Fraser Island

Fraser Island  

From Rainbow Beach we were going an on adventure tour of Fraser Island, named after Captain James Fraser who mastered the Stirling Castle for the Dutch East India Co to sail from London to Hobart in Tasmania. He was 62 years old and just retired from the Royal Navy. He had plenty of experience but he had lost several ships. He took his wife, half his age on an old ship which neither he nor the ship had visited Australia before.

They were shipwrecked on their return journey and set off in two lifeboats. One boat went south to Brisbane, the other with Fraser went north to the Great Sandy Island, later called Fraser Island, and later call K'gari which is the original name used by the local Butchula people meaning Paradise. 

It was the name of the princess who created some beautiful parts of the world for the creator but wanted to reside on the world. The creator granted her the wish but she would have to live there forever and she became Fraser Island.

The four wheel drive vehicle that we would be travelling on around the island. The whole island is a national park but there are still some privately owned land, houses and hotel plus a few stretches of tarmac but the vast majority of the tracks are just sand and not surprising as this is the largest sand island in the world.

Every vehicle on the island is a 4x4, even the coaches like the one we would be travelling on. The speed limit is 80 mph on the beaches (with some further lower restrictions) or 30 mph on the inland sand tracks.

The driver referred to our ferry as a barge, but I would liken it to a military landing craft. There are no facilities, it just uses a stretch of sand between the mainland and the island. The mainland departure point.

A spur of and which is the landing point on the mainland at Inskip Point.

The landing point on the island...just a stretch of sand with no facilities. Access to the rest of the island is along the beach until there is a rift in the dunes with a track leading inland.

One of the vehicles waiting for a ferry off the island and in the distance, the mainland and an illustration of how close the island is to the mainland, separated just by the Great Sandy Strait at just one kilometre.

We hadn't gone far along the beach when we came across two dingoes, searching for food. The dingoes here number between 170 - 250 but are the most pure blood line in the country. 

We were reminded about the rules. You are not allowed to touch any of the wildlife on the island. If you met a dingo, stand still. Whatever you do, do not run. They are scavengers and predators but if you run, it triggers the hunting instinct in them and they will chase you.

                                        
A pipi shell, dug up for us by a fisherman. There are like shellfish found all over the world, a nice snack, a lovely dish in a restaurant or useful bait for anglers. They are in plentiful supply all along the beach.

This is not an usual sight along the beach here. In certain places there are landing strips, set up for when the tides are right for sight seeing flights across the island. Monitors came out and check the conditions and set up bollards to cone an area off when a plane wants to land or take off. The beach 'road', meaning the track along the waterline for vehicles, is closed temporarily for landings and take-offs.

One of many fresh water streams fed by rain water that run from the centre to the sea. The 4x4 always slowed don to cross these, even if they looked shallow but passengers always felt a bump.

Another dingo crossing our path. They scavenge but we are fined if we feed them or even have food in a prohitited area. But they can smell food and come to investigate.

At Eli Creek, we were able to have a paddle in the stream or walk along the board walk and then float or sit in a rubber ring and go down the stream to the bridge and around a bend to the sea. Very few people went beyond the bridge as we had been warned about the gutters.

There is barrier reef or a line of sand out to sea where the waves break. On the landward side of this is a deeper stretch of water. This is what the locals call a gutter. I don't fish, so I don't what the home expression is but it is aa area of shallows, running parallel to the shore.

Small fish hide here from larger fish. Larger fish know this and come to hunt prey. Even Great Whites know this and enter through one of several deeper cuts in the barrier to reach their prey, sometimes swimming in less than a metre depth of water. It is not necessarily a safe place to swim. Be aware of the dangers and perhaps paddle, but don't go out too deep.

At different times of year, there are also stinging jellyfish, sharks and rays so it may be best not to wade any deeper than the knee.

The truck at Eli Creek from the bridge. 

The beach opposite the outflow of Eli's Creek into the sea, a vast expanse of gently shelving, clean golden sand with on one using it.

We moved up the coast for just five minutes to see the wreck of the Maheno. It was built in UK in 1905 and plied the route between Sydney and Auckland. She became a hospital ship in the First World Wr, serving in Gallipoli and off the coast of France for the Western Front.

She returned to service as an up market cruise ship but was finally sold for scrap. A japanese company was towing her up the east coast but she broke her lines in a storm and she floundered on the beach The company salvaged what they could and left her here.

I took several photos... of her prow...

...her midships...

...and her aft.

Then we had a long trip through the rain forest, the only rain forest on a sand island, making it another unique feature and another qualifying feature to make it a world heritage site.

And even the younger trees are big. And I say younger as the lake is named after Mackenzie who built a sawmill here and cut down many of the native trees and operated for a long time but there are till several examples to see.

And then it was up to Mackenzie Lake, just one of several crystal clear, freshwater lakes on the island fed only by rain water. 

It is a beautiful scene with clear fresh water, clear water and endless white sands. 

A view over the water the 1.2 by one kilometre Mackenzie Lake. 

A lucky shot of the ferry or as our driver Roger called it, our barge to take us from K'gari Island back to the mainland. The ferry is always busy and they don't like to hang around as our driver Roger warned us. 

We had  a brief opportunity to have a drink and and a biscuit but it was only a shortstop. As soon as the last vehicle had driven off, they would take the next vehicles on board.

And then is was a short drive drive back to our accommodation at Rainbow Beach.

The next day we drove to Brisbane and took the flight to Prosepine and a transfer to our hotel at Airlie Beach. 

An aerial view of Fraser Island as we flew over. 

A closer view of the ferry terminals form the end of the spit across the strait. I could see the ferry with the naked eye but the photo is insufficiently high resolution to show it.  

A view of the marina at Airlie Beach on our late afternoon stroll into the town centre. It has a lively town centre as it is a drinking town with a sailing problem. It is very popular and is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, so there is a lot of footfall and a lot of cafes and restaurants to satisfy that demand.