1770 LARC! Tours

The amphibious LARC! vessels will take you on a journey over vast sandy beaches and in crystal-clear waters north of the Town of 1770 (Seventeen Seventy) in Queensland. Tours depart from the marina and vary from a one-hour Afternoon Cruise, or two hours for a LARC! + Lunch, to an all-day seven-hour journey of discovery.

Destinations

1770

Agnes Water

Themes

Paradise tour

Afternoon cruise

Lunch tours

Goolimbil walkabout

Family tours

The LARC! Paradise Tour is a day of fun, history and magnificent vistas, cruising with national parks to the left and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to the right, across four tidal creeks and up Bustard Headland to the Lightstation.

Bustard Head Lightstation was Queensland’s first coastal lighthouse. Standing 19 metres tall, the cast-iron lighthouse tower was built in 1868 and automated in 1986. In 2013 it became Queensland’s only operating lighthouse that is open for tours.

At the lightstation, you can climb the original stairs to the balcony of the lighthouse and hear tales of triumph and turmoil as early settlers and light-keepers attempted to tame the remote wilderness that is home to the Bustard Head Lighthouse.

Absorb the history as experienced tour guides take you through the restored head lightkeeper’s cottage museum while sharing an interpretative dialogue about the large collection of lighthouse artefacts within.

Just beyond the lighthouse is a short winding path leading to a quaint and well-tended graveyard, nestled in bush surroundings. While reading the headstones, the guide will share with you the fascinating facts that earned the station its title of “Lighthouse of Tragedy”.

Morning tea and lunch in the covered picnic area includes refreshments, billy tea or coffee brewed over an open campfire, Anzac biscuits and an assortment of sandwiches, fruit and cake. There is a little time to explore the shore of Jenny Lind Creek, have a dip or try to spot a green turtle in the water, before traversing across the creek in LARC! style to the 35-metre-high sand dunes of Middle Island for some sandboarding fun.

Guides will provide a quick lesson before setting you free down the dunes. You can choose to stay dry or skim right off the dunes splashing and skipping across the clear water.

Sandboarding is an activity for all ages and is guaranteed to make you smile. So will the incredible abilities of the moving grandstand that is the LARC!, cruising in the water and on the land to allow for excellent marinelife, birdlife and wildlife spotting.

The LARC! vessel transports in beach buggy style and as the full day LARC! Paradise Tour comes to a close, you can soak up the colours of the sky as the sun lowers towards the horizon signalling the end of another day in paradise.