters operates tours from the hotel’s jetty to get up close to the famous Humpback Highway of Hervey Bay, from 7 November to 31 May, attention turns to the Aqua Oasis Cruise . Departing from the resort every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for resort guests, adventure along the island’s remote western coast, pointing out wildlife like dolphins, turtles, flying fish and eagles along the way.

    The cruise drops anchor so guests can jump into the water using the boat’s equipment – from SUP boards to inflatable slides and jumping platforms. Then refuel with a provided lunch, of course.

    Unwind at sunset

    two people drinking cocktails at sunset bar, kingfisher bay resort
    Unwind at the Sunset Bar. (Image: Sean Scott)

    As much as days on K’gari can be filled with adventure, to me, the afternoons and evenings there are for unwinding. Sunsets on K’gari are absolutely unbelievable, with Kingfisher Bay on the west side being the best spot to catch the colours.

    The Sunset Bar , located at the start of the resort’s jetty and overlooking the beach, is the ultimate location for sundowners. Let chill beats wash over you as you sip on cool wines, beers and cocktails in a relaxed, friendly vibe. Personally, a cheese board was also absolutely called for. As the sun sinks, the sand, sea and horizon turn a vibrant shade of orange, with the jetty casting a dramatic shadow across the water.

    When the show is over, head back to the hotel for dinner at the Asian-fusion Dune restaurant, or the pub-style Sand + Wood. But if your appetite is still whetted for more lights and colours, the evening isn’t over yet.

    Settle into the Illumina stage for Return to Sky, an immersive light and sound show leading viewers on a captivating journey through K’gari’s stories and landscapes.

    Indulge and disconnect

    woman setting up massage room at kingfisher bay resort Island Day Spa
    Find bliss at Island Day Spa. (Image: Jessica Miocevich)

    Of course, there is a type of traveller who knows that balance is important, day or night. While Kingfisher Bay Resort offers more than one pool for guests to spend all day lounging by (they’ll even serve you food and drinks while you do it), you’ll find me at the Island Day Spa.

    The masseuses could match the magic hands of any big city spa, and I felt the warm welcome as I walked into the light, breezy reception. Choose from a range of botanical facials, beauty treatments and soothing massages using traditional techniques (obviously, I couldn’t go past a relaxing massage). All products used contain organic, native botanical ingredients with nutrient-rich plant extracts to soothe skin and mind. To really indulge, try out one of the packages, couples treatment or even a pre-wedding day offering.

    Getting there

    kingfisher bay resort 4wd tour driving passed ss maheno on k'gari island
    The world of K’gari awaits. (Image: Jessica Miocevich)

    Getting to K’gari is shockingly easy. Find daily flights into Hervey Bay from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Kingfisher Bay Resort offers a shuttle bus between the airport, their headquarters in Hervey Bay and the ferry to take you to K’gari.