Applications for Double Island Point work week for 2020/21

Applications for a Double Island Point work week for the period 4 July 2020 to 26 June 2021 are now closed. Cottages are fully booked through to the end of June 2021.

The working holiday is a one-week stay (7 nights, Sat-Sat) in a heritage-listed lighthouse-keeper’s cottage for up to 4 adults and 3 children.

The tariff is $600 for the week for 3 or 4 adults, or $450 should there be only 2 adults staying for the 7 nights.

Members can elect to add their email address to a cancellation list for last minute cancellations throughout the year.

About Double Island Point

Double Island Point is the next headland north of Noosa, within the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, at the southern end of Wide Bay.

It is one of the most beautiful, unspoilt, semi-wilderness areas on Australia’s east coast. It also has great cultural and historical interest, with the Double Island Point lighthouse standing sentinel on the headland and the lighthouse-keepers’ cottages nestled below.

NPA as custodians of Double Island Point

In 1991, the lighthouse was fully automated. The lighthouse-keepers’ cottages were left empty and, although they were not vandalised like many others, exposure to the elements meant they badly needed attention.

After much lobbying, the Queensland Government awarded NPA a 20-year lease of the Double Island Point Conservation Park.

Our first task was to organise restoration of the lighthouse-keepers’ cottages. Within a year, NPA volunteers had completely restored both cottages.

NPA implemented a vegetation management plan that remains current today – it endeavours to remove weeds and revegetate the area with endemic species – a massive undertaking that is being accomplished with the help of volunteers and in partnership with other groups.

In December 2019, after more than a year of amicable negotiation with the Department of Environment & Science and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, we were awarded a 10-year extension of our custodianship of the Double Island Point Conservation Park and light-station.

We rent the keepers’ cottages to NPA members, who stay for a week and are obligated to act as caretakers during their stay and carry out vegetation rehabilitation, cottage maintenance, cleaning and/or interpretive work as assigned by NPA.

All the rent we receive is ploughed back into restoration and revegetation work.