Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Point Lookout QLD

Point Lookout

Postcode: 4183

Point Lookout is a headland and small coastal village located on the eastern coast of North Stradbroke Island. To the north lies Cape Moreton and to the south the next major headland is Point Danger on the New South Wales/Queensland border. The other towns on the island are Dunwich and Amity Point.

The point was first sited by James Cook in 1770. Point Lookout is an excellent fishing spot, as is Jumpinpin Channel on the south of the island.

The area is mostly residential houses and tourist apartments built close to the beach and atop nearby ridges to take advantage of sweeping Pacific Ocean views. There are a few shops and a caravan park at Point Lookout. The only public bar and hotel located in Point Lookout was closed in early 2006 for re-development.

Accessible by vehicular ferry from Redland Bay and Cleveland, North Stradbroke Island is a large Moreton Bay sand island with soaring dunes and rainforest pockets.

Straddie, as it is known locally, is a popular weekend retreat where visitors revel in its ocean and bay beaches, its tranquil walks, its fishing spots and sublime views from Point Lookout. The views frequently include playful dolphins and, in spring, cavorting whales – humpbacks and their suckling calves gathering strength for their long, annual swim to their Antarctic feeding grounds.

The port of Dunwich, was purpose-built as a quarantine station and penal settlement in 1828 and protected Brisbane from a typhoid outbreak in 1850.