Moreton Island shipwreck snorkelling: Tangalooma wrecks tours
Moreton Island shipwreck snorkelling tours are available on a Sunset Safaris day trip from Brisbane. These full day tours also include 4WDing and sandboarding on the Moreton Island dunes.
Along the beach from the Tangalooma Island Resort on Moreton Island in Queensland is what looks like the result of a drunken captain’s convention. Shipwreck after shipwreck rusts away, the sea slowly lapping them to death. It’s an entrancing sight on a Moreton Island shipwreck snorkelling tour, but surely shows a dangerous shoreline?
It turns out that this scene is not the result of spectacularly atrocious helmsmanship. The 15 Moreton Island shipwrecks were dynamited and sunk deliberately between 1963 and 1984. They are mostly old government barges, once used to ship mined sand to the mainland. The aim was to create a protected bay, allowing other, better-fated vessels to arrive safely.
Moreton Island snorkelling tours
This was great news for Brisbane’s boating enthusiasts, but nature also took a shine to the wrecks.
When you’re snorkelling around these forlorn ruins, you don’t tend to pay much attention to the ships themselves. An artificial reef has grown up around them, with the faster-growing staghorn coral in pioneering abundance.
Which Moreton Island tour should I pick?
There are several Moreton Island tour options, most including the ferry transfer. Pick your tour based on the activities you want to do.
- For guided kayaking, snorkelling and sandboarding, book here.
- For whale-watching on the way, plus a resort day pass, pick this winter months option.
- To go on a marine discovery cruise and snorkel through the Tangalooma shipwrecks, try here.
- For dolphin-feeding, use of resort facilities and a choice of other tours, go on the Tangalooma tour.
The coral, in turn, has attracted a wealth of fish. The variety might not be up to Great Barrier Reef standards, but the volume is the key here. Almost from the moment of galumphing off the side of the boat, processions of black and white-striped sergeant majors and yellow-tipped butter bream flit past the snorkel mask. There are thousands of them.
Further along, the colours are ramped up as shoals of parrotfish nip away at the algae on the rock with their beak-like mouths. Black and yellow Moorish idols, with their scythe-like thin, trailing fins, congregate a little deeper. And while the turtles might not be putting in an appearance until later in the day, a stingray isn’t prepared to hang around while the snorkellers float overhead. It makes a break from its semi-camouflaged position in the sand, and scoots off towards the beach.
Shipwreck snorkelling tours of Moreton Island from Brisbane
Moreton Island shipwreck snorkelling tours are easily bookable for those staying at the Tangalooma Island Resort. 90 minute snorkelling tours cost $69 per person. But is it possible to do a Moreton Island shipwreck snorkelling tour on a day trip from Brisbane? Thankfully, yes. A full day Moreton Island cruise including snorkelling on the Tangalooma wrecks costs from $199. Book online to secure a place.
This is a good option for a Brisbane gift experience.
It’s also possible to hand-feed dolphins or go camping on Moreton Island if you fancy more than a day trip. Take the Tangalooma Ferry to get across.
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Snorkel at the Omeo Wreck in Perth.