A local's guide to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island)

I prefer something light for breakfast but when visitors arrive I take them to Fishes at the Point on East Coast Road. They have everything from Canadian pancakes to Eggs Benedict and a Whale Rock Big Brekky special with bacon, sausage, tomato, mushrooms, hash brown, baked beans and English spinach.

Best coffee

I can’t go past the Blue Room in Point Lookout with its tropical themed menu and beautiful views over the water. They make great coffee (with Fonzie Abbott's beans) but they also do excellent cake to go with it. Just be aware, it's so good that it's often very busy, so get in early!

Favourite restaurant

Stradbroke Island Beach Hotel has a great al fresco restaurant, Manta Ray Bistro. The menu is classic, beachy pub-food style, but any vegans in your group will find plenty to enjoy. The views are spectacular - you might even spot a passing whale or a local koala.

Top spot for a tipple

When the sun sinks slowly in the west, those in the know head for Yabby Street on the waterfront at the One Mile and the beautifully landscaped lawns of the Little Ship Club. Pleasure craft wobble lazily at their moorings and hundreds of lorikeets swarm and screech around the massive trees signalling time out for a sundowner or three.

Favourite way to spend a Sunday

It would be grabbing a bunch of cooked prawns from The Prawn Shack fresh from the local trawlers and heading for the beaches – Main Beach, Frenchman’s Beach, Deadman’s Beach, Cylinder Beach, Home Beach, Flinders Beach, take your pick!

If salt water’s not your thing, head off to Brown Lake just east of Dunwich and bliss out in its cool, fresh, brown, tea tree water.

Best activity for under $50

Spend your last $50 at The Most Amazing Shop, a couple of doors up from the Island Fruit Barn in Dunwich, where the most obvious items are on the outside: Chinese guardian lions, oversized garden gnomes, gargoyles and other stuff for the garden.

Inside is a chaotic jumble of indescribable kitsch packed into every nook and cranny, from talking skeletons, guffawing toys, furniture, ‘naughty’ statues and retro clothing. It really is amazing!

Secret only a local would know

Point Lookout Bushcare not only help to preserve the local bushland but at their nursery in the Point Lookout Headland Reserve by Kennedy Drive, the volunteer group also sells native plants, most of which are unavailable in mainland nurseries. They are open on Sunday Market days and every Thursday from 10am – 12 noon.

Must-do activity

Every morning, whenever possible, I get up with the birds just before sunrise and do the North Gorge Walk at Point Lookout Headland, where I stroll past a family of grazing kangaroos so tame I can almost touch them. I see the family of five small black cormorants watching for fish from the tree they have claimed at the bottom of the cliff. There are sea eagles, manta rays, turtles and dolphins, even an echidna once and, in season, as many as a dozen whales. Early morning is always best.

Sold? Book your ferry and have this weekend guide handy to soak up the best of Straddie.

*This post was originally published in 2013 and updated in March 2018.