Audio transcript

Let's go for a little bit of a trip around this great state of ours. Queensland, right now is your oyster. So where's good to go? Well, how about a visit to one of Queensland's 250 national parks. Park Ranger Tayce Cook would like to help you plan your next adventure. Tayce, great to have you on the program. Where are you taking us this afternoon?

Thank you very much for having me. We are going to a locally-known beautiful tropical destination. It's called Russell Island and it's part of the Frankland Island Group of islands, just south of Cairns.

So Frankland Islands, not Falkland Islands, and Russell Island up north, not Russell Island off the coast of Brisbane. We're talking about 10 kilometres offshore of Cairns, right?

No, it's a little bit further south. It's 10 kilometres offshore from the Russell and the Mulgrave rivers. It's a bit more remote than just straight offshore from Cairns.

OK, so tell me about Russell Island. Set the scene, Tayce. What does it look like?

Well, I guess if you can imagine that you're camping on a beautiful tropical island, you open up your tent and you look outside and you're looking at a beautiful white beach. And beautiful clear turquoise waters. Then you'd be pretty much spot-on for the kind of experience you would be looking at getting while camping on Russell Island.

Sounds like heaven. The top three unique features or special features of Russell Island. What would they be?

There are quite a lot of options, there’s so much to do in the area. But I guess if you have your own boat, it's an excellent point to get further out to the reef, for fishing, diving, snorkelling, really great access to those areas. If you go for a walk around the island, it's absolutely spectacular. You can see some rainforest, some beautiful beaches and at low tide you can actually walk over to a second island that's connected by a little narrow sandspit. And that's beautiful for exploring. And then there's this little secret spot that a few of the locals know about. There's like a beautiful lagoon, and when it's filled with water, it's full of sea cucumbers and sea stars, and if you're lucky, little baby reef shark, so it's absolutely spectacular.

Oh wow. Amazing, it sounds like a great place for a family holiday. Does anyone live on Russell Island?

The beauty of Russell Island, and all of the islands in that group, is that nobody lives on any of them. So, when you are camping there, the numbers are kept quite low, so you could end up being there by yourself or with a small group. But no one lives there, so it's absolutely super-remote and a really unique experience.

You're on Russell Island right now. If you’ve just joined in, you're on Russell Island, part of the Frankland Group National Park. You're with Tayce Cook, who's a Park Ranger. And this is part of our effort to help you get to know a little bit more about the great state of Queensland. Queensland's your oyster at the moment. So why not get out and enjoy it where you can? Let's talk about access, Tayce. How do you go about getting to Russell island as you have mentioned if you have your own boat a couple of times so I'm thinking it's a little hard to get to?

So I guess the thing that makes it really beautiful is that it is a bit more remote and a little bit harder to get to. But I assure you that all the effort is totally worth it. So there are two options. If you do have your own boat, you have to be completely self-sufficient, but you can access from Deeral boat ramp. You cruise down the river and out the front and you head out a bit further and you'll find yourselves at those beautiful islands. Or the other option is you can go with Frankland Island Reef Cruises and they actually visit one of the other islands for day trips, but they will happily drop you off to Russell Island, making sure you've got all your camping gear and all the things you need to for your stay there.

Let's talk about what kind of gear you might need to bring. Pretty basic amenities, are there loos there? A place to tie your boat up? What sort of stuff is there to help with the camping?

The beauty of Russell is there is a really simple basic toilet, and there are some moorings located nearby to there. But there are some nice sandy areas you can put an anchor down for your own boat if you need to, but that's it. We've kept it as remote as possible to create that really beautiful wild experience on the islands.

And what's the maximum number of people allowed on the island?

For Russell Island, in terms of the camping, its maximum 16 people and there are four campsites there, so we do recommend getting in and booking as soon as possible. It is actually free on Russell Island, which is a bit of a unique feature. It's really, really nice, you know, but you do have to book ahead and, like I said, the locals know all about it, so make sure you plan well in advance, if you want to book and camp there.

And you book via the national parks website? I suppose you just look for Russell Island or Frankland Island Group. How do you find the booking site?

Yeah, that's correct. If you put that in your Google search, it will come up straight away. It should be one of your top searches. It will take you straight to the booking site, and it's great because there's heaps of information on the website that will tell you all of the things that you need to bring, all of the factors you need to consider for this remote location.

Leave your pets at home, obviously. And Tayce, before I let you go, as Ranger, have you got a Ranger’s pick? Your favourite thing to do on Russell Island?

Look, I think it goes without saying when you're on the Great Barrier Reef that it's well worth packing a mask and snorkel and some fins. Definitely don't forget your stinger suit. Because it's what's not just on the islands; it's what's around them as well. There is a spectacular coral ledge on the south western side. Beautiful big plate corals, heaps of reef fish, and if you're really lucky you might actually get to see some manta rays, some dolphins and turtles. And in the right season you might hear or see some humpback whales heading past the island while you're in the water.

Oh, amazing, start my engine and get going. Tayce, thank you so much.

No worries. Thanks for having me.

What do you reckon? Worth the trip? That's Tayce Cook. She's a Park Ranger out at Russell Island, which is part of the Frankland Group National Park.