Peel Island

Peel Island

By ScubaDownUnder Team · 2026-05-04

Peel Island, or Teerk Roo Ra, sits in southern Moreton Bay about 4 km east of Cleveland, between the mainland and North Stradbroke Island. It is a national park ringed by marine park zones, with calm water, seagrass, remnant coral and a historic shipwreck in Platypus Bay that the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) names as a popular snorkelling spot.

Set your expectations before you go. This is shallow, turbid inshore water: a Moreton Bay Foundation review of reef monitoring puts visibility in the bay at an average of 1 to 2 m. Earlier versions of this page described a cluster of clear-water dives and two artificial reefs. Scuba diving on those artificial reefs needs a marine park permit, and we could find no source for the other dives, so this guide sticks to what the published sources support.

## The island

QPWS says Teerk Roo Ra means "place of many shells" and that the island was well used by the Quandamooka People for its land and sea resources. In 1873 it was proclaimed a reserve for quarantine, and a quarantine station was built on its south-east corner the following year. From 1907 to 1959 it held a lazaret for people with Hansen's disease (leprosy), which QPWS describes as the only intact example of a multiracial lazaret in Australia. The island is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Teerk Roo Ra was dedicated as a national park and conservation park in December 2007. The Quandamooka Peoples native title determination of 4 July 2011 covers Peel Island, and the park is jointly managed by the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation and QPWS. Only Horseshoe Bay, on the southern side, and Platypus Bay are open to the public. The rest of the island, including the lazaret, is a patrolled restricted access area, and fines apply for entering it.

## In the water

QPWS says Horseshoe Bay and Platypus Bay both provide clean, calm water for swimming, and that the shipwrecks in Platypus Bay host a variety of marine life and are a popular place to snorkel. Visit Brisbane describes a large historic shipwreck there. The DredgePoint register records that the Queensland Government's bucket dredge Platypus, built in Scotland in 1884, was scuttled on the south-east point of Peel Island in 1926 to form a breakwater. QPWS also notes the remains of a stone jetty at Platypus Bay, built by prison labour in the 1890s as the quarantine station's main landing. No source we found gives depths at the wrecks.

Peel also has the largest reef area in the inner bay: Reef Check Australia's mapping, summarised by the Moreton Bay Foundation, found the biggest reef area of inshore Moreton Bay around the island. That coral lives on the edge. The bay's shallow water carries freshwater, pollutants and sediment from the rivers, turbidity is often high, and coral grows mostly in water shallower than 5 m. Reef Check's 2017 to 2018 surveys recorded 20% coral bleaching at Peel.

Horseshoe Bay tells the story. The Moreton Bay Foundation says a thriving coral community once grew at the western end of the bay but has been destroyed, mainly by fine sediment washed in from the catchments. Reef Check surveys at the southern end of the bay found remnant coral skeletons, rubble beds and sparse surviving colonies, and Reef Check has deployed coral fragments from nearby sites there to test whether restoration could work.

Visit Brisbane says dugongs, turtles and dolphins frequent the waters around the island, that thousands of jellyfish sometimes follow the currents, and that sharks are known to live in the area. Across all its Moreton Bay monitoring sites, inshore and offshore together, Reef Check lists wobbegongs, tawny nurse sharks, green turtles and stingrays among the rarer animals recorded. The Moreton Bay Foundation gives annual sea temperatures in the marine park of 15 to 27°C.

## The artificial reefs need a permit

Two Queensland Government artificial reefs are often mentioned alongside Peel Island. Neither is open to recreational scuba diving without a specific marine park permit.

The West Peel Artificial Reef lies west of Peel Island and north-east of Cleveland Point. QPWS describes it as a fishing reef of 341 concrete reef balls in 19 clusters over 50 ha, each ball 500 to 800 mm high, first laid on 16 December 2010. Its gazetted special activity notice makes scuba diving, surface-supplied-air diving, spearfishing and commercial fishing special activities that may only be carried out under a permission or commercial activity agreement that specifically authorises them. The QPWS summary table lists recreational scuba diving and dive charters as not allowed there, and snorkelling as allowed.

