Town Of 1770 Tours: The Boat And LARC Trips You Can Book

The Town of 1770 sits on a peninsula between Eurimbula National Park and Bustard Bay, and it earned its name the direct way. Lieutenant James Cook landed on this stretch of coast in May 1770, his first landing in what became Queensland, and the spot originally called Round Hill was later renamed Seventeen Seventy in honour of it. A rock cairn dedicated in 1926 stands where one of Cook's crew carved the date on a tree, according to Queensland Parks. Today the same coastline is the base for a surprisingly complete tour menu: three amphibious LARC trips, two Lady Musgrave Island cruises (one from the 1770 marina, one from Bundaberg, the second port down the coast), a speedboat snorkelling day trip to southern Great Barrier Reef sites, and two scuba day tours.

This guide walks through all eight bookable tours, compares prices, durations, vessels and ratings, and flags where each one starts, because one of them does not start here at all. It also covers the inclusions that actually appear for each tour, the cancellation terms, and the official facts worth knowing before you commit a day of your trip. If you are still choosing between a reef day and a land-and-sea LARC day, the comparison below is built for exactly that decision, and 1770 Cruises keeps every option on one page so you can weigh them side by side.

What Tours Can You Actually Book From The Town Of 1770?

Seven of the eight tours covered here depart the 1770 marina in the Town of 1770, and one, the Lady Musgrave Experience cruise, departs Bundaberg Port Marina at Burnett Heads. The 1770 departures break into three LARC amphibious tours, one Lady Musgrave snorkelling cruise, one speedboat snorkelling trip to southern reef sites and two scuba day tours. Prices run from $31.61 to $315.37 per person. To compare all of these trips side by side, the roundup of Agnes Water boat tours covers what each one includes and where it departs from.

That spread is the whole story of this destination in one table. The cheapest ticket, the one-hour LARC Afternoon Cruise, costs about a tenth of the priciest, the eight-hour outer reef scuba day tour. In between sit two Lady Musgrave Island day cruises from two operators, $222 from the 1770 marina and $237 from Bundaberg, a $216 southern Great Barrier Reef snorkelling trip from a third operator, and a two-hour LARC coastline picnic tour that splits the difference between the short cruise and the full-day Paradise Tour.

Here is the complete menu, with the from-price, duration, vessel and rating for each:

If you want ideas for filling the rest of your stay, the guide to other things to do in Agnes Water and the Town of 1770 covers the lighthouse, the national park coastline and plenty of quieter ways to spend a day.

Two honest notes on that table. The two Dive Spear and Sport scuba trips show 5.0 across 11 reviews and 5.0 across 2 reviews. They also have different durations and group sizes, so check both booking pages before booking.

For a deeper look at any single option, the guide to Lady Musgrave Island tours covers the reef cruises in detail, and the guide to 1770 LARC! tours does the same for the amphibious side.

Which LARC Amphibious Tour Should You Choose?

The three LARC tours share one vehicle, one departure point and one 29-guest maximum, and differ mainly in time and terrain: the one-hour Afternoon Cruise from $31.61 covers Bustard Bay and Round Hill Creek, the two-hour Coastline Tour from $61.11 adds a picnic lunch, and the seven-hour Paradise Tour from $118 adds Bustard Head Lightstation, sandboarding and lunch, rated 5.0 across 615 reviews.

The LARC, a Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo vessel rebuilt for passengers, drives straight from the 1770 marina into the water and along the beaches at the edge of Eurimbula National Park. The Paradise Tour reaches Bustard Head Lightstation, and the LARC is the vehicle the whole amphibious category here is built around. Queensland Parks notes that vehicles are not permitted on beaches in Eurimbula in general; the LARC trips run as operator-authorised tours, which is why you cannot simply drive this coastline yourself.

Which of the three fits depends on how much of the day you want to give it:

The Afternoon Cruise lists food and drinks as excluded, so it is a sightseeing hour rather than a meal. The other two include lunch. The Paradise Tour's lunch is prepared by the 1770 Marina Cafe, with wraps in ham, chicken and vegetarian options, plus billy tea, according to the operator's own tour page. The lighthouse tower balcony climb is part of that tour, with one firm restriction: children under 8 are not permitted in the lighthouse tower, on building-standards grounds.

If the LARC idea is new to you, the post on whether the LARC tour is worth it works through the value question tour by tour.

Is The Full-Day Paradise Tour Worth Booking Over The Shorter LARC Trips?

The Paradise Tour, 5.0 across 615 reviews, is the most reviewed tour of the eight and the only one that includes the Bustard Head lighthouse visit and sandboarding, from $118 per person for seven hours with lunch, coffee or tea and all activities included. The shorter LARC trips cost less but cover a fraction of the coastline and skip the lightstation entirely.

