Originally a

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

station, Tangalooma Island Resort (formerly known as Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort) is a

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...

on the west side of Moreton Island in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It lies on the eastern shore of Moreton Bay and is known for its resort accommodation, dolphin-feeding program, sand dunes and wreck diving.

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

is popular along the white

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

es. It has a population of over 300 and receives more than 3,500 visitors every week as it is about 70 minutes from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

by express

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

. Moreton Island National Park covers 98% of the island, though there are three small townships including Bulwer, Kooringal and Cowan Cowan. The adjacent waters are protected as the Moreton Bay Marine Park.RACQ. (1980). ''Seeing South-East Queensland'' (2nd ed.). RACQ Tangalooma is the aboriginal word meaning "where the fish gather".

History

During WWII a naval base and jetty were built at Tangalooma.

Whaling station

Tangalooma

station operated from 1952 until 1962, during which period it harvested and processed 6,277

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

s. Whaling took place when the humpback whales migrated along the coast in winter, in an eight- to ten-week season during which the processing factory ran 24 hours a day. The operation was at first very successful, employing a crew of about 140 people, but, in its final years, a collapse in catch levels made it uneconomic to continue. When the station began whaling, the population of eastern Australian humpbacks was estimated at 10,000; when it ended, the number of whales had been reduced to an estimated 500. In 1963 the hunting of humpbacks was banned in Australian waters; since then the population has been recovering. Following the closure of the station, it was sold for resort development.

Tangalooma Eco Centre

Formally known as the Tangalooma Marine Education and Conservation Centre, the Eco Centre promotes environmental awareness. Eco Rangers conduct education programs and nature-based tours to enhance visitors' awareness of the surrounding ecosystems. The Eco Centre is based opposite the beach near the Tangalooma Jetty, where they operate the night wild dolphin feeding program for official guests of the resort.

Tangalooma Island Resort

The resort (formerly known as Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort) is well known for the hand-feeding of wild dolphins. Every evening at sunset a pod of up to 11, local

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

s swim to the beach in front of the resort where selected guests can feed them, an activity supervised by the Tangalooma Marine Education and Conservation Centre (TMECC). Apart from the dolphin feeding program, there are many tours and other activities on offer, including whale watching cruises. Accommodation consists of about 300 rooms, as a variety of hotel units, villas and apartments. Sites for private housing are available on the sand hills behind the resort. As at April 2018, although the resort has rights to use the beach in front of the resort, it can not prevent the public from also using the beach.

Tangalooma ship wrecks

Located to the north of Tangalooma Island Resort is a total of 15 vessels that were deliberately scuttled between the 1960s through to the 1980s. These wrecks have now become a

man-made Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotati ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

providing a haven for local marine life including

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

s, wobbegongs and over 200 species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

. The Tangalooma Wrecks are popular with boats as they provide a calm place to anchor and are known as a great snorkeling location. HMAS ''Bermagui'' and HMAS ''Uki'' were two of the ships scuttled off Tangalooma.

In popular culture

The series "Holiday Island" that aired initially in the early Eighties from channel Ten Melbourne, had many scenes filmed here on Moreton Island Queensland. The film '' Scooby Doo'' (2002) starring Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Freddie Prinze Jr. & Sarah Michelle Gellar was filmed here with Tangalooma referred to as 'Spooky Island' in the film. The film '' Ticket to Paradise'' (2022) starring George Clooney & Julia Roberts also filmed multiple scenes at Tangalooma Island Resort.

References

External links

Tangalooma Island Resort (Moreton Island) home page

Tangalooma Marine Education Centre

Tangalooma Whaling Station Film and Slides ca. 1952

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

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