The Harry Atkinson Artificial Reef is not at Peel at all. QPWS places it 7 km east-south-east of St Helena Island, and its gazetted boundary sits about 11 km north-north-west of Peel. There, scuba diving, surface-supplied-air diving, snorkelling, spearfishing and commercial fishing are all special activities that need a specific permission.

## Rules around the island

QPWS describes three layers of protection around Teerk Roo Ra. The green zone, the marine national park zone around the island, prohibits all forms of collecting, including fishing. The yellow zone, the conservation park zone, allows fishing limited to two lines and two hooks per person. Go-slow areas for turtles and dugong protect them from boat strike: all vessels must travel off the plane, and motorised water sports are prohibited. In the Marine Parks (Moreton Bay) Zoning Plan 2019 these are MNP23 Peel Island, CPZ08 Peel Island and GSA04 Peel Island, and the plan lets anyone enter a marine national park zone without a permit for a low-impact activity that does not involve fishing or collecting. Look, but take nothing.

QPWS asks snorkellers at the Platypus Bay wrecks to show a dive flag, because boats also moor around them, and never to swim or snorkel alone. Its registered mooring in Platypus Bay is for authorised vessels only. Lyngbya, a blue-green alga, has bloomed in the bay's coastal waters, so avoid direct contact with it.

## Site Access and Logistics

Peel Island can be reached only by boat or other watercraft. Private boats may moor off the national park; QPWS advises allowing for the tide when anchoring in shallow water and warns that weather can significantly affect access. Horseshoe Bay is Moreton Bay's premier recreational anchorage, and the Moreton Bay Foundation says more than a hundred private vessels can be at anchor there on a typical summer weekend, so keep a dive flag up and watch for boats.

There are no supplies on the island. The only facility is a composting toilet at Horseshoe Bay, and bush camping at Horseshoe Bay and Platypus Bay needs a permit, with fees. Bring water, food and everything else you need, and take your rubbish home.

We could not find a dive operator that runs scheduled scuba trips to Peel Island, and no published guide gives depths or a recommended entry point. For sheltered bay diving with published detail, the [Tangalooma Wrecks](https://scubadownunder.com/blog/tangalooma-wrecks-moreton-island) and [Curtin Artificial Reef](https://scubadownunder.com/blog/curtin-artificial-reef) off Moreton Island are better documented, and our guide to the [best places to dive in Queensland](https://scubadownunder.com/blog/best-places-to-dive-in-queensland) covers the rest of the state.

## Sources

- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Teerk Roo Ra National Park, Things to do, parks.qld.gov.au/parks/teerk-roo-ra/things-to-do - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Teerk Roo Ra National Park, About, parks.qld.gov.au/parks/teerk-roo-ra/about - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Teerk Roo Ra, Nature, culture and history, parks.qld.gov.au/parks/teerk-roo-ra/about/culture - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Teerk Roo Ra, Visiting safely, parks.qld.gov.au/parks/teerk-roo-ra/visiting-safely - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Moreton Bay artificial reefs, parks.qld.gov.au/parks/moreton-bay/zoning/trial_artificial_reef_program - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Special activity notice, West Peel Artificial Reef (PDF), parks.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/165781/west-peel-special-act.pdf - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Special activity notice, Harry Atkinson Artificial Reef (PDF), parks.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/166940/harry-atkinson-special-act-1.pdf - [Queensland Legislation: Marine Parks (Moreton Bay) Zoning Plan 2019, current as at 1 August 2024](https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/sl-2019-0175) - [The Moreton Bay Foundation: Building an understanding of Moreton Bay Marine Park reefs through citizen science](https://moretonbayfoundation.org/articles/building-an-understanding-of-moreton-bay-marine-parks-reefs-through-citizen-science/) - [The Moreton Bay Foundation: Reef Check Australia Peel Island Project](https://moretonbayfoundation.org/research/reef-check/) - [Visit Brisbane: The Ultimate Guide to Peel Island](https://visit.brisbane.qld.au/inspiration/explore-peel-island) - [DredgePoint: Platypus, bucket ladder dredger](https://dredgepoint.org/equipment/platypus-1) - [Wikipedia: Peel Island (Queensland)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_Island_%28Queensland%29)

Header photo: The sun setting over Peel Island, seen across the water from Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island, by OmenGray, [CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_over_Peel_Island.jpg).