For those who don’t have time for a full Fraser Island Tour, we offer amazing Cooloola National Park Day Tours, which give you what we like to call “a glimpse of Fraser Island” – in one action-packed day, you can see sandy beaches, towering dunes, lush rainforests… aaand the tour also includes one special experience you won’t get on Fraser Island: meeting the friendly local dolphins.
Our Cooloola National Park Day Tours get to Tin Can Bay nice and early in the morning to feed the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins that have been coming to the town for over 30 years! It’s an impressive start to a great day, with the beautiful creatures swimming right up to the funny two-legged visitors standing knee-deep in the warm water, ready to say hello and collect their treats.
The dolphin feeding is permitted and regulated by the Queensland Government and the local volunteers do a great job ensuring that the daily ritual is a safe and enjoyable experience for dolphins and humans alike. Visitors are only allowed to feed fish purchased on site (which is unprocessed and agrees with them) and the total amount distributed per day is limited to ensure the dolphins always leave a little hungry. After all, these are wild animals and we don’t want them to forget how to fend for themselves. The fish they get in Tin Can Bay is a morning snack to get them off to a good start, but they don’t depend on it for sustenance.
Scarry, the estuarine dolphin who started the tradition, hasn’t been seen in years, but her son Mystique and granddaughter Harmony still visit regularly, along with two other dolphins nicknamed Patch and Valentine. As with any wild animal experience, there is no absolute guarantee that we will see dolphins in Tin Can Bay, but it’s extremely rare for none of these friendly locals to show up.