Looking back, we’d rather have stayed home.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Looking back, we’d rather have stayed home.

This is the outlook from the back of the waterbus heading for what we islanders call ‘Australia’ for a morning of culture shock at the nearby Victoria Point shops. But at least we get to go back home again later, which is an even better outlook, watching the mainland fall away behind us.

All about Lamb Island:

Lamb Island is one of four islands (Russell, Macleay, Lamb and Karragarra) collectively known as the Southern Moreton Bay Islands. Just off Redland Bay, and in the lee of North Stradbroke Island, they’re less than forty kilometres and just over an hour's all-up travelling time from Brisbane CBD. (There’s a map at the bottom of this blog.)

And yes, in case it needs to be said, the islands have mains power, land-line phone (including broadband) and town water connected, plus a weekly council garbage collection.

Surrounded by the tranquil waters of Moreton Bay, these islands offer what is arguably the last relatively unspoilt coastal residential environment in South-East Queensland, and still something of a secret even to Brisbane people, let alone the rest of Australia.

All four islands are serviced by fast modern twin-hull 'waterbuses' which run more-or-less half-hourly during the day and hourly at night to and from Redland Bay from 4.45am till 10pm (11pm on Thursday, and midnight on Friday and Saturday nights). Inter-island travel is free. The trip between Lamb Island and Redland Bay takes around twenty minutes. Mainland bus services to a variety of destinations including Brisbane CBD run from the Redland Bay jetty in conjunction with the waterbus timetables. Vehicular barges also service the islands from Redland Bay every two hours or so.

The islands are also serviced by islands-based paramedics, with an ambulance permanently stationed on each island, and a dedicated ambulance boat for transfers to the mainland. Urgent cases are transported by helicopter, which makes the trip to hospital as fast as from many Brisbane suburbs.

The Redland City Council maintains a free parking area as well as a paid card-entry parking compound adjacent to the mainland jetty, and many islanders leave 'mainland cars' there and use cheaper cars for getting around on their islands – although Lamb Island is small enough for many residents to choose to just walk or cycle.

On Lamb Island, you'll find a welcoming easy-going community, fresh air, open vistas, and a balmy climate that's usually a couple of degrees cooler than Brisbane in Summer, and as warm again in Winter.

At just two kilometres long and at its widest only one kilometre across, Lamb Island is home to around four hundred residents, and is arguably the most lifestyle-friendly island of the four. It's not 'suburbia' like Macleay and Russell Islands, but it offers amenities that Karragarra lacks.

Lamb Island has a small general store we call the 'kiosk', and a licensed recreation club. There's also a community hall, public tennis court, and a first-aid facility.

Just a three-minute free waterbus ride away, Macleay Island offers supermarket shopping, a pharmacy, medical surgery, restaurants, hotel, golf course, bowls club, a thriving arts and crafts centre, and more. There’s also a primary school on Macleay Island, with a supervised bus to transport the Lamb Island kids to and from the Macleay jetty. (High school students go to the mainland, where special buses meet them.)

Russell Island, just five minutes in the other direction, has a huge IGA supermarket, bottleshop, etc, all within a hundred-or-so metres of the jetty – or a quick barge trip if you want to take your car over.

Redland Bay offers comprehensive shopping facilities a kilometre from the mainland jetty. Victoria Point (just a few minutes drive further or via regular bus services) is a booming regional shopping centre with everything one could need including cinemas, restaurants, and a council library.

From Redland Bay, Brisbane CBD is within a 45 minute drive outside peak hour (but closer to an hour during peak times), while the Gold Coast is about 45 minutes via easy access to the Pacific Motorway.

Living on Lamb Island is like enjoying a permanent holiday in a small unspoilt coastal town that's still the way it was back before the rest of the world went crazy.

Obviously, if you're into boating and/or fishing, this is the perfect place for you. But for most residents Lamb Island's major appeal is the very real sense of peace and contentment that comes from living in such a natural environment and its small-scale community where everyone's friendly and laidback, primarily interested in enjoying life on their own terms rather than trying to keep up with the people next door.

There's also the security factor. Lamb Island's relative isolation and its small size combine to make it something like a 'gated community' – for the most part only the local residents or their visitors come here, and because everyone knows each other at least by sight, anyone who doesn't belong soon gets noticed.

At the same time, despite all the lifestyle positives and recreational opportunities, living here isn't for everyone (which is a big part of what makes it so appealing to those who do).

While property prices may be relatively low, accessing the mainland costs money, which adds to the real cost of living here. Teenagers and young adults find it a hassle having to go to the mainland for their entertainment and social activities, and then having to come home by midnight.

And in practical terms, week-to-week living requires a certain amount of planning. To begin with, the only 'shopping experience' on the island is the kiosk. And while it carries a surprisingly wide range of basic needs, most locals shop off-island for meat, liquor, groceries, and so on, bringing them home on the waterbus (with specially dedicated areas for passengers' personal 'freight'). Others take the barge to do a major shop every so often, fill the car, then scurry back to the relative peace of the island. Alternatively, Woolworths home-deliver online orders to Lamb Island once a week.

Whatever the choice, most of us happily consider any extra effort a more-than-fair trade-off for the advantages of living such a natural and laidback island lifestyle – free of pollution, traffic, noise, crime, hustle-and-bustle, and angst.

In fact, there's an attitude that inevitably takes over Lamb Island residents, one that’s heard time and time again as locals get off the waterbus after a trip to the mainland (which we refer to as 'Australia') and it usually goes something like:

"Thank goodness we're home again.

How do people live like that?"

If you lived here, you’d wonder too.