NEAR AND FAR

Every big city in Australia has its wild places, where the bush or the sea kisses the outer suburban fringe and where the locals escape to for relief, rest and recreation. It’s often a well-kept secret to the wider world and, for obvious reasons, that’s the way the locals like it.

North Stradbroke Island, or “Straddie”, is only a 45-minute ferry ride across Moreton Bay from the south-side Brisbane suburb of Cleveland. From the western shore of the island you can see the Brisbane city skyline and the jets flying in and out of town; across the water from the Jumpinpin Channel at the southern end of Blue Lake Beach, the glass castles of the Gold Coast glitter in the sun.

Yet even with Queensland’s two biggest cities in plain view, you still feel as though you’re a long, long way from anywhere on Straddie, the second-largest sand island in the world, after Fraser Island, further to the north.

Somehow, Straddie has escaped significant development, with the only industry of