Pirate Island

Eric Anglès

Feature image is of Mr John Daffy.

‘Australia’s newest destination, Pirate Island, pristine, never walked on by humans, until now.’

Australia’s Newest Island

In a previous edition, our resident mariner, John Daffy wrote about the constantly changing face of the South Passage Bar – that often challenging strait of water between North Stradbroke and Moreton islands.

In his Baylines column headed: “Fronting Up at the Bar”, he wrote: “The bar changes daily – a tidal change can make it different, a storm can change a channel, a severe blow can help move thousands of cubic metres of sand from one place to another – it’s a constantly changing marine kaleidoscope.” How true! Since writing that, a massive sandbar island has formed over the several months in the area of the middle channel – Australia’s newest island measuring several hundred metres long perhaps a hundred metres wide and standing a metre above the water at high tide.

What had been building and building below the surface, has now erupted into a new Queensland geographical feature.

John is standing on the island, located on the ocean side of the South Passage Bar. We thought we should name it Pirate Island – something to reflect its majestically mystical appearance.

While sand banks are a common feature of the inside of Moreton Bay, an offshore island sandbar is unique, very unique.

The colloquially named ‘Gilligan’s Island’ off the southern end of Bribie Island has come, gone and reappeared over the years, but local South Passage Bar experts are agreed that this is the first time in living memory that we’ve had a new offshore island between Moreton and South Stradbroke islands.

This new island has become a key navigational feature for those boaties picking their way out through the mid-section of the South Passage Bar …