Bribie Island
— — the bridge, then the long quiet beach.
Not only on a wall.
“A low sand island off south-east Queensland, joined to the mainland by a single bridge from Sandstone Point. The ocean side is open Pacific surf; the bay side is sheltered water, mangroves, and shallows where pelicans line up at the boat ramp. The northern half of the island is national park, reachable only by four-wheel-drive along the beach. Mid-week in winter the long strand is almost empty, and the sand under the casuarinas holds yesterday's footprints into the next morning. from the studio
Bribie Island, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Bribie Island lies at the northern end of Moreton Bay in south-east Queensland, about seventy kilometres north of Brisbane. It is one of three large sand islands that close the bay, the others being Moreton and North Stradbroke. The Bribie Island Bridge, opened in 1963, connects the southern end of the island to Sandstone Point on the mainland and is the only road access. The southern third of the island is settled — Bongaree, Woorim, Bellara, Banksia Beach — and home to roughly nineteen thousand residents. The northern two-thirds is gazetted as Bribie Island National Park.
The island has two coastlines and they do not behave alike. The eastern side at Woorim faces the open Coral Sea with a patrolled surf beach and a steady south-easterly swell. The western side fronts Pumicestone Passage, a narrow saltwater channel between Bribie and the mainland that runs roughly thirty-five kilometres long and rarely more than two metres deep. The passage is sheltered, slow, and worked by dolphins, dugongs, and migratory shorebirds. Pelicans gather daily at the Bongaree jetty. Whale-watching boats run out of nearby Caloundra from June through October.
The drive from Brisbane is roughly an hour up the Bruce Highway and across the Bribie Island Bridge. The settled south end has cafés, a small museum, the Bribie Island Seaside Museum at Bongaree, and bay-side picnic grounds. Reaching the northern national park requires a four-wheel-drive vehicle, a beach-driving permit from Queensland Parks, and attention to tides — the access is along the surf beach itself and is closed at high water. Camping is permitted at designated sites by booking. Winter (June through August) is dry, mild, and the most comfortable time to walk the beach.