One of the most recognisable resorts on the coast road between Cairns and Port Douglas is on the market, and the timeline is short. Turtle Cove Beach Resort at Wangetti is being sold by best offers, closing at 4:00pm AEST on Thursday 10 September 2026.
If you have driven the Captain Cook Highway you have almost certainly gone straight past it. Turtle Cove sits tucked behind the roadside vegetation on the Wangetti stretch, on its own piece of beach, and it has been there since 1993.
What is actually being sold
The campaign is with Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty and is running as best offers, so no asking price has been published. The property details below come from the agency listing and the matching realcommercial.com.au advertisement, both of which were live and current as at 09/09/2026.
- Address: 4500 Captain Cook Highway, Wangetti QLD 4877
- Land: 1.14 hectares (2.82 acres), freehold, absolute beachfront
- Buildings: 2,368 square metres of floor area
- Rooms: 30 guest suites
- Zoning: Commercial, offered with vacant possession
- Offers close: 4:00pm AEST, Thursday 10 September 2026
The marketing leans hard on the isolation, describing a site with no neighbours within four kilometres, rainforest at its back and the Coral Sea at its shore. That part is not sales talk. Wangetti is a genuinely empty run of coast, pinned between the Macalister Range and the sea, and the resort has its beach more or less to itself.
The detail worth noticing is vacant possession and commercial zoning. The agency is openly floating several futures for the site: keep it intimate, rebuild it as a luxury resort or wellness retreat, or take the lot private as a family estate. In other words, the buyer is not necessarily buying a running resort.
Thirty-plus years of a very particular place
Turtle Cove has been going since 1993. QNews and the Star Observer both reported the sale in July 2026 and both describe it as Australia’s iconic LGBTQIA+ resort, which is the history most people know it for.
Its own wording today is broader. The resort’s website describes it as “a unique space for ALL Respectful Adults, including Minority Groups”, “supporting and evolving for our communities since 1993”, and bills itself as Australia’s only adults-only absolute beachfront resort.
Practically, that means 30 rooms at a range of rates, a pool and spa the resort says never close, a gym, health spa, library and games room, a BYO food and drink setup rather than a conventional restaurant, and an adjacent secluded beach that is clothing optional. It is small, adults only, and unapologetically social.
Why the owners are selling
Jacinta and Kelvin Banks have owned Turtle Cove since 2008. The Star Observer reported that Kelvin’s son Jake pointed the property out to him, and that the couple bought it after selling an industrial tyre business. Kelvin told the paper the appeal was never the fit-out: “It’s different than any other hotel. It’s so social.”
The reason for selling is the plain one. Kelvin told the Star Observer that he and Jacinta are getting on, and that the time has come. The same report set out the honest commercial backdrop as well, with visitor numbers softening as dating apps changed the way people travel and meet, on top of the cyclones and COVID closures that hit every operator on this coast.
QNews reported that the owners offered the resort to the LGBTQIA+ community first, before it went to the broader market, and that managers Nathan and Julien have been running the place for eight years.
It is still open, and still taking bookings
Worth saying plainly, because “resort for sale” headlines make people assume the worst: Turtle Cove is still trading. QNews reported in July that it continues to operate as usual, and as at 09/09/2026 the resort’s own website is still advertising rooms and running a check availability booking function.
If you are holding a booking, or you were thinking about one, deal directly with the resort rather than through us or anyone else. A change of ownership can change a lot, and the resort is the only party that can tell you where your reservation stands.
Where Wangetti actually is
Wangetti sits roughly halfway along the coast road between Cairns and Port Douglas, which is the drive most visitors rate as the best hour in the region. It is the same stretch that holds Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures and Rex Lookout, and the beach itself is getting the Wangetti Trail built along it.
South of it you have Ellis Beach and Palm Cove. North of it, Port Douglas. If you are weighing up where to base yourself along that run, our guide to where to stay in Cairns breaks the areas down.
We will update this post once the outcome of the best offers campaign is public.
Sources: Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty and realcommercial.com.au listings, accessed 09/09/2026; QNews, 6 July 2026; Star Observer, 7 July 2026; and the resort’s own website.
