Qualla: Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Long before there was a name on any chart, there was Gabul - a giant carpet python who, in the Dreaming of the Wulgurukaba people, travelled from the Herbert River down this coast, his body carving channels and scattering the islands as he went, until he came to rest here and laid his head at Bremner Point. Yunbenun is what his people call the island, and the Wulgurukaba are the canoe people who have crossed the strait to it for thousands of years. The English name arrived much later and by mistake. In 1770, James Cook sailed past and decided his compass was misbehaving, blaming some magnetism in the granite hills; he marked the place Magnetical Island, and the name stuck even though no one has ever found the magnetism. Today most people just call it Maggie - a sun-bleached, boulder-strewn island where the bush runs down to the sea and the locals, koalas included, are in no particular hurry.

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Magnetic Island: An Island of Granite and Pine

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Maggie is small and easy to love - roughly seven kilometres by five, with over half its area set aside as national park. The shape of it is unmistakable from the water: rounded grey granite tumbled into great stacks and tors, with dark hoop pines clinging to the slopes between th...

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Magnetic Island: The Koalas of Maggie

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The island's most famous residents are not, strictly speaking, locals by birth. Koalas were brought to Magnetic Island in the 1930s, moved here to give them a refuge from the pressures they faced on the mainland - and they took to the place completely. The island now supports one...

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Magnetic Island: Four Bays, One Pace

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

About two thousand people live on Maggie, spread among four small bayside villages strung up the sheltered east coast while the rugged west stays wild as park. From south to north they run Picnic Bay, Nelly Bay, Arcadia and Horseshoe Bay, each with its own character. Nelly Bay ho...

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Magnetic Island: Reef, Water and Crossing Over

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Maggie sits at the inshore edge of the Great Barrier Reef, and the water is the point as much as the land. Sailing tours work out of Nelly Bay Harbour and Horseshoe Bay; sea kayaks slip around the headlands into coves you cannot reach on foot; and dive and snorkel trips run out t...

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