Tangalooma, Queensland
Encyclopedia
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
station, Tangalooma is a resort
Resort
A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....
township on the west side of Moreton Island
Moreton Island
Moreton Island is a large sand island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay, on the coast of south-east Queensland, Australia. Moreton Island lies 58 kilometres northeast of the Queensland capital, Brisbane. The island is 95% National Park and a popular destination for four wheel driving, camping,...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It lies on the eastern shore of Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...
and is known for its resort accommodation, dolphin-feeding program, sand dunes
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...
and wreck diving
Wreck diving
Wreck diving is a type of recreational diving where shipwrecks are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificial reef sites...
. Swimming is popular along the white beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
es. It has a population of over 300 and receives more than 3500 visitors every week as it is only about 70 minutes from Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
by express catamaran
Catamaran
A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
. Moreton Island National Park
Moreton Island National Park
Moreton Island National Park is a national park which covers 98% of Moreton Island in Queensland, Australia, 58 km northeast of Brisbane. It has three main townships, Bulwer, Cowan Cowan and Kooringal....
is 98% of the island, though there are other small townships there, Bulwer
Bulwer, Queensland
Bulwer is a small township at the north-western end of Moreton Island, on the eastern side of Moreton Bay opposite, and 40 km from, the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Bulwer had a population of 70....
, Kooringal and Cowan Cowan. The adjacent waters are protected as the Moreton Bay Marine Park
Moreton Bay Marine Park
The Moreton Bay Marine Park was established in 1992 to protect ecologically significant habitats in Moreton Bay. The World Heritage listed park extends from Caloundra south to the Gold Coast Seaway. The park's border extends up to the highest tidal mark and covers a total of 3400 km2.The park...
.
Whaling station
Tangalooma whalingWhaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
station operated from 1952 until 1962, during which period it harvested and processed 6277 Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
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.
Marine Education and Conservation Centre
The TMECC promotes environmental awareness. It employs full-time marine biologistsMarine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
and other scientists to conduct education programs and nature-based tours to enhance visitors' awareness of the surrounding ecosystems.
Wild dolphin resort
The resort is well-known for the hand-feeding of wild dolphins. Every evening at sunset a pod of up to nine, local bottlenose dolphinBottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
s swims to the beach in front of the resort where selected guests can feed them, an activity supervised by the TMECC.
Apart from the dolphin feeding program, there are many tours and other activities on offer, including whale watching
Whale watching
Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and other cetaceans in their natural habitat. Whales are watched most commonly for recreation but the activity can also serve scientific or educational purposes. A 2009 study, prepared for IFAW, estimated that 13 million people went 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.