📍Curtis Ferry Services To North West Island: An Honest Camping Transfer Review To The Spectacular Southern Great Barrier Reef Coral Cay.

LOOKING FOR AN IN-DEPTH REVIEW OF CURTIS FERRY SERVICES NORTH WEST ISLAND TRANSFER?
Gladstone is one of the southern gateways to the magnificent Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest and most spectacular marine ecosystem. One of its largest coral cays is the breathtaking North West Island, which lies 65km off the industrial city’s coastline and a 1.05 km2 paradise featuring a gorgeous tidal lagoon and expansive fringing reef. This remote, unspoilt, off-the-radar wilderness is so spectacularly abundant with animals, above and below the water that it’s like being in a real-life National Geographic documentary.
And that’s what made camping there so incredibly inviting. I went there with the Curtis Ferry Services, where I spent 10 unforgettable days on that island and encountered an unbelievable number of animals including sea turtles, rays, sharks, shearwaters, black noddies, black noddies and sea eagles being some of the most unforgettable highlights, and these are all my honest thoughts about travelling to this incredible destination with them.
Note: They also have a camping transfer to Mast Head Island, another pristine Great Barrier Reef coral cay, but neither visiting nor camping are allowed between October and Easter every year, so I wasn’t able to do that trip.
Curtis Ferry Services Transfer To The GBR: Review Overview.
In this honest and comprehensive review of Curtis Ferry Services’ North West Island transfer to the spectacular Great Barrier Reef coral cay, I cover all aspects of travelling with them, such as the boat, boarding and disembarking process, the scenery, sleeping arrangements, the crew, and whether travelling with them to go camping was value for money.
Please note that by happenchance I was the only one on the boat in both directions when they went out to pick up and drop off other parties at the island that had already organised their trip, so some aspects of my experience will differ from a typical voyage, as I believe they need a minimum threshold of travellers to make the 6-hour journey. However, I definitely recommend contacting them and being flexible coinciding your transfer similarly to align with the dates they are already going out so there’ll be fewer people travelling on the ferry and the island at the same time as you!
Important Camping Transfer Information:
- Journey: 6 hours one way.
- Departure & Arrival Times: Varies in alliance to North West Island’s high tides.
- Gear Allowance: 1.5 squared per passenger. – Must fit into 1 section of a steel crate.
- Additional Things Permitted To Be Taken Across (Extra Cost): Boats & kayaks.
- Secure Open Air Gated Parking: $/night.
- 250L Water Barrel: $. Suitable for drinking but not filtered (Extremely handy.)
- Ice: $ – 5kg or 15kg.
Boarding & Disembarking Process.
Notes:
- This ferry leaves from a different place to their regular Gladstone Harbour service easily found on Google Maps. The address and a map of its location are included in one of the confirmation emails they send after you’ve paid for your trip.
- As North West Island has a very shallow lagoon, the departure and arrival times for both travel directions are dependent on the coral cays’ high tide. This can mean boarding or disembarking at some crazy times. For example, my scheduled departure from Gladstone was 12.30 am, while the arrival back in Gladstone was 10.45 pm.
- Loading time is two and a half hours before departure, and the 65km trip takes about 6 hours.
- Pre-paid secure gated parking is also available for cars and trailers on-site.
✔️ Pros.
- A steel crate was already out in the open so I could park next to it, making it super easy and convenient to load my gear onto it.
- My kayak was taken aboard on a trailer, so I didn’t have to move it far either.
- It was comforting knowing that my vehicle was in a secure car park and not out on the streets.
- There’s a lovely community feel where passenger boarding and disembarkation asks you to help with loading and unloading other party’s gear to help speed up the process. It’s a bit awkward asking if you can take their stuff, but they and I were very grateful for the help, especially with things like my 30kg kayak.
- It’s cool watching how they load and unload the boats into the water.
❌ Cons.
- It took a minute to get someone to notice me and let them know I was there as there were only two people on the land and the captain on the boat. They were busy getting ready of course so I can’t fault them too much, but it was awkward walking around trying to grab someone’s attention to get the boarding process started.
- Parking in the on-site secured gated lot is a bit expensive. It is also not shaded, so it’s a good idea to use a car window shade to protect your interior. Shoutout to the worker to reminded me to use mine.
- It was a bit disconcerting watching them go past me twice and not pick me up. I know they have to drop the others off first, but I was hoping they would stop at me first and disembark the first passengers while getting me back onboard too.
Curtis Endeavor Vessel.
This is the original twin ship of the boat they use for taking people out across the Gladstone Harbour, with this one being earmarked as the Curtis Endeavour and that one being the Curtis Endeavour II. It has three decks, the cargo level, the cabin and the top deck.
