Josh and Julie Niland’s Guide to Hamilton Island: Seven Top Tips by Broadsheet

Written by Lucy Bell Bird, 12 Sept 2025, Broadsheet

The celebrated chefs, and honorary Queensland locals, share their favourite things to eat, see and do in the Whitsundays. Especially with four kids in tow.

Powerhouse hospo couple Josh and Julie Niland are still fairly new to the Hamilton Island scene – their restaurant, Catseye Pool Club, only opened in April this year. But they’ve already covered a lot of tropical ground, brought the kids along, and are poised to make the island their second home. “My three-year-old actually works Hamilton Island into most conversations, which is getting embarrassing,” Julie tells Broadsheet .

The duo – whose empire began with “fin-to-tail” restaurant Saint Peter in Sydney’s Paddington and now includes butcheries, a boutique hotel , a retail arm and a series of award-winning cookbooks – were approached about opening a restaurant on the island a few years ago and have spent plenty of time there since, both in and out of the kitchen.
Now the two are honorary locals, they share their top tips for making the most of a Whitsundays getaway.
 

Give thanks for kid-friendly travel

The Nilands’ restaurant on Hamilton Island is at The Sundays, a luxe new family-friendly hotel. An added bonus: it’s given them the opportunity to explore the island with their four young kids.

“I try to avoid tricky holidays, like anywhere that might be far away from a hospital or anywhere that’s a long flight,” explains Julie, who says the two-and-a-half-hour trip from their home base in Sydney fits the bill. “The kids can enjoy the flight – all the fun little things like watching a movie and getting the food delivered. Then, before they’re sick of it, you’re there, you’re on a golf buggy to your hotel and you’re on holidays.”

Visit an enormous crocodile (or a koala)

“Our kids are pretty little, so they like the zoo,” Julie says. “It’s small, but it’s got a giant crocodile – the biggest I’ve ever seen in real life. It sits next to the glass, so I’ve got photos of the kids sitting next to this crocodile. There’s a cassowary, and you can walk through the kangaroos. It’s connected to the Wildlife Cafe, which they love; [the cafe has] koalas in trees, so that’s fun. They are also obsessed with the gift shop – we come home every time with a new toy.”

See what’s cooking at Catseye

It was the Catseye Pool Club restaurant that brought the Nilands to the Whitsundays. When they announced they’d be opening a “kid-friendly” diner, some were sceptical. Josh Niland is, after all, the king of “fish eye ice-cream” and kids are famously squeamish about that sort of thing.

The restaurant – which serves proteins beyond seafood – uses the same ethos as Saint Peter, but the dishes it produces are quite different, Josh says.

“We just wanted to serve food that was generously cooked. We start with whole raw product and we cook it for you to order. We’ve tried to create something where, if you order this beautiful piece of coral trout, or a roast chicken, or a braised piece of lamb, it comes with all of its necessary condiments.

"Everything is separate so that the kids can go, ‘Well, I don’t like tomatoes, I don’t like onion, don’t pour sauce on my things’. It serves a purpose of being inclusive to a whole table, from grandma down to newborn.”

Dessert includes Julie’s chocolate cake. The pastry chef, who’s worked in top kitchens like Marque and Sixpenny, says it has the kids’ (slightly dramatic) stamp of approval. “We had tears over that cake. The kids were fighting over it so we had to order more. It comes with two half-passionfruits. [We] empty out the fruit and fill it with passionfruit curd and then put the passionfruit seeds on top. My son Ted was like, ‘Can I have this in my lunchbox?’”
 

Swim, souva, repeat

The focal point of The Sundays? “The pool, which is incorporated into the restaurant,” Julie says. “The pool is really heated, so the kids swim all day.”

The pool bar menu needed “one identifiably unique thing”, Josh explains. Enter the souvas. “They seem to scratch the itch for a lot of people, and they’re a bit of an all-in-one-meal. You feel full after it, but it’s not quite dinner. At the very basic level, it’s a beautifully wood-roasted piece of dough that we fill with garlic sauce, raw onion, tomatoes, parsley, fries, lots of sumac, and then your chosen protein or vegetable.”

Check out some tropical tutus

On their first trip, Julie and Josh left the kids at home with grandparents and headed to Qualia . Long considered one of the country’s premier resorts, it’s a “no kids allowed” kind of place. Every two years, The Australian Ballet flies up for Pas de Deux in Paradise , exclusively for Qualia guests. (The next performance is in May 2026.) “I’m not a ballet-goer,” Josh says. “It was my first time being in Qualia, and my first time witnessing ballet. I was just so impressed.

“They had a stage set up on the sand. It was about 4.30pm when the dancers started to come out and the sky was kind of pinkish-orange. Then half an hour went by, and then it kind of went orangey-red, and then it moved to a reddish-blue, and then blue-purple. It was the most unbelievable light that I’ve ever seen in a natural space.”

Splash about at Whitehaven Beach

Seven kilometres of white-sand beach leading to turquoise waters brimming with tropical fish and coral reefs is worth a daytrip or two, Julie says. “We did a trip to Whitehaven this time, which was really nice and very easy with the little kids. You can explore the rainforest. You can play on the sand and swim in the shallow waters with fish swimming around you. They were so blown away by the fish! I thought, ‘Oh, I should really take them snorkelling because it’ll just blow their minds seeing coral and bright, colourful fish.’ So we’re doing that next time.”

Make some memories

Outside of The Sundays, for a casual dinner Julie recommends The Palms . “It’s like a smoky barbeque, outdoor food truck-style restaurant. The kids like the burgers from there. They’re also obsessed with the big pool at the resort centre. In the school holidays, they set up hair-braiding and spray tattoos.”

Of course, the Nilands aren’t just doing this for their kids. “The whole mission is to try to forge some memories within a new generation of kids,” Josh says. “To show them that we have luxury within Australia.”

This story is part of Broadsheet’s special Aussie Travel Issue , presented by Up, exploring uncommon escapes and remarkable stays close to home.


About the author: Lucy Bell Bird is Broadsheet's national assistant editor.