South Stradbroke Island sits just north of Main Beach and can only be reached by boat, roughly 40 minutes out from Surfers Paradise. Known locally as South Straddie, the 21km sand island was joined to North Stradbroke until storms cut the Jumpinpin Channel through in 1898. An 1,800-hectare conservation park covers much of it, and with only about 140 permanent residents, camping, bushwalking and beach fishing are the reasons to make the crossing.