For night trips, organise a bag with your evening essentials such as sleeping bags, PJs and a toothbrush and toothpaste.
✔️ Pros.
- There’s plenty of space for the numerous crates of people’s stuff to go onboard and be in the shade the entire journey.
- It also has the capacity to fit several small power boats or some larger ones.
- The top deck was awesome for panoramic viewing, plus had plenty of benches and shade cloth to enjoy the scenery seated down and protected from the sun.
- The cabin had lots of windows to let the cool night air in.
- A crew member informed me that there was a shower in the toilet cubicle on the cargo deck, and it had hot water, which was awesome after packing up and loading my gear onto the boat and helping the arriving passengers unload theirs on the island all day prior.
❌ Cons.
- The cabin was extremely noisy, and it didn’t help that the back doors to go upstairs or to the toilet were always open either. It’s not so noticeable during the day, but at night when you’re trying to sleep, the engines, vibrations and rattling going on weren’t the most pleasant thing to fall asleep to.
- Speaking of sleeping, this was my least favourite part of the trip. The cabin has a day-use set-up with the padded chairs having a solid armrest in between each seat. This makes laying down across a few impossible. Plus, they don’t have a high back, making a vertical, airplane-style nap uncomfortable too. However, there are a few seats next to and along the walls that you may be able to make use of. I picked the long metal bench that ran along the front of the room. It was hard and narrow, so there were some instances where I nearly fell off, but at least I could lay down without being on the floor and there was a bar above it helping me stay on.
- I definitely think they could use a better arrangement in the cabin to allow passengers to lie down and sleep, such as foldable armrests, which would make the journey much more comfortable. Also, what the heck is it like when they are at their maximum 40 passenger capacity? Yikes!
- The cabin also didn’t have air conditioning so it was a bit stuffy during the day in November and December.
- I’d imagine with the back doors open that it would be quite cold sleeping in the cabin at night, so rug up.
- Also, the windows in there were hard to close, and sometimes to open too.
- There are no drinks or snacks to buy which I think is a missed business opportunity, especially on the way back, because I, for one, was craving a cold drink after having nothing but warm water for 10 days.
Scenery.
My departure from and arrival back in Gladstone were both at night, but as I also did their regular harbour trips which were during the day, I will mention that scenery too as it would be similar a daytime trip going to North West Island.
✔️ Pros.
- Having Gladstone’s Marina Bridge lift up so that the Curtis Endeavour could pass through to the ocean was an awesome added experience that you don’t get travelling on their Curtis Ferry Services Harbour trips, as they leave from the marina which is downstream from the bridge.
- I also loved travelling alongside the gorgeous East Shore parklands and seeing the HMAS Gladstone II before leaving the mainland behind.
- It was so beautiful cruising along the Auckland Inlet, seeing all the glittering night lights and seeing how empty and peaceful the city had become.
- Even though Gladstone’s many huge manufacturing and processing industries are divisive, it is a key part of the city’s identity, so it was fascinating to see the some of industrial plants and ports from a different perspective and see the massive transportation ships in and around the harbour.
- It’s gorgeous looking towards the mainland where the mountains of the hinterland create a stunning backdrop to the city.
- Further out, there are lovely views of the islands that make up the outer side of the harbour, especially Curtis Island, which has undulating hills.
- Out on the ocean, the sunrise was epic!
- Coming into North West Island, the lagoon looked absolutely gorgeous with its azure blue colour glimmering under the full sunlight.
❌ Cons.
- The industrial ports and ships do dominate the scenery, so it’s going to be an eyesore for some, if not many people. But that’s one of the reasons you’re going to North West right? To get away from it all?
Crew.
✔️ Pros.
- The timeliness was excellent heading out. On both the outbound and inbound trips we departed early and arrived early.
- For the outbound journey, one of the crew members helped me get my kayak off the roof.
- The same crew member let me know there was a shower onboard on the return trip, which was great to use after spending all day packing and helping the arriving passengers unload.
- Another crew member let me have a Coke for free as they didn’t have any drinks for sale.
❌ Cons.
- For my journey back to the mainland, they arrived late on North West Island for their disembarkation/ my loading. (But thanks to everyone helping everyone else out, we left the island itself early as mentioned before.)
- There was a bit of a mixup to which steel crate to put my stuff.
Note: I just wanted to give a massive shoutout to the people who were on the island when I arrived for helping me out. A lovely woman was telling me which campsite was the best and coolest, and it absolutely was. Three other guys from a group arrived there on their own boat, and used the trolley on the island to move the water barrel I got with Curtis Ferris Services off the beach to my campsite, which I never would have been able to do by myself. I also had a great experience with camping at Lady Musgrave Island, as these places seem to attract some of the kindest I’ve ever come across.
