Hill Inlet - Whitsunday Island

Hill Inlet provides a nesting habitat for a range of shore and migratory birds that use the Whitsundays as a stopover on their annual migration. Take a holiday snap from the worlds most photographed landscape and take home a lifetime of memories.

The Lookout is simply enchanting, a stunningly attractive mosaic of white silica sands, crystal clear waters and Mantarays basking in the glorious sun. Easily reached via an easy walk through lush green rainforest, Hill Inlet is a true vision of paradise.

One of the most popular bush walks in the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, the Hill Inlet lookout point offers breathtaking views of the incredible Whitehaven Beach. The shifting tides, the white sands and the blue hue make for a superb photo opportunity and a lifetime of memories.

The Hill Inlet Walk

Hill Inlet is easily reached via a pleasant bush walk starting out from Tongue Bay, where most boats will anchor when they reach the island. Following a short dinghy ride to the beach, you can follow an easy forest trail that meanders through the rainforest, slowly rising up to the lookout itself. The walk itself is beautiful, the island is blanketed with a lush green tropical rainforest and home to thousands of species of flora and fauna, and once you reach Hill Inlet, be prepared for a truly spectacular sight – an incredible panoramic view of Whitehaven Beach at its most glorious.

The trail up to Hill Inlet is lined with pandanus, melalueca and casuarinas trees, while the forest itself is home to 12 species of mangroves, which provide a unspoilt nursery ground for both terrestrial and marine life.

Hill Inlet is also a nesting habitat for numerous migratory and shore birds. Many of the migratory birds use the Whitsundays as a stopover during their annual migration and rest up here, including pied oystercatchers, crested terns and the endangered beach stone curlew.

If you can, try to reach the Hill Inlet lookout during low tide – this is the best time to fully appreciate the amazing fusion of colors that emanate from Whitehaven Beach.

Hill Inlet History

Located on the eastern coast of Whitsunday Island, Hill Inlet was first discovered on September 15, 1912, and given its name by the crew of the yacht Gulnare. The lookout immediately caught the crew’s attention, tempting them ashore to view the stunning sights from above, and was named after the yacht’s owner, a sailor named Frederick Charles Lumley-Hill.

The white sand found within the mouth of Hill Inlet is exactly the same as that found on Whitehaven Beach itself – 98% pure silica which is about as pure as it’s possible to get. Due to its outstanding quality, the sand here is suitable for use in making the finest quality glass, including crystal glasses and optical lenses. Its purity has attracted plenty of attention from mineral sand miners, yet luckily for us all applications to mine the sand here were denied.