Queensland Family’s $2.5m Bid Wins ‘Bargain’ Tropical Island

An island about four times the size of a rugby league field off the Queensland coast has sold at auction for a shade over $2.5 million.

An unidentified Queensland family outbid 14 other registered bidders at auction for Victor Island at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The family’s winning bid of $2.51 million bought it one of the few privately owned, perpetual leasehold islands in Australia.

The 3.14ha property about 1000km north of Brisbane includes a newly renovated four-bedroom, two-bathroom house and a caretaker’s cottage.

The island has a 224-litre water tank, helipad, desalination plant, machinery shed and a solar farm with backup generator.

Next to a coral reef that provides a natural marina for vessels large and small, Victor Island is just under 2km from the mainland and directly opposite Salonika Beach, 42km south of Mackay. It is about 20 minutes by boat and about 10 minutes by helicopter.

The auction by Ray White Surfers Paradise Group was held on the Gold Coast on April 11.

Group chairman Andrew Bell said the property, “with all the facilities needed to enjoy a dream lifestyle on an unspoilt, eco-friendly paradise”, had attracted substantial national interest.

▲ The new owners of Victor Island intend to use it for family holidays.

Marketing agent Michael Willems said the auction had15 registered bidders and had come down to three parties battling it out for 20 minutes.

Bell said: “The family who bought it will use it for family holidays, whether that be weekends or lengthier stays.”

Last year a slew of islands in Queensland’s north came to market.

They included South Molle Island, listed by owner Capital Investment Group in August; Spadely Station, a 1500ha freehold cattle property on North Curtis Island in Keppel Bay, off the coast north of Gladstone, listed in April; Pumpkin Island, perhaps best known as XXXX Island from an ad campaign, was offered for sale in April; and in February Fitzroy Island Resort, the only resort on the 339-ha island about 30km off the coast of Cairns, was put up for sale for a reported $35 million.