The Reef Trail

Yuwi/ Mackay Region

2024 Dates Announced Soon

World Firsts and Once in a Lifetimes

Between the Tides 2023 was a world-first concert experience held in nature's time...between the tides.

#The Reef Trail 2023 Recap

“Between the Tides” took place over two sold-out evenings on the stunning Cape Hillsborough coastline (Yuwibara Country). As the sun sank behind the tree-lined ridges of the headland, national treasures and self-proclaimed “Rocky boys” Busby Marou took to a temporary stage erected on the world-famous beach to share an exclusive preview of their new album, in the first event ever held on Cape Hillsborough beach.

As late afternoon fell, attendees began to arrive by bus (limited parking onsite minimised environmental impact). After being greeted by QMF staff, guests were ushered first into the Gathering Space: a shaded eucalypt grove above the beach, where visitors explored expressions of Country both ancient and contemporary. In this pop-up parkland village, garlanded with light and colour, guests browsed stalls featuring local First Nations-created arts and crafts, and partook in ochre-making workshops. They enjoyed premium locally-crafted food and beverage offerings; live entertainment by emerging local artist Jonte Tupaea; and a First Nations cultural program, including Torres Strait Islander weaving, and a bush medicine talk.

At dusk, our Yuwi hosts led visitors from the Gathering Space down a softly-lit path through bushland to the beach. There they passed through the cleansing smoke of a fire overseen by Yuwi elder Uncle Gary Mooney.

Against the backdrop of the Coral Sea and the rainforest-covered headland, twenty members of the multi-generational Tchundal Malar Dance Troupe performed a magnificent Welcome to Country: “singing up” the land, and sharing stories of curlews and dolphins in a language that was until recently on the verge of extinction.

Finally, with the scent of saltwater on a light breeze, and the sun setting behind the ridge, Busby Marou took to the stage. As Jeremy and Thomas reminisced about being up-and-coming musicians dreaming of selling out a gig like this, children cartwheeled along the beach, and guitar harmonies echoed across the bay, from Casuarina Beach to Orchid Rock. As the first-ever Between the Tides drew to a close, the friends, families and elders, dancing barefoot together on the sand, left nothing but footprints, and took only memories.