A FAMILY OUTING TO WELLINGTON POINT & A WALK OUT TO KING ISLAND....

It has been so nice being down in Brissie with the kids...

The work is all completed so it was time for a bit of family time today.  We spent the morning shopping for reading glasses with Sarah this morning and then this afternoon spent the afternoon with them down at Wellington Point....

It was always our plan to spend the day with them today as the kids are both at school now and the only real time to see them and spend some time with them is on a weekend...

We had two choices of things to do...  a game of putt putt or a trip down to the beach... 

Seeing as the weather was really good we decided to head for the beach and take a walk out to King Island.  Even Penny the dog got to come with us...

 It was only a short walk about 2 kilometres each way, but very relaxing. It has been a long time since I have walked to an island and never across to King Island, although it has always been on my bucket list. People have been walking across to this  island for over a hundred years to have picnics.  There are photos in the State Library of Queensland showing some visitors to the island around 1890 – 1900.

King Island 1890-1900. State Library of Qld

Woman and children on King Island 1890-1900 State Library Qld

When the tide is out a stunning sand causeway emerges from beneath the Moreton Bay waters between the Wellington Point mainland and the tiny, uninhabited King Island at low-tide, forming a natural bridge for walkers.

Lots and lots of people were out walking across this afternoon, and there were lots of folk walking their dogs across also...

I was fascinated with the walking paths around the point as they had these little inlaid tiles of soldier crabs and then these other stingray plates inlaid into the path.  Looked pretty cool...

Heading down onto the beach

Wellington Point...

Steve showing the kids the yabbie that he had found in one of the puddles on the beach

Willow didn't want anything to do with it...

Penny was keen to dig up her own...

There were quite a few people out on the water,

King Island out in the distance...

There were also lots of people out on the water too, kite surfing, and paddleboarding... It is so good to see so many people enjoying the great outdoors.  We are so blessed in Australia to have such good weather most of the year...

We saw soldier crabs going into their holes and seabirds on the walk.  Max and I collected lots of cone shells and we even saw a squid in one of the small water holes along our walk.  It really was very relaxing walking along the beach and beside the mangroves even though on our way over we were walking into a rather strong wind....

A little bit of history about King Island  as it was named by surveyor Robert Dixon who also named Wellington Point. It was declared a Reserve in 1887. It is managed by a volunteer group and Redlands City Council and is protected under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. It is part of the Moreton Bay Marine Park. In World War 2, the Island was used as target practice.

As we neared the Island we could see informative signposts along the way describing the history of the island, and the plants and birds that live and visit there.  Caspian terns, red-capped plovers, Australian pied oystercatchers, striated herons and mangrove greygones are there all year round, and migratory birds visit in summer.  These migratory birds include the grey-tailed tattlers, whimbrels, ruddy turnstones, red-necked stints, bar-tailedgodwits, terek sandpipers and eastern curlews.

The island itself, now a conservation park, is a combination of sandy pathways alongside twisted trees and surrounded by mangroves. 

Although the island is only small, the kids in particular loved exploring it  as the retreating waters leave behind mudflats  littered with an array of different marine life such as curling shells and small mud crabs which they enjoyed discovering....

 Although uninhabited now, the island was once the home for a family for medicinal reasons in the early 1900s and plaques set up on the island tell the story of the two years they lived there in a temporary dwelling on a sand dune. 

The Phillips family lived on the island from December 1904 to April 1906.  They had seven children.  One of their daughters, Josephine had polio and a doctor advised the family to bathe her in salt water every day.  They moved to the island with a maid and lived in a large marquee with a wooden floor. The dining room and kitchen were under a large cotton tree. Some of the children slept in a tent. Mr Phillips rowed a dinghy across to the mainland every day to go to work.

We found all this interesting reading...

There were some lovely of tree stumps that were half buried in the sand and we all had fun climbing over them and having our photos taken...

We spent a good hour on King Island before leaving to walk back to Wellington Point....

Max found a sand pencil and enjoyed drawing on the sand...

Initially when we arrived we had planned to do the walk over to King Island and then stop at the Point of View Restaurant and Cafe right down on the point to have an ice cream in the park but by the time we arrived back to Wellington Point it was after 6pm and we were all due at Chloe's for dinner that night, so we are going to raincheck on that until next time we go down there...

Point of View Restaurant and Cafe at Wellington Point....

Sarah and Colin and Max went ahead of us, but Willow decided that she wanted to come home with both Steve and I and have her bath at Aunty Chloe's.  

On our way out we drove past the boat ramp and the jetty for Steve to inspect.  Whenever we are near the sea, he likes to check out the boat ramps and jetties...  

By the time we got home, Dan's friend Jaron had arrived.  He was also staying with them for the night.  Sarah and Colin also joined us and we had a lovely BBQ out on Dan and Chloe's deck.  It was a lovely evening just sitting around and chatting...

I really do love spending quality time with our kids...  I feel so blessed that we are in a position now where we can catch up with them a little more often...

Just wish that we could duck overseas to spend time with the rest of our family on the otherside of the world.  I know, I just need to be patient and I am thankful for modern technology that at least allows me to connect face to face with them on a very regular basis.