Bribie Island by car: a day trip on the bridge side of the sand

How do you drive to Bribie Island?

From 238 Nudgee Road, OpenStreetMap's car routing goes up Southern Cross Way to the Gateway Motorway, onto the Bruce Highway, and leaves it for Bribie Island Road, which runs east to the bridge. It puts Bongaree, just over the bridge, at about 68 km and 61 minutes, and Woorim, on the far side, at about 72 km and 65 minutes, in clear traffic.^[3][4]

Queensland Parks gives the island as 65 km north of Brisbane and 70 km south of Caloundra, via the Bruce Highway, with a road bridge to the mainland.^[2] There's no booking, ferry or toll on the way, which is the big difference from North Stradbroke Island, where getting a car across means a vehicle ferry.

Router times assume empty roads. On a fine weekend, give yourself slack on the way home, when everyone who came up for the day joins the highway at once.

What can you see without a 4WD?

Quite a lot. The parts of Bribie most day visitors come for are on sealed roads:

Bongaree, on the passage side

The bridge lands you at Bongaree, facing the Pumicestone Passage. The council-run Bribie Island Seaside Museum is at 1 South Esplanade: entry is free, it covers First Nations stories, the SS Koopa ferry, the island's role in World War II and the artist Ian Fairweather, and it's open Wednesday to Friday 10am–4pm and weekends 10am–3pm, closed Mondays, Tuesdays and public holidays. A small car park sits opposite, with street parking nearby.^[6]

Woorim, on the ocean side

Across the island, Woorim Foreshore is a coastal reserve of about 3 km on the eastern shore, at 140 North Street. City of Moreton Bay lists beach access, a car park, electric barbecues, shelters, tables, toilets and a water fountain. Dogs may come on a lead along the foreshore but not on the dunes or into vegetated areas; the off-leash area is further south, at Woorim Beach (south).^[5]

The Bicentennial bushwalks

Inside the national park, sealed roads reach the start of the Bicentennial bushwalks near the Community Arts Centre on Sunderland Drive, and Queensland Parks says no vehicle access permit is needed for the parts reached by sealed road.^[2] The park lists three of them, the Banksia, Melaleuca and Palm Grove bushwalks.^[1] It's a quiet hour in the trees if the beach is too hot.

Why can't you drive onto the beach or the recreation area?

Because the island's tracks and ocean beach are built for proper four-wheel drives. Queensland Parks says vehicles with high clearance and low range are essential for driving through the national park and recreation area, including on the beach, and that all-wheel-drive vehicles without true 4WD, or with low clearance, will struggle in soft sand and on inland tracks.^[2] Two-wheel-drive cars, trail bikes and motorbikes are barred from getting a vehicle access permit or entering the Bribie Island Recreation Area at all.^[2]

• Entries are watched. Number plates are recorded around the clock at the recreation area entrances, at the northern end of White Patch Esplanade and at the Eighth Avenue car park off North Street, Woorim.^[2]
• The penalty is real. A penalty infringement notice goes to the registered owner of a vehicle with no valid permit, and the penalty is $500, rising each financial year from 1 July.^[2] On a hire car, the registered owner is the hire company, so the notice would come back to the hirer.
• Permits follow the hirer. For a rental vehicle, Queensland Parks requires the person who hired it to be the one who applies for the permit, each time.^[2] That rule is for hire 4WDs that are allowed on sand; it doesn't make a two-wheel-drive car eligible.

A simple plan for the day

1. Morning: drive up early, cross the bridge and keep going to Woorim, so the ocean beach comes first.
2. Late morning: walk one of the Bicentennial bushwalks that start off Sunderland Drive.^[2]
3. Lunch: head back to Bongaree and the passage side for lunch and the Seaside Museum, if it's a Wednesday to Sunday.^[6]
4. Afternoon: an hour by the water at Bongaree, then leave before the late-afternoon traffic builds back towards the highway.

Pack for sun. Queensland Parks gives the island's average range as 22–30°C in summer and 12–22°C in winter.^[2] Fuel and supplies are on the island, so there's no need to fill up before the bridge.^[2] Domestic animals aren't allowed in the national park or recreation area, even though dogs on a lead are welcome on parts of the council foreshore.^[2][5]

Anything to check before you go?

Queensland Parks runs a "drive with care" alert for the marine turtle nesting season, listed from 1 November 2026 to 31 May 2027, and an alert restricting camp site bookings because of tidal inundation.^[1] Neither stops a day trip by car, but the turtle season is a reminder to stay off the sand and use marked beach accesses on foot.

Look up the weather and the Bruce Highway's traffic before you set off, and the park alerts if you plan a bushwalk. A beach day on the open ocean at Woorim and one on the Pumicestone Passage at Bongaree feel quite different, so it's worth having both in mind.

Picking up and returning the car

Our yard at 238 Nudgee Road is on the north side of the city, so Bribie is one of the easier day trips from the counter. We're open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Also closed: Friday 25 December 2026 (Christmas Day).

If you're heading on to the Glass House Mountains another day, the trailheads are a few exits further up the same highway; Glass House Mountains day trip sorts out which one to drive to. For something even closer, try Redcliffe.