Airlie Beach
Australia Beaches

Airlie Beach with free and fantastic lagoon
Fraser Island Pictures, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns, Australia Beaches
Airlie
Beach, gateway to the spectacularly beautiful Whitsunday Islands, offers superb yachting, snorkelling, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and is home to one of the world's best
free swimming pools - built as an alternative to the pleasantly warm but deadly critter infested waters around this part of Australia's eastern coastline. No swimming in the sea without a stinger suit!
Other options include horse riding (no, not in the sea), sky diving and rainforest tours.
Airlie Beach is a popular backpacker destination as well as honeymoon target and squats on the regular bus or car route up/down the east coast between Cairns and Brisbane.

Airlie's actual beach, and market.
Contrary
to popular myth, Airlie Beach does in fact have a beach, visible above
along with a distant Saturday craft market... It's just you wouldn't
want to swim there unless you had a passion for toxic boxes.

Airlie
Beach's main street, Shute Harbour Road.

Airlie
Beach jellyfish warning.
Click
for Fraser Island Pictures, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns or choose other photos from below.
The
salient points of the above notice: High risk
period Nov- May. Area of danger: North Queensland, NW Australia, Northern
Territory. If in doubt treat as Irukandji. Douse stings with vinegar;
provide emergency care, CPR if necessary, seek medical aid. Call
000 for ambulance.
Very
nasty:
Chironex, aka Box Jellyfish. Appearance:
box shaped with 4 corners, 25-30cms diameter. Up to 15 ribbon-like
tentacles growing from 4 corners. Tentacles may extend up to 3 metres. Symptoms: Severe burning skin pain; sting
marks are like whip and appear as burn marks on skin. Adherent tentacles
are often present. Victim may stop breathing. Treatment:
Dial 000 and send someone to get help. Provide emergency care, CPR
if necessary. Douse stings with vinegar. Seek medical aid.
Irukandji.
Appearance:
small box shape, 12mms diameter, 1 tentacle in each corner from a
few cms to 1 metre long. Transparent and usually not seen. Symptoms:
Initially mild and difficult to see, maybe goose bumps and localized
sweating. Later severe back ache, muscle cramps, nausea, feeling of
dread 20-30 minutes after sting. Treatment:
as Box Jelly above.
Not
particularly nice:
Morbakka,
aka Tomoya, Fire Jelly, Moreton Bay Stinger. Appearance:
Large 'box' shaped jellyfish, bell up to 16cm high, 14cm wide. 1 thick
tentacle in each corner, up to 1 metre long. Symptoms:
Burning, itching pain. Wide, raised pink welts with surrounding bright
red skin. Occasionally 'Irukandji'-like symptoms. Treatment:
Douse entire sting with 2 litres of vinegar whether tentacles are
visible or not. Apply ice pack after 10 minutes, reapply later if
necessary.
Cyanea,
aka Hairjelly, Snotty. Appearance:
Large flat bell 4-30cms in diameter.Large mop of hair-like tentacles
underneath, 5-50cms long. Bell top may be white and/or have yellow/brown
colour underneath. Symptoms: Minor skin
burning with multiple raised welts. Treatment:
Douse with vinegar whether tedntacles are visible or not. Apply ice
pack after 10 minutes and reapply later if skin pain persists.
Catostylus,
aka Blubber. Appearance:
Mushroom-shaped bell 5-30cms in diameter. No tentacles, but 8 frills
hanging underneath. Symptoms: Minor skin
burning with red blotchy rash. Treatment:
as Cyanea, above.
Physalia,
aka Blue-bottle, Portuguese man-o-war. Appearance:
Air-filled sack up to 8cm long with single long tentacle up to 1 metre
and numerous shorter tentacles. Symptoms:
Burning skin pain, single raised white welt with 'beading' effect,
occasional breathing difficulty. Treatment:
as Cyanea, above.
n.b.
These stingers are not found commonly, except perhaps for the last
and least troublesome, the Blue-bottle. Australian authorities are
safety-conscious and well-organized so on most public beaches if there
is danger there will be warning notices and/or stinger nets.
Snorkel and dive tours will supply stinger suits when appropriate.
Don't be tempted to show you've got cojones by swimming without
protection in a danger zone, you could be in for a painful surprise
that would really blow your cool.
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