Mission Beach is a small, lush coastal village in tropical North Queensland, squeezed between the rainforest and the Coral Sea. It is one of the few places in Australia where the Wet Tropics rainforest grows right down to the beach, and that combination — palm-fringed sand backed by thick jungle — gives it a feel quite different from the more developed resort towns along the coast.
The main draw is Dunk Island, visible just offshore and reachable by water taxi. The island has good walking trails through rainforest and a long sandy beach. Back on the mainland, the fourteen-kilometre Mission Beach walk connects the villages of South Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, and Mission Beach through coastal scrub and cassowary habitat. This is one of the best places in Australia to spot a southern cassowary in the wild — the birds wander through gardens and across roads, especially in the wet season.
Mission Beach is also a popular spot for skydiving — the beach landing zone, with the reef and islands spread out below, is one of the most scenic in the country. White-water rafting on the Tully River, about forty minutes south, is another popular day trip.