Any mers in the Brisbane or Melbourne areas keen for a meet up?

[Mer-Crazy]

Okay Mers time to get our butts in gear and get this stuff sorted.

I've looked at the website and the best option for ferries it the "Stradbroke Flyer" ferry, which is passenger only but gets there the fastest (25min compared to 55 on the other 2)

And the cheapest to travel on ($19 Adult return or $15 Student Return) It also travels fairly frequently, once every hour roughly, here are the times:

From the mainland (Toondah Harbour, Corner of Middle Street and Emmett Drive, Cleveland):
# 4:55 am
# 5:55 am
6:55 am
7:55 am
8:55 am
9:55 am
10:55 am
12:55 pm
1:55 pm
3:25 pm
4:25 pm
5:25 pm
6:25 pm
# 7:25 pm

From the Island (Dunwich is a township on the western side of North Stradbroke Island):
# 5:25 am
6:25 am
7:25 am
8:25 am
9:25 am
10:25 am
11:25 am
1:25 pm
2:25 pm
3:55 pm
4:55 pm
5:55 pm
6:55 pm
# 7:55 pm

# - no connecting bus

When do we wanna get there roughly and where did we wanna go?

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

Hmm, I was thinking of the 9:55 ferry? Not too early, but before it gets too hot (I assume it gets quite warm during the day, I've never been to QLD at this time of the year, so correct me if I'm wrong). How far away are the beaches do you know? I read that there is a bus, but it is $10 each and I'm not sure where it goes.

[Mer-Crazy]

On North Stradbroke Island a bus will meet each water taxi arrival at One Mile Jetty, Dunwich. The bus route includes Point Lookout and Amity Point.

Within 20 metres of the One Mile Jetty, Dunwich are:
. Little Ships Club bar and bristro
. Stradbroke Island Historical Cemetery
. Bradbury’s Beach (tidal)



Within 1 kilometre of the One Mile Jetty, Dunwich are:
. North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum
. University of Queensland Moreton Bay Research Centre
. Island Fruit Barn cafe

Blue Lake National Park is by road 9 kilometres west of Dunwich. If I had a car I'd offer to bring it over to drive people but I don't

[Mer-Crazy]

Amity Point looks like it has a little jetty/ pier thing


Point lookout looks really nice, but it's on the other side of the island so is probably out of the question.

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

We may have a car; we've hired one, but the t&cs say that we need permission to take it over water. I'll ask when we pick it up, but that means we are limited to a car-ferry...

[Mer-Crazy]

From the looks of it they travel as frequently as the people ferries anyway so it'd be easy enough to meet you over there. Are you coming with a friend Kate?

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

My partner/mertender will be coming too! He's happy to take pictures and help out

[Mermaid Jaffa]

How was the swim meet? Are there pics n videos?

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

It's not till this coming Monday Jaffa We will take pics though!

[-Annwyn-]

Have fun, everyone who's going.

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

Kelda, Leina and Jamie, can you still make it?

[Mermaid Kelda]

Yup, I'm still coming! I've just been bogged down with uni and other stuff so I didn't have anything useful to contribute xD

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

No worries at all, I just wanted to check in! So glad you can still make it Does this time work for you? Good luck with all of your uni stuff!

[Mer-Crazy]

I'm gonna be traveling over with Kelda so I think the time is fine. My camera gear didn't arrive on Friday like I was hoping so I'm gonna try and wait for it to arrive Monday before I come up but I'll make sure to leave with plenty of time. I will let you guys know what's going on

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

I have my DSLR too, so I can bring mine if you can't get yours in time
We just arrived in Brisbane! Unfortunately the hire car company won't let us take the car on the ferry though, so that's out of the question

[Mermaid Kelda]

I've had another look at the ferries and buses (I might be repeating some stuff from previous pages), and it looks like it'd be cheapest to walk-on to the vehicle ferry, which is $10 return per person (both adults and students). We don't have to book a place on the ferry, we just show up and buy a ticket. The ferries leave from Cleveland on the hour from 7am onwards, and from Dunwich back to the mainland until 6pm.




The buses that meet the ferries cost $4.40 (adult) or $2.20 (student) for a return ticket in zone 1, or $9.40 (adult) or $4.60 (student) return in Zone 2. There's no explanation that I can find on what exactly "Zone 1" and "Zone 2" are, but it might be for the buses that stop at both Amity Point and Pt Lookout. The return tickets are valid for the day of purchase, so there's no rush to get back on the bus.



The website quotes a 20 minute bus trip from the ferry to either Amity Point or Pt Lookout. The bus straight to Pt Lookout is a bit more frequent than the bus straight to Amity. It looks like there's a few different possible routes, and we might be able to go to both Amity and Lookout if we feel like it, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of time to catch the right buses.



Personally, I'd be keen to go to Pt Lookout, since it looks the prettiest of all the photos and seems to be the same amount of time by bus. Apparently there's a N-NW wind blowing on Monday which might hit the headland and push down into Pt Lookout, but I don't think it'll be enough to make it not swimmable. Perhaps that's something we can ask someone on the day and decide then which bus to catch?

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

I think the reason why the vehicle ferry is cheaper to walk on is because it takes a lot longer (50 min rather than 20 min if I am remembering correctly).
I'm fine with going to pt Lookout, but we can always discuss it during the ferry ride.
On another note, I'm really hoping my monofin works. I didn't get to test the final iteration before I left (there were some disasters with the earlier versions that meant I needed to rethink the whole thing last minute), so I'm hoping it will be okay! I'll hopefully get to test it in the hotel pool depending on how late we get to Brisbane today. Fingers crossed!

[Mermaid Kelda]

Ah, I see. Well we can go on the water taxi if you'd prefer, it's $20 adult or $15 student. I don't mind paying a little extra to get there a little quicker.
Crossing my fins for your monofin!

[Mer-Crazy]

I'm fine with whatever you guys want Good luck with your fin Kate!

[Mermaid Kate Silverfin]

I think I'd prefer a bit more swim time, so I'm fine with paying a bit extra too so we get there quicker. What time do you think we should go for? I'm still fine for 9:55am, is that okay for you guys since you have to drive a lot further?