It’s not only Brisbane’s over thirty degree summers that has everyone reach for a cool drink, but the soaring humidity. That was why Cleveland was another coastal location my parents flocked to during summer.

I paddled in the Moreton Bay luke warm waters where a tiny island lay off shore. This island fascinated me because at low tide, we walked along a sandbar that linked the sandy island to the mainland. I imagined being marooned on the tiny bit of land when the tide rose, though never was.

On the opposite side out on the very tip of the spit past Moreton Bay fig trees, sat Peel Island. Last century, this island housed a leper colony although today, it might be handed back to its original inhabitants, the Quandamooka People.