Booking Process.
Organising the trip involves emailing them back and forth, especially because it is a more involved trip, not a regular run-of-the-mill one, that requires more communication, preparation and different time schedules depending on the tide.
✔️ Pros.
- Most of the email responses were quick and easy to understand.
- I was absolutely thrilled when I learnt that the existing dates they had available meant I was the only one on them. I was essentially on an outgoing trip to pick up a large group of people, while the return journey was one they were doing to drop another lot off. So if you can (I also got lucky because for half of the 10 days I was there, I was the only one camping, and there was barely anyone visiting from their own boat they took to get out there.)
- They were great about working around some of the issues I was having and letting me come into the office when to fill out the paperwork as I could figure out how to fill out the information on the form they emailed me.
❌ Cons.
- You may have to be pretty flexible with your dates as they typically need a minimum number of people to make the journey. The trip may also be longer or shorter than intended as it’ll depend on what existing trips you can get on.
Overall Experience.
Is The Curtis Ferry Services North West Island Camping Transfer Worth It?
Yes. Although it is expensive and isn’t a luxury vessel by any means like what you would get heading over to Lady Musgrave Island with the Lady Musgrave Experience (who I do not recommend travelling with) and sleeping on overnight trips in the cabin designed for day use wasn’t great, camping at North West Island and snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef was absolutely magnificent. And as this was the only commercial means to get there, I think it was well worth the price and discomfort.
Plus, it has some fantastic things going for it, like its authenticity for being a rugged local experience, not a tourist one, which aligns with the island’s wild, pristine and virtually unheard-of status that few people know about. You can also bring your boat across to explore more of the huge fringing reef than someone just visiting on foot can see and have a huge barrel of drinkable water organised to be taken over there for you, which was one of the best things, giving you a more rounded service rather than just picking you up and dropping you off.
Is It Good Value For Money?
Yes! Absolutely no doubt. Although the transfer is expensive at first glance, (I went to Vietnam and back for a little more than that the year before, extras included.), it is a 6-hour trip with a local company to a spectacular place that no many people know to visit.
Plus, if you think about it spread out the cost across the number of days you’ll be there along with the dirt cheap price it is to camp there, the trip becomes so much more reasonable. My 10-day stay, with kayak, water barrel in tow and secure parking space for my car, ended up being around $55/night, which is incredibly cheap.
And that’s not even taking into account the absolutely magnificent time I had there and the outstanding encounters that I had with both marine and land animals. I estimate that I saw around 400 turtles (it was turtle nesting season), 200 rays, at least 4 sharks, millions of fish amongst the best and healthiest coral I’ve ever seen in the water, plus hundreds of black noddies, along with some juveniles, numerous bridled terns and their babies of various ages, lots of very present and peculiar-acting shearwaters, and silvers terns on the island, I’ve never seen so many creatures at once, making me well and truly feel like I was living out the best National Geographic documentary.
To be somewhere so wild, pristine and abundant with wildlife every second of every day was tremendously indescribable, especially when there are fewer places like this, and to explore the island and encounter these creatures by myself most of the time only made it that much more special. So, yes, the Curtis Ferry Service camping transfer to North West Island was worth it.
Who Is The Camping Transfer Suitable For?
- Adventurous people who love going remote to get back in touch with nature.
Those who enjoy disconnecting from civilisation and spending time off their devices and the internet. - Snorkellers and divers who want to see the Great Barrier Reef as naturally and authentically as possible and the animals in it rather than with an orchestrated tour with people you don’t know.
- Animal lovers who want to witness the magical experience of watching female turtles hurling themselves up on the beach, digging their nests in the dunes only to lay their ping-pong-esque eggs inside them.
- Folks who love birds.
- Wildlife lovers who want to live in a National Geographic documentary.
- Intrepid people who prefer to go their own way and do their own thing.
- Folks who like to go off the beaten track, and enjoy rustic self-sufficient camping, and don’t mind that there are virtually no amenities of creature comforts, including a shower, because this is living.
- Boaties who are looking for any or all of the above.
Who Would The Transfer Not Be Suitable For?
- People who don’t like camping, going remote, being self-sufficient or who don’t have the equipment to do so.
- Folks who feel more going with a commercial group.
- Those who find the cost to be out of their price range.
- People who don’t have enough time or are able to wrangle the gear together during their trip.
- Those who don’t have the flexibility to adjust for the dates.
Conclusion: Honest Curtis Ferry Services To North West Island Review.
Curtis Ferry Services offers a solid local Gladstone service to discover North West Island, one of the Southern Great Barrier Reef’s most spectacular coral cays and fringing reef.