Wongaling Beach is a tranquil coastal town situated along Queensland’s spectacular Cassowary Coast. Located roughly halfway between Cairns and Townsville, it serves as the central hub of the Mission Beach region—a stunning 14-kilometre stretch of golden sand. The town is bordered by two World Heritage areas, the Wet Tropics Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Offering a relaxed, uncrowded alternative to busier tropical tourist hubs, Wongaling Beach was the ideal spot to call home for two weeks.
A two minute walk from our Airbnb put us on Wongaling Beach itself with soft, golden sand lined with coconut palms and views of the Coral Sea. We thoroughly enjoyed our daily walks…always keeping one eye out for crocodiles!!
Fortunately, we did not see any and most days we had this gorgeous stretch of sand all to ourselves. This has to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, and sooooo quiet.
Walking the beach every day we regularly spotted beautiful shells, but each time we looked somebody was home, so no pretty shell for me to take as a souvenir. Which I don’t believe I could have done anyway according to Australian laws.
The Mission Beach area is bordered by dense rainforest corridors and is one of the most reliable places in Australia to spot the endangered Southern Cassowary in the wild. These magnificent, prehistoric-looking flightless birds are frequently seen wandering through local caravan parks, native gardens, and even occasionally crossing the coastal roads. Early mornings are the best time to see them foraging for fallen rainforest fruits, so we drove to the nearby Licuala Forest Reserve at 7am a few times during our stay. Did we see one?? You betcha!! In fact we saw one or two each time we went, one noticeably taller than the other so we suspect it was a female. These bird’s can be vicious if provoked so I do believe Blair’s heart was racing just a little when one came close to him while he was taking video. Cassowaries are shy birds and move through the forest very quietly. We found them fascinating and are happy we had a few opportunities to see them in the wild because they are typically found deep in the forest.
What’s the first sign Cassowaries are in the area? A pile of poop with undigested fruit.
So quietly we sat, and along came the Cassowaries…
And this is how you safely video a Cassowary, keeping something between you and the bird 😂 We never provoked, chased or tried to feed these wild animals. We remained still and let them walk around looking for fruit.
Here is Blair’s video of two visits we had from the Cassowaries:
Before we realized that we would never see a Cassowary as we wandered through the forest, we walked the Licuala Rainforest trail and the Children’s trail. Both of these short trails are beautiful, through dense rainforest with stunning fan palms everywhere.
To the north of Wongaling Beach, the Djiru National Park features the Lacey Creek walk, an easy trail through rare Licuala fan palms where you can look for cassowaries and native birdlife. We did not see any cassowaries during our afternoon walk but this trail is also well worth visiting.
Two of the most popular trails nearby were closed because of landslips and storm damage so there was not a lot of hiking available. Not a problem!! With 14km of gorgeous beach to walk we kept pretty active. Blair joined ‘The Shed’ gym for a week and I had free access to an uncrowded 25m swimming pool, a perk provided by our Airbnb.
Whether you are looking to base yourself for a reef trip, spot rare tropical wildlife, or simply enjoy a quiet slice of the Australian tropics, Wongaling Beach offers a quintessential, laid-back North Queensland experience. We recommend visiting here if you are looking to escape the world for a while and enjoy nature. After Maroochydore, this was our second favorite stop on our north Queensland tour 💕
As we continue our journey northward, our next destination is Palm Cove…..
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