7 Queensland experiences for the conscious traveller

If the pandemic pause has prompted you to look at your travelling ways in a new light, you’re not alone. All research signs point towards our desire for life-changing and immersive experiences. Ways that we can give to the environment and local communities when we travel, not take, and most importantly, experiences that will feed us with the authentic connection we’re craving.  

From new ways to connect with nature to sustainable retreats and wildlife rehabilitation programs, here are 7 incredible Queensland experiences for the conscious traveller.

Soak in Talaroo Hot Springs

Imagine if treating yourself to a relaxing soak in private hot springs pools could also instill in you a deeper spiritual connection to the land. It’s called cultural wellness and Talaroo Hot Springs may just be responsible for coining the phrase. The sprawling former cattle station on Ewamian Country has been managed for the past nine years as an Indigenous Protected Area and Nature Refuge. Now the doors have opened for conscious travellers who want to disconnect from their everyday lives and make the journey to camp here, wander the scenic boardwalks, and dip in and out of the 35C pools.

The pet-friendly campground has been designed as a meeting place for cultures, ancient and emerging, to learn stories of this Country – long known as a traditional healing place – from Ewamian Rangers. By night, the night sky becomes the headliner and the ‘Yarning Circle’ firepit its front-row seat.

To reach Talaroo, take a 4.5-hour road trip from Cairns along the Savannah Way or take it slow aboard the Savannahlander train.

Recharge at Beechmont Estate

Conscious travel is essentially putting your money where your morals lie and supporting businesses who champion planet-friendly operations when you travel (as well as thinking about how you get there and what you really need to take with you, of course). It’s why booking a bed for the night is no longer just about thread count and the room service menu, but knowing where the beef on your plate came from and that rooms are cleaned with biodegradable products. It’s connecting with the beekeeper responsible for the honey at breakfast, and knowing the lights you switch on in your private pavilion are powered by the sun, not fossil fuels.

Beechmont Estate is a new five-star sustainable luxury experience, set on 75 acres next door to Lamington National Park in the Gold Coast Hinterland. A working wagyu farm and polo estate, Beechmont Estate is home to boutique farm cabins, three luxury pavilions and a casual fine dining restaurant, providing the perfect platform for your next eco-friendly escape. After lunch cooked over the coals on site eatery The Paddock, perhaps a hike and a spa treatment, retire to the Tack Room – an informal lounge with bar, shuffleboard, pool table, and private dining room – where cocktails are garnished with fruit dried in the solar-powered dehydrator unit, not plastic straws.

Later in 2022, beekeeping tours and a Wagyu tasting experience will be available for guests. 

Become part of a conservation team in North Queensland

Knowing where you can go to make a hands-on contribution that will actually fuel change can be a challenge, but voluntourism experiences with No Limit Adventures allow you to do just that. Take the opportunity to provide hands-on support at the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre on Fitzroy Island, or embark on a 12 day research adventure on the Great Barrier Reef where you'll dive and undertake rapid monitoring surveys on the reef with Master Reef Guides. 

Leave only footprints on K’Gari (Fraser Island)

Hiking any of the trails that make up the K'gari (Fraser Island) Great Walk had long been a DIY exercise, until the launch of the K’Gari Blue Lakes Hike – a supported, self-guided experience that comes with pre-pitched campsites and meals – music to those who love the low-impact nature of walking holidays. Fraser Island Hiking has designed the package so you can tick off five of the island’s most beautiful freshwater lakes over three days in a group of four to six people.

Carrying only a day pack and enjoying the spoils of a luxury tour – hello, cheese platters, alcohol and track snacks – you’re free to soak in the untouched beauty of the island you’d never get to see on a day trip.

Become a Citizen Scientist on the Great Barrier Reef

We can all make a difference to the future of the Great Barrier Reef by visiting it, even if only once in our lives. But if you really want to educate yourself and provide a meaningful contribution, a new small-group expedition cruise extends a hand for you to hold. Coral Expeditions, in partnership with the Australian Geographic Society, is setting off in October 2023 to explore some of the most remote edges of the outer reef.

With a focus on citizen science, only 66 guests and researchers will embark on the adventure to visit remote reefs and wildlife habitats in the Coral Sea - including far reaching and rarely visited atolls and reefs such as Holmes, Tregrosse and Diamond Reefs. Hosted by reef experts and Master Reef Guides, you'll also have the chance to visit the Research Station on Lizard Island and Turtle Rehabilitation Centre on Fitzroy island, and contribute to coral surveying and identification.

Don't want to wait? Many tour operators on the Great Barrier Reef are part of the Eye on the Reef program, so you can learn and help researchers to monitor reef health and marine life while exploring on your day trip. Jump onboard Passions of Paradise for a lifechanging educational experience: taking part in reef restoration with a coral nurturing program in partnership with the University of Sydney and Port Douglas’ Wavelength Reef Cruises.

Experience wild north Queensland

Sometimes when a journey seems so vast in scale it can become all too overwhelming to organise and you simply don’t go. In this new tour from Crooked Compass you can escape to Australia’s most remote and untouched northern wilderness areas, without having to forfeit any luxuries.

Over 9 days, you’ll be able to drop the technology ties that bind you and be truly present to experience the undiscovered side of Cape York and Torres Strait Islands. Beginning in Cairns and travelling to Port Douglas then north into the wild peninsula, you'll try your hand at spearfishing and mud crabbing in the mangroves with an Indigenous guide, dip in crystal clear waterfalls, experience life on a Cape York cattle station, then embark on a soul-stirring trip over to Horn Island and Thursday Island to connect with unique Indigenous culture, gain insight into fascinating WWII history, and go glamping on a deserted island. 

Departures are set for June and September 2023. 

Sea Country, science and sustainability on new Great Barrier Reef pontoon

There’s much to learn when it comes to the Indigenous side of the Great Barrier Reef story but a new reef pontoon is set to launch in 2022, marrying the Dreamtime with western science. The first pontoon for the Cairns region in over a decade, ‘Dreamtime Island’ is being delivered in partnership with the Traditional Owner group Gunggandji by Experience Co, who also run the Indigenous-led Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel.

When it’s unveiled, the two-storey structure at Moore Reef will feature a floor-to-ceiling underwater observatory and laboratory for onboard scientific learning – where marine scientists might sleepover to study annual coral spawning, perhaps – with a maximum of 350 passengers on the pontoon at any one time. Striving to balance the environmental impact, wind, solar and, where possible, electricity generation will power the pontoon and smaller support vessels.

Looking for more conscious travel ideas in Queensland? Check out these slow stays and book a retreat at one of these incredible eco resorts.