Back of House
From 1952 to 1962 Tangalooma used to be one of the largest shore-based whaling stations in the southern hemisphere. During the ten years of its operation, a total of 6,277 humpback whales were killed in these waters. In 1962 the whaling station was closed down. In 1963 Tangalooma was bought by a group of four Gold Coast businessmen to open up as a resort. In 1983 the resort was bought by the Osborne family who remain the owners of the resort today.
Tangalooma is like a mini city, it needs to be self sufficient and has to supply their own cars, roads, electricity, sewerage, garbage and water. The resort employs approximately 300 staff who have to live at the resort, and some of the old whaler’s accommodation is now staff quarters. The resort has six different types of accommodation and can sleep up to 2000 guests.
Tangalooma has four different-sized vessels to bring guests over to the island, the Jet, Reef Cat, Flyer and Express.
Sewage Treatment Plant
All of the waste water that Tangalooma produces is treated at our environmentally friendly Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). The STP is the latest design and does not use any chemicals at all, only natural bacteria and aeration to separate waste water from solid sewage.
A small amount of swimming pool strength chlorine is added in the final stage to kill any bacteria that are still alive, and make it safe for us to reuse the water for gardens watering.
We follow strict regulations to protect the Moreton Bay Marine Park and also Moreton Island’s freshwater table from contamination. Weekly water quality tests are carried out.
Moreton Island's Water
Moreton Island sits on a large freshwater table that spans 156 km2 and is over 60 m deep. The sand island acts as a natural filtration system, making the water below very clean and beautiful to drink.
We have pumps located around the resort. The bores go 12 m deep into the water table and water is pumped up at 250 litres per minute! Only caustic soda is added to neutralize the pH as the water is slightly acidic. The acidic water would eat away at the copper pipes (from the whaling station days) over time.
If we lose electricity, we have a backup supply of water stored in a large tank at the top of the hill behind the resort. This water can be gravity fed into the resort and will be enough to supply the resort for over 3 hours.
Electricity
The resort is self-sufficient for power, which is provided by eight diesel generators enclosed in a sound proof building to prevent noise pollution. These generators cost $250,000 each and need to be replaced every 2-4 years.
Two generators are consistently running, and these are enough to power a small town. During peak season up to six generators can be used at any one time. The others are for back-up. The generators use up to 2,800 litres of diesel per day.
The generators produce heat, so cold water is used to cool them down. During this process the cooling water heats up and this is harnessed to create most of the resort’s hot water. This makes the diesel generators very efficient as they are doing two jobs at once.
Rubbish
On the island, Tangalooma recycles items such as steel, cardboard, cooking oil, tyres etc. The resort collects all of its garbage waste as well as garbage from the three townships on Moreton Island (Bulwer, Cowan Cowan and Kooringal) under a contract from Brisbane City Council.
All the garbage is shipped back to Brisbane on our barge for further recycling and treatment. The barge also brings over all the supplies the resort needs from the mainland, three to four times per week.