The route explains the price gap. The Paradise Tour runs along the edge of Eurimbula National Park, over sandy beaches and across four tidal creeks, stops for morning tea near Jenny Lind Creek, then climbs Bustard Headland to the lightstation, where a volunteer caretaker guides the keepers' cottage museum and the skipper takes guests up the tower stairs to the balcony. After the cemetery path and an optional forest walk, the LARC crosses tidal Jenny Lind Creek to the 35 metre dunes of Middle Island for sandboarding, with equipment included, and a swim before the run home in the late afternoon.

The lighthouse itself carries a heavy history. Bustard Head Lightstation was established in 1868 in the new colony of Queensland, first exhibited on 29 June 1868, and its original cottages were destroyed by fire in 1932. The outside stairs were relocated inside the tower in 1935, the light was automated in the mid-1980s, and in 2001 the volunteer Bustard Head Lighthouse Association took a lease and restored the site, records Lighthouses of Australia. The operator calls it the Lighthouse of Tragedy, and the tour's museum and cemetery path are where that story is told.

Book the shorter trips if your day is already full or your budget is tight; the one-hour cruise at $31.61 is the cheapest tour in town and still gets you on the water in Bustard Bay. Book the Paradise Tour if the lighthouse and the dunes are the reason you came.

What Reef And Snorkelling Cruises Leave The 1770 Marina?

Two reef trips depart the 1770 marina: the 1770 Reef Eco Tours Lady Musgrave Island snorkelling day cruise, from $222 for nine hours, rated 4.3 across 257 reviews, and the Dive Spear and Sport snorkelling day trip, from $216 for nine hours, rated 4.7 across 40 reviews. Both include lunch and snorkelling gear, and both state hotel pickup is not included.

These are two genuinely different reef days at nearly the same price. The 1770 Reef Eco Tours cruise runs on a power catamaran with a stated crossing of about 90 minutes each way to Lady Musgrave Island, and its inclusions list a glass-bottom boat tour, a guided island walk and snorkelling equipment, plus lunch, morning and afternoon tea, and tea, coffee and chilled water. Wetsuits are excluded on that trip. The guided island walk is listed, though landing always depends on conditions, so treat the walk as the plan rather than a promise.

The Dive Spear and Sport trip runs on a speedboat with a maximum of 10 guests, visits two different snorkelling sites, and is the one trip on this page that includes a full length wetsuit along with the snorkelling equipment, plus lunch and snacks. The operator notes that turtles, reef sharks, octopus and colourful fish may be seen, a sighting possibility rather than a guarantee, with the reef sites and the small group the steadier parts of the day.

The tours differ in format and duration. The catamaran carries more people and layers the day with a glass-bottom boat and an island walk; the speedboat carries at most 10 and spends its time at two snorkelling sites. For the full breakdown, the guide to the Lady Musgrave Island cruise from 1770 covers the catamaran day in detail.

One fact worth folding in: Lady Musgrave Island sits 59km east-north-east of Seventeen Seventy, per Queensland Parks, and Tourism and Events Queensland calls 1770 the closest mainland departure point for the island's day tours. The waters around it sit inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, where the Marine National Park (Green) Zone is a no-take area: snorkelling, swimming and boating are open to everyone, fishing and collecting are not, as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority sets out.

Can You Scuba Dive The Southern Reef From The Town Of 1770?

Yes, through Dive Spear and Sport, which has two scuba day tours bookable here: an outer reef scuba day tour from $315.37 for eight hours with a group maximum of 14, and a southern reef scuba trip from $298 for nine hours with a group maximum of 7. Both include lunch, both depart the 1770 marina, with 11 and 2 reviews respectively.

The two pages describe similar products with different details, and they may be one trip listed twice, since durations, prices and group sizes all differ between them. The practical advice is to check both pages before paying. The nine-hour trip specifies a speedboat, two dive sites, professional dive guides, optional snorkelling, individually packed lunches and reef presentations; the eight-hour trip states less about the vessel but lists a 14-guest maximum. Scuba on these trips is for certified divers; the snorkelling-only day trip in the section above is the non-diver's route onto the same waters.

Neither scuba trip is where a first-time diver should start, but for certified divers the draw is real: small groups, southern Great Barrier Reef sites, and a departure point 59km from the island. Reef condition in the region, per the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program, shows Southern Great Barrier Reef average hard coral cover at 26.4 percent, relatively stable against 26.9 percent the year before and below the long-term average of 29.3 percent. That is a region-wide figure across 121 surveyed reefs, not a Lady Musgrave-specific one, so read it as context, not a verdict on any single dive site.

