Cassowary Coast Area

This stretch of coast takes its name from the shyest, rarest resident in the country, and it still lives up to it. The southern cassowary roams wild here, endangered enough that spotting one, especially around Mission Beach, feels like genuine luck. Mission Beach itself runs long and quiet, rainforest meeting sand directly with barely a building in between. Swim the rainforest pools at Josephine Falls, or take a boat out to Dunk Island and the string of smaller islands scattered just offshore. Hinchinbrook Island anchors the coast's wilder edge. This is genuinely unspoiled Queensland, more rainforest and reef than road.