Rainbow Beach and the coloured sands legend.

“Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.”
― Danny Kaye

13/10/2021

The coloured cliffs of Rainbow Beach form a natural art gallery that is constantly changing due the rain, wind and sea eroding the sandstone and causing different colours and patterns to be exposed.

There are 72 different shades of sand – created from iron-rich minerals over thousands of years.

Aboriginal legend tells the story of Rainbow Beach:

Way back in the dreamtime, there was a beautiful maiden called Murrawar who fell in love with the Rainbow and she would clap her hands and sing to the rainbow who would visit her every night.

One day an evil man from a distant tribe, Burwilla, saw Murrawar and stole her to become his slave/wife. He was very cruel to her, beating her and forcing her to do all the work while he sat in the shade admiring his killing boomerang which was bigger than the tallest tree and filled with evil spirits.

Finally Murrawar was able to escape and ran along the beach as fast as she could.

Burwilla’s killing boomerang chased after her and as she fell down too tired and frightened to run any more she cried out for help.

Suddenly a loud noise was heard in the sky and Murrawar’s faithful rainbow could be seen racing towards her across the sea.

The evil spirited boomerang attacked the brave rainbow and they met with a noise like a huge crash of thunder. The impact killed the boomerang and shattered the rainbow into thousands of little pieces.

As the coloured pieces of the rainbow landed on the beach the sand dune magically transformed into the coloured cliffs that we all know and love today.

I never tire of seeing the view of the coloured cliffs and I know how lucky I am to be able to see them while driving along the beach every day.

Experience the freedom of exploring them at your own pace and marvel at their beauty by hiring one of our self-drive 4wd’s. They’re definitely worth a look!