THE SOUND of the sea lulls you to sleep as you lie in your beachside accommodation. In the early morning, you might take a beach walk and find yourself sharing the beach with a wallaby or two. The rest of the day beckons - maybe to do some fishing or take a walk along a national park trail.

Cape Hillsborough is a destination that overwhelms you with its beauty. It has maintained its peaceful and natural environment, and the owners of the award-winning Cape Hillsborough Nature Resort plan to keep it that way. This is truly the place for a natural and tranquil holiday. Here, you can expect spectacular scenery, abundant wildlife, great fishing and friendly service in a peaceful setting.

Just 40 minutes’ drive north of Mackay, the resort is nestled in the Cape Hillsborough National Park and fronts Casuarina Beach.

A range of accommodation is available. There are rustic single room beach huts and two-bedroom beach cabins just metres from the beach. These have shower, toilet, linen, cooking facilities, fans, TV and fridge. This accommodation is not new, but is clean and comfortable and being beachside, is very popular. Air-conditioned motel rooms and villas are also available. Powered and unpowered sites are scattered throughout the resort with the camping areas located down on the shady beachfront.

Cape Hillsborough National Park is 816ha in area, with walking tracks catering to different interests and levels of difficulty. The Juipera self-guided trail is a gentle walk and explores lowland rainforest plants used by the Juipera people. Hidden Valley, as an extension of the Juipera trail, will amaze you with its sheer beauty and age. The wall of rock on one side and the ocean on the other creates a unique climate for majestic trees to thrive. The Beachcomber Cove track passes through hoop pine and vine and the Andrews Point track rewards the energetic with amazing views of the rugged coastline and Whitsunday Islands.

Cape Hillsborough is the youngest volcanic area in Australia, formed from a series of volcanic eruptions 30 million years ago. The fertile soil of this area allows five different types of forest to grow. The beach provides its own special environment, and of special fascination to everyone are the wallabies visiting the beach and enjoying the water in the early mornings and the shimmering gold mica in the sand. This is a birdwatchers’ paradise - more than 150 species of birds call the area home, and butterflies of great beauty call in the spring. And the fishing is good, too! You might catch a whiting, bream, flathead, fingermark, grunter or the occasional barramundi in season. You can even get enough prawns and crab for a meal.

To get to the resort, take the Seaforth turnoff and follow the Cape Hillsborough signs.