Dunwich
Whether you get the passenger ferry or vehicular barge across, your first experience of Straddie will be Dunwich. This area is steeped in Indigenous and European history yet offers all the amenities you would expect from a modern-day holiday town.
Eateries and shops are within walking distance from the ferry terminal. A sunset picnic under the massive camphor-laurel trees which line the foreshore, swimming in the salt-water enclosure or fishing off the jetty are favourite pastimes among locals and visitors.
The NSI Historical Museum on Welsby Street is open every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (10am to 2pm) and by appointment (Ph
3409 9699). Photographs, items from the shipwrecks and information about early settlement are on display, along with the history of the sand mining industry. Admission is $3.30 (adults), $2.20 (concession) and $1.10 (children).
Originally home to a large Aboriginal population, the Gorenpul people lived around Dunwich while the Noonucal lived mostly at Amity Point. During European settlement, Dunwich was used as a convict outstation, Catholic mission, quarantine station and benevolent institution.
The Dunwich Cemetery at Yabby Street provides an insight into the island's heritage. It is estimated around 10,000 people were buried there including victims of a typhus plague that infected the immigrant ship The Emigrant in 1850. Aound 8,000 inmates of the benevolent institution also lie there.
Check out our More2Explore portals for additional
Things to Do and
Where to Eat. And if you can't tear yourself away from the Redlands, be sure to check out
Where to Stay.