Last updated: December 29, 2014


Australian Holidays

Queensland's best-kept family secret

heron island

Heron Island, the Great Barrier Reef's best kept secret. Source: Supplied

Heron Island

A Heron Island ranger, showing some children the waterlife. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

AN INQUISITIVE squid peers into my goggles as a stingray whips by, chased by a carpet shark.

I'm snorkelling off a tiny coral cay, considered the best-kept secret of the Great Barrier Reef.

Wilson Island is just 15km from Heron Island, which is two hours by ferry from the central Queensland city of Gladstone.

The name is reminiscent of the volleyball in the Tom Hanks film Cast Away, but this Wilson is the last word in luxury. It's a Sheraton-on-the-sand with six deluxe "tents" enclosing king beds, fluffy robes and designer toiletries.

The bathing and dining pavilions are communal areas, but hubby and I soon discover that we are the only ones on the island.

Feeling like the winners of Survivor, we head to the Longhouse to find a chef preparing fennel and blood orange salad followed by turmeric-crusted coral trout, instead of the deep-fried ants and boiled scorpion from the TV series.

Usually lunch is a smorgasbord, but this is no all-you-can-eat buffet. The food is 5-star, accompanied by chardonnay from Orange, shiraz from the Barossa, pinot noir from Tasmania, and a selection of beers and spirits.

But the true beauty of this place lies in its unique and fragile environment. Endangered green and loggerhead turtles totter up the sand to lay eggs before their hatchlings madly scramble into the sea.

Up to 40,000 terns, egrets and shearwaters flock to the 2ha island, which closes for the month of February so they can nest in peace.

The underwater world is even more spectacular: a thousand-strong school of damselfish showing no sign of distress; parrotfish in their fluorescent finery; a graceful whip ray trailing its 2m-long tail. The watercolours of the Great Barrier Reef turquoise, emerald and sapphire are at their finest at sunset.

Our Spanish-trained chef serves tapas on the beach before a candle-lit dinner back at the Longhouse.

Despite being in the middle of winter, we have a warm and cosy night's sleep, waking to the crashing of the ocean waves. At sunrise we circumnavigate the island, with the sugary sand crunching under our feet.

This is one place you definitely want to be shipwrecked.

Oh, I forgot to mention no children are allowed. Bliss.

Suddenly, we remember that our kids are on Heron Island with their grandmother, so we hop on a speedboat for the 40-minute ride to the resort.

Like Wilson, Heron is one of the few islands in the Great Barrier Reef where you can snorkel straight off the sand. All tour guides have marine science degrees. (Real ones, not like George "I'm a marine biologist" Costanza from Seinfeld.)

Our guide for the reef walk also has a sense of humour - "Being Australia, pretty much everything here will kill you, so don't touch anything," Laura tells the mainly European tourists.

The kids are given telescopic devices, which break the surface tension of the water for a better view of the sea creatures.

We learn that sea cucumbers regenerate by putting their heads up their bums (not unlike some people I know); that starfish are now called sea stars because they're not really fish; and that epaulette sharks don't kill you (which is fortunate, considering one brushed my ankle).

There's also a semi-sub, for those who want to see the reef without getting wet, and night diving for the more adventurous.

We teach the kids to snorkel at Shark Bay, which is not as dangerous as it sounds. What is dangerous is the walk from the resort to the bay through the pisonia trees, prime breeding grounds for the endangered and apparently incontinent bird species.

Frankly, it stinks. You're likely to cop one in the eye at some stage. Best to walk around the beach, rather than through the piss forest, as the kids began to call it.

Apart from the wildlife, Heron has a day spa, tennis and basketball courts, pool tables and a beautiful bar from which to watch the sun set over the water. The resort is quite dated, but is due to be refurbished this year.

Our trip back to the mainland becomes an impromptu whale-watching cruise. One of the pod disappears under the boat before breaching barely metres away.

This southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef is an underwater wonderland, just waiting to be explored.

The writer was a guest of Delaware North Australia Parks & Resorts. Top Tips: Queensland Destination Guide Take the kids: More family holiday escapes