Want to speak to one of our friendly staff? 1300 652 250
Tangalooma Island Resort is private property and operates as a private resort. To visit the resort, all guests must be an Official Resort Guest (Cannot be a Casual Visitor). As part of our commitment to providing exceptional experiences for our official guests, we have updated our public access policy to require all visitors to be registered on our security manifest as an official guest before arrival.
A casual visitor is defined as anyone without an official prearranged booking to be on the private resort property. This typically includes:
Campers or 4WD visitors on Moreton Island.
Guests staying in accommodation outside the resort boundary.
Individuals arriving via personal watercraft (such as private boat or jetskis) or aircraft.
Residents of another township on Moreton Island.
Visitors on a tour operated by a company not affiliated with Tangalooma Island Resort.
Anyone not staying at Tangalooma Island Resort-managed accommodation or arriving via a Tangalooma-managed return day cruise.
Only the following guests do not require a Casual Visitor Pass to access the resort:
Overnight Guests – Staying in Tangalooma Island Resort accommodation (including timeshare).
Visitors on an Official Tangalooma Day Cruise – Arriving via an official Tangalooma Day Cruise (or an Adventure Moreton Island Cruise, or Tangalooma Aero Helicoipter day trip).
Private Owners – Property owners at Tangalooma.
Cruise Ship Guests – Visiting for the day as part of a cruise (e.g. Carnival Cruise Line).
No, only Official Resort Guests can access and purchase food or beverages from any Tangalooma Island Resort outlet on that day. Non-resort visitors to Moreton Island are advised that there are other Food & Beverage outlets on Moreton Island that cater for casual day visitors such as:
Castaways Café - located in the township of Bulwer offers casual dining only 100 metres from the beach.
The Gutter Bar - located on the Southern end of Moreton Island, and offers meals and bar facilities.
Both of these properties currently welcome casual day visitors, have road access, and terrific beach access. Both properties have similar facilities to those on the resort and offer a great destination for casual day visitors to experience the best of Moreton Island.
If you are travelling on the MiCat car barge, this vessel also sells a limited range of refreshments/ice and supplies onboard during the transfers to and from Moreton Island.
No, only official guests of the resortcan access and purchase from any Tangalooma Island Resort outlet on that day, including The Resort Shop.
Visitors to Moreton Island without a pass are directed to purchase any such supplies from Castaways Store located in the township of Bulwer. The Castaways store is open 5-6 days a week depending on the time of year. Please note trading hours vary during peak and selected periods. You can buy all your holiday essentials including fuel, firewood, ice, bait, gas, alcohol, a selection of grocery items and basic recovery gear. At Kooringal, The Gutter Bar acts as a convenience store selling milk, bread ice and a selected range of general groceries.
Additionally the MiCat car barge sells a limited range of refreshments/ice and supplies onboard during the transfers to and from Moreton Island.
No, only official guests or the resort can book tours on arrival from either the Tours Desk, Tangalooma Aero or Tangatours.
We are very aware that many residents from the South East QLD region visit the resort casually and enjoy the local environment and surrounds. However as a privately owned commercial business we must have the ability to manage our own guest expectations and deliver to these guests' great holiday experiences. With the explosion of uncontrolled numbers of casual day visitors wishing to visiting the resort in recent years this has become unfeasible to manage for a our resort with limited staffing and infrastructure capabilities. We must be able to plan, roster and manage the expected number of guest arrivals that we are fortunate to have each day.
With this in mind we have discontinued our previously available 'Casual Visitor Day Pass' so we can operate effectively and deliver on our customer service promise to our official guests.
Tangalooma Island Resort has restricting the access to casual visitors for two key reasons:
Managing guest numbers to deliver an appropriate level of guest services
Over the past few years it has become more difficult to manage and cater professionally for our official resort guests due to high volumes of casual visitors that arrive by way of 4WD vehicles and camp in the adjacent National Parks area or arrive by private watercraft. There is no way for the resort operations team to know what numbers of casual day visitors will arrive on any given day - therefore it is not currently possible to be able to efficiently have adequate staff rostered for work, adequate supplies for guests to be stocked, and our range of tours and activities to be efficiently operated due to vastly ‘moving' numbers of overall visitors to the resort.
We can control the numbers of our official guests visiting the resort by way of occupancy in overnight accommodation properties and the availability of seat capacity on any of our scheduled day cruise vessels, and manifests of visiting cruise ships. We can manage guest numbers both up and down depending on our operational commitments, staffing capabilities, and as to what guest activities we are operating on any given day.
Limited infrastructure and facilities
Tangalooma Island Resort is a privately-owned company and is located on private property. The resort's infrastructure is limited in capacity and has been designed with the purpose of catering for the needs of our official guests.
Over the course of the past decade, Tangalooma Island Resort has invested substantially into the resort facilities to cater for our range of tourism markets and continues to enjoy solid growth in guest visitor numbers. The resort has been developed with the intention to be able to cater for our mix of guests from both the domestic and international markets, and for those guests choosing to stay for overnight holidays or visiting the resort on one of the many official day cruises that are offered. Without a limit on additional visitor numbers our official guests face:
Limited seating availability throughout the food and beverage areas,
Extended wait times on food, beverage and retail services at the resort,
Limited availability of beachfront table areas for picnics,
Limited lounge seating options around our resort swimming pool areas.
No, asual visitors are unable to participate in our evening dolphin feeding program. Entry is prohibited within the marked 'Special activity area' unless participating in the authorised dolphin feeding activity being conducted by Tangalooma Island Resort. This is a carefully restricted activity that the resort operates under strict permit conditions from the Queensland State Govenment. Trespassers will be prosecuted and fined under Queensland Government laws.