Each year up to 10,000 humpback whales pass the Gold Coast between June and the end of October.
These magnificent giants of the deep frolic and play in the open waters off the Gold Coast for all to see, making it one of the premier whale watching locations in Australia.We’ve even sighted rare white whales for the past few years.
The beautiful humpback whales begin heading north from the Antarctic to warmer oceans in June before heading back several months later.
It usually takes three to four days to travel from Port Stephens in NSW to the Gold Coast, Queensland, with whales arriving on the Coast six weeks ahead of the Hervey Bay season.
The Gold Coast has a longer whale-watching season than Hervey Bay and, because of our geographical location, the Gold Coast has whales passing through all season. It is one of the rare points on the East Coast of Australia where, from the middle of August, whale traffic heads in both directions past the Gold Coast.
It also sadly explains why Byron Bay – just south of the Gold Coast and today a haven of peace and spirituality – was one of Australia’s most active whaling stations in the 1950s and 1960s, killing more than 1100 whales before shutting down.
But these days, the only shooting of whales off our coast is done with cameras.