The State forest includes extensive exotic pine plantations and small remnants of wallum heaths, melaleuca wetlands, banksia woodlands, and blue gum and scribbly gum open forest. Mangrove lined estuaries along the Great Sandy Strait provide great boating and fishing opportunities.

Tuan is a low-key holiday destination for people who love boating, canoeing and fishing in the Great Sandy Strait and adjacent creeks. The Great Sandy Strait is an important Ramsar site with essential sand flats for both migratory and shorebirds.

Stretching from Kauri Creek to Boonooroo in the coastal lowlands along the Great Sandy Strait, Tuan State Forest contains some of the most extensive exotic pine plantations in Queensland. The forest also has small remnants of eucalypt forest, coastal wallum, melaleuca wetlands and mangrove lined estuaries.

Enjoy the wildflower display during late winter and spring in the wildflower reserve along Tinnanbar Road. There are many opportunities for bird watching in the forest and nearby in Great Sandy Regional Park.

Indigenous people hunted and gathered in the estuary. Dugong rendering, one of the regions first industries, took place here. The Great Sandy Marine Park protects these unique animals, and ‘Go Slow’ zones have helped maintain dugong populations in the area.

The area has been a popular camping and fishing destination for many years. Foresters used the estuary to raft timber from Kauri Creek to Maryborough’s sawmills.