Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach is a tiny town at the foot of the Inskip Peninsula. It can be reached by highway from Gympie, or with 4WD from Noosa through the Great Sandy National Park. Driving along the Forty Mile Beach from Noosa requires some skill and careful attention to tides and weather conditions. This route gives you the best view of the sands and the wrecked Cherry Venture. The propeller from this vessel is placed on the headland at the edge of town.

There is some good surf here and it is one of the last places you can surf before the start of the Great Barrier Reef. Paragliding is also popular and is a great way to view the colours along the cliffs. Wolf Rock is known in diving circles to be one of Queensland’s great dive sites.

The town gets its name from the vivid rainbow coloured sand cliffs at the edge of the town.

It is closer to Fraser Island than Hervey Bay, its big sister to the north, and it is also cheaper and more laid-back. There is not much of anything to do here besides take trips to Fraser Island, but the town is steadily gaining in popularity due to that. There are some shops along the main street where you can gather cheap groceries and supplies for camping.