1770 LARC! TOURS AFTERNOON CRUISE

Welcome To The 1770 LARC! Afternoon Cruise 

All aboard for an exhilarating amphibious cruise with our fun-loving and professional team at 1770 LARC! Tours. 

The famous Afternoon Cruise is a great option for all travellers. If you’re just passing through the area and don’t have a full day to spend, or you’re looking to fill in some time between other activities, the Afternoon Cruise will allow you to explore the area’s highlights in style and LARC-xury. This entertaining tour traverses waterways, explores sandbars and four-wheel-drives on the beach past unique native wildlife in the national park. 

The Afternoon Cruise departs from the 1770 Marina daily, at varying times. Book ahead to avoid disappointment. 1770 is a quaint seaside town located along the central Queensland coastline between Gladstone and Bundaberg, and is the birthplace and home of 1770 LARC! Tours, established in 1994. 

All our fun-filled and informative tours, including the Afternoon Cruise, are conducted in an iridescent pink amphibious vehicle known as a LARC, which can travel on both land and in the water, affording you single-vehicle access to some of the region’s more remote natural and historic attractions and wonders. 
The exact times of the afternoon cruise tours can vary, but would usually be around 2:00pm, 3:00pm and 4:30pm.

Tour Itinerary and Inclusions 

During this one-hour tour, you will be taken on a joyride you’ll never forget. The tour crosses Round Hill Creek, cruises along the edge of Eurimbula National Park towards Eurimbula Creek, then turns around and returns to explore the 1770 sand bar. You will be treated to an entertaining running commentary, breathtaking scenery, amazing wildlife and an exciting amphibious ability! This scenic tour is great for everyone. The LARC acts like a rolling grandstand and provides a great vantage point for wildlife spotting and sightseeing in the bay, as well as delivering an exhilaration adventure in nature. 

During this tour, you can choose to remain on the vessel for the duration of the one-hour trip if you wish. Alternatively, you can enjoy disembarking the vehicle at the Seventeen Seventy sandbar, where you’ll have the opportunity to walk along the beach and dip your toes in the sand, to make the most of the picturesque photo opportunities, or simply just to admire your surroundings. Breathe in the scent of the salty air. Depending on the time of year, the air may also carry the scent of seasonal flowering trees. 

Throughout the tour, you can expect to hear the vessel’s engine during times of movement. Tour guides will commentate throughout the tour using a microphone. 

Food is not included in this tour, but guests can enjoy tea, coffee, cakes or lunch before your tour at the 1770 Marina Café.

Guided Commentary

On the Afternoon Cruise, you will be travelling through the beautiful Eurimbula National Park. The park is rich in cultural history and is part of the Gooreng Gooreng Aboriginal people's traditional country. 

Lieutenant Captain Cook's ship HMB Endeavour anchored in the sheltered inlet that was named Bustard Bay after a Bustard or plains turkey was shot in the vicinity. While the crew renewed their water supplies, naturalist Joseph Banks collected 33 plant species from behind the curving beach of Bustard Bay (near the area which is now Eurimbula National Park) and noted the presence of palms, which indicated that the expedition had arrived in the tropics. Daniel Solander, a naturalist and a friend and assistant of Banks, wrote the first technical report of a native land animal in Queensland by describing the Australian Bustard.

Originally called Round Hill by Lieutenant Cook, Seventeen Seventy was renamed in honour of his first landing in Queensland. A rock cairn was built on the road leading to the headland to commemorate the first landing of HMB Endeavour in Queensland. 

Today, Eurimbula National Park comprises over 23,000 hectares of diverse, unique and unspoilt landscapes, including beautiful, secluded beaches, windswept headlands and pristine waterways bordering the expansive Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. 

Over the past 6,000 years, parallel dunes have built up on the coastal edge of the park, which is now covered in heaths. These dunes support a myriad of habitats. Botanically, this is a key coastal area that preserves a complex mix of vegetation including mangrove-fringed estuaries, freshwater paperbark swamps and coastal lowland eucalypt forests with weeping cabbage palms, to tall rainforest with towering hoop pines. The guided commentary on the Afternoon Cruise will point out these changing landscapes as the vehicle passes by them.

Wildlife Encounters

Wildlife spotting is an exciting element of this tour. The types of wildlife you may see will vary depending on the time of the year but could include turtles, stingrays, migratory birds, and even dolphins! 

The mangrove-fringed estuaries are ideal for birds such as sacred kingfishers, which nest and feed in this habitat, while Honeyeaters can be spotted feeding and calling in the paperbark swamps.

Foraging on the intertidal mudflats, sandflats and sandbanks exposed by low tide, you may also find beach stone-curlews, who thrive on a diet of crabs and other marine invertebrates. 

Eurimbula Creek and its tributaries also provide valuable freshwater and marine habitat for species such as water mice, which find shelter in the sedgelands adjacent to the creek. Water mice forage among the mangroves at night, when the tide is low, for small crabs, shellfish and worms, and when the tide rises, they return to the adjacent sedgelands to seek shelter. 

The ocean beaches around Bustard Bay are important feeding grounds for migratory waders such as sooty oystercatchers and little terns. From mid-November to February these beaches become crucial nesting sites for several adult species of turtles, including loggerhead, flatback and green turtles. If you visit in January, you might be lucky enough to see both adults and hatchlings. By mid-January until late March, hatchlings begin to leave their nests and start their journey from these sandy shores to the sea. 

Accessibility 

Here at 1770 LARC! Tours, we are dedicated to making our tours as inclusive as possible. If you have any special requirements, concerns or questions, please contact our friendly team in advance of the tour and we’ll be more than happy to assist in any way we can. 

To board the LARC! Vessels, there are 7 regular steps, with a handrail to the top. Seating includes rows of deep bucket seats with handles, and one row at the back which is a cushioned bench seat. Guests are more than welcome to bring along their own seating cushion if preferred. With prior arrangement the 1770 LARC! Tours team can also arrange for wheelchairs to be carried as luggage in a storage section of the vessel or be stored in the office during the Afternoon Cruise, since you won’t be required to leave the vessel at all during the tour. 

1770 LARC! Tours welcomes guests with assistance animals on board. If you are travelling with an assistance animal, please let the friendly team know at the time of booking so that they can allow appropriate seating for yourself and your service animal. Assistance animals are required to have a labelled harness or collar and lead, along with a certified assistant animal ID. 

We conduct informative audio commentaries on each tour. We also welcome hearing impaired groups and are happy to offer a free of charge seat for you to bring along a sign language translator. 

The Afternoon Cruise departs from the 1770 Marina. The address of the Marina is 535 Captain Cook Drive, Seventeen Seventy, Queensland, Australia. The 1770 LARC! Tours office can be contacted by phone on 07 4974 9422. Office hours are 9:00Am until 4:00PM Monday to Saturday, and 9:00AM until 2:00PM on Sundays.