What About The Lady Musgrave Cruise From Bundaberg?

The Lady Musgrave Experience day cruise departs Bundaberg Port Marina at Burnett Heads, not the 1770 marina, runs ten hours, the longest tour of the eight, costs from $237 per person and is rated 4.8 across 368 reviews. It includes a gourmet buffet lunch, premium snorkelling equipment, a guided island walk, a glass-bottom boat tour and warm freshwater showers.

This is the trip to book if you are staying in or near Bundaberg, 122.2km or about an hour and a quarter's drive south of Agnes Water and the Town of 1770, per the regional tourism body's drive table. It is not an alternative departure for the same boat: it is a different operator, a different vessel and a different port, and its cancellation terms differ too, requiring cancellation up to 14 days in advance for a full refund, where the other seven tours ask 24 hours. That stricter policy alone should shape how early you commit. If you are still weighing which departure point and vessel suit you best, the comparison of Agnes Water snorkelling boat trips lays out prices, durations and inclusions for every reef tour side by side.

Its inclusions run longer than the 1770 cruises: morning and afternoon tea, a gourmet buffet lunch with local produce, premium Mares mask, snorkel and fins, the guided island walk and glass-bottom boat tour, and access to warm freshwater showers. Excluded are hotel pickup, wetsuit rental, dives, which are available to purchase, and a premium upgrade. If you are torn between the two ports, the post on which is better, the cruise from 1770 or Bundaberg compares them directly, and the guide to Lady Musgrave tours from Bundaberg covers the port's options.

How Much Do Town Of 1770 Tours Cost, And What Is Included In The Price?

Prices span $31.61 to $315.37 per person, with a median from-price of $219 across the eight tours. Lunch is included on seven of the eight, excluded only on the Afternoon Cruise; snorkel gear appears on three, a glass-bottom boat on two, a guided island walk on two, and the lighthouse visit and sandboarding on the full-day Bustard Head LARC! tour alone. Free cancellation is stated on all eight: 24 hours ahead on seven, 14 days on the Bundaberg cruise.

Here is the inclusion picture at a glance:

Two official costs sit outside the ticket price and are worth knowing separately. Reef operators in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park collect an environmental management charge per passenger, A$8.50 for a full day and A$4.25 for a part day, remitted by the operator; no operator states whether it sits inside or on top of the quoted price, so ask the operator when booking. And on the Paradise Tour, the operator lists all fees and taxes under exclusions, so query the operator about how those are handled at checkout rather than assuming.

What Should You Know Before Booking Any 1770 Tour?

Plan around four facts: no tour here states hotel pickup as included, with four pages stating it outright and the rest silent, so you need your own way to the marina or to Burnett Heads. All eight tours offer free cancellation, but the Bundaberg cruise's 14-day window is far stricter. Day lengths run from one to ten hours, and from-prices stretch from $31.61 to $315.37.

Getting to the departure point is the first practical question. By road, Agnes Water and the Town of 1770 sit 479.9km or about five and a half hours from Brisbane, 122.2km from Bundaberg and 123.8km from Gladstone. Long-distance coaches stop at the AMPOL service station in Agnes Water, not at the marina, so allow for the short hop from the stop to the Town of 1770 jetty. The guide on how to get to 1770 for a cruise covers every route.

Season and safety are the second question, and the honest answer is that the official sources are general rather than local. The Bureau of Meteorology's Seventeen Seventy station records mean maximums from 21.5 °C in July to 29.7 °C in January, and its driest months are June to September against a wetter December to March, so day-trip weather odds shift with the calendar. The official tropical cyclone season in the Australian region runs from 1 November to 30 April. On stingers, the Queensland Government advises that marine stingers are present in tropical Queensland waters year round with higher risk from November to May, and suggests considering a full-body lycra suit; the advice does not address 1770 or Lady Musgrave specifically, so check with your operator about suit options, which is easy on the trips where a wetsuit is already included. The post on what happens if weather cancels a Lady Musgrave cruise covers the rough-weather scenario.

Finally, timing your whole stay: the two LARC short tours and a full reef day can fit in one visit, and the post on doing a LARC tour and a Lady Musgrave cruise in one trip sketches how.

However you split your days, the eight tours above are the tours on this site, and every price, duration and rating in this guide comes straight from the operators. Match the tour to your budget and your appetite for hours on the water, check both scuba trips if diving is your aim, and label your ports correctly: seven departures from the 1770 marina, one from Burnett Heads.

Common Questions About Town Of 1770 Tours