500 hectare island off the Great Barrier Reef up for sale

After years of stalled development plans, a major Queensland island by the Great Barrier Reef is up for sale: expected to bring large-scale tourism opportunities to the state.

Keswick Island, part of the Whitsundays off the coast of Mackay, is being sold by Colliers as a pre-approved development site.

The 517 hectare island features 117 hectares of land lease and 25 hectares of marine lease, along with ownership of the island’s ferry and barge.

Keswick Island, part of the Whitsundays by the Great Barrier Reef, is up for sale to developers local and international.

Currently owned by China Bloom trading as Oasis Forest Ltd, the developer lodged an application to transfer its lease with the Queensland Department of Resources in May of 2024.

Sales company Colliers is helping to find buyers for the site. Their executive of Hotels Australia, Sam Abel, said Oasis Forest was hoping for new buyers to turn the island into “a tourism destination”, after the Covid pandemic stalled their own development plans”.

“The purpose of the sublease is to develop an island with tourism, residential and marina potential,” he said. “Eco lodges with eco tourism, high end resorts, further residential precincts, common areas for the island; the expansive areas of opportunity for different income streams and development opportunities is very broad.”

Its previous owner acquired the island in 2019, but decided to transfer its lease in 2024.

Oasis Forest’s ownership of the island grew controversial after reports of poor communication, restricted access to national parks and environmental damage.

Some of these reports came from the island’s local residents, after people moved to the island when they heard of potential for growth.

Then-federal member for Dawson George Christensen criticised the sale after visiting the island in 2021.

“It’s pretty simple stuff; if you can’t get free and simple access to the island, there is a very big problem,” he said.

Local residents moved to Keswick island with the hope of future potential, with the lease designed to be for building new tourism services.

In 2023, the state government announced $1 million would be invested into new and upgraded visitor access infrastructure on Keswick Island, along with $1 million to two other islands in the Whitsundays.

Tourism and Events Queensland reported since 2019, the Whitsundays as a region saw a 5.4 per cent increase in tourism, with 897,000 visitors in 2024. Visitors to the island were reported to spend $1.7 billion, making a 139.1 per cent increase in that same period.

With Queensland’s rising tourism in the leadup to the 2032 Olympics, $1.7 billion was reportedly spent in the Whitsundays in 2024.

Mr Abel praised Keswick island’s size for making the island one of the last offerings in the area with the potential for large-scale resorts.

“I think having a look forward, particularly to Brisbane’s Olympic Games, there’s a lot of money being spend in Queensland as an entire region,” he said. “Post-Covid, the increase in tourism demand, particularly in the Whitsunday region, has been substantial.”

“I think the most attractive feature of Keswick is its size. It’s a similar size to Hamilton Island: the development potential is expansive.”

The sale will offered to companies both domestic and international, with Expressions of Interest closing on August 12.

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