Fraser
Island is a giant sandbar and the world’s largest sand island located off the coast of
Queensland. Melinda dropped me in Noosa for the 2-3 hour journey via Rainbow beach. It measures 120km by 15km and was created over thousands of years of longshore drift .It has a variety of landscapes- vast rolling sand dunes (known as sandblows) to dense tropical rainforest to over 100 fresh water lakes (including the world famous Lake Mckenzie). It has been a world heritage site since 1993 and is home to 40 different mammal species including lizards, dingoes, turtles, sharks, whales, spiders, snakes and the giant cockroach. There are no paved roads on Fraser, this is 4WD territory!
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Fraser Island from the bus
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| Collecting seafood |
Fraser Island (as the rest of Australia too) was originally home to the Aborigines (Butchella) and was first ‘discovered’ by Captain Cook in 1770.The Aborigines named it K’Gari (meaning paradise) but its name was changed in 1836 when Eliza Fraser was the only survivor of a shipwreck (and was subsequently looked after by the Aborigines). Eventually Europeans started to arrive in large numbers and the aboriginal population began to decline due to a lack of natural food and exposure to diseases such as measles and smallpox brought by the Europeans. This largely mirrors the story for the rest of
Australia.
Our arrival, after a short ferry ride, was magical. The longest beach on the east coast of the island measures 75 miles and we drove along the edge of the sea in the Trailblazer bus to some appropriate sounds that made you feel like you were in the most special place on earth. The pictures don’t quite do it justice but the blue sky, beautiful clouds and a beach that stretches on for infinity in front of you with not another person or vehicle is sight…I’m sure you get the picture.
We did a short jungle trek (passing through the logging headquarters as Fraser has been exploited for its natural resources in the past, trees an sand although both practices have now ended) after settling in at Trailblazer base camp and ended up at the stunning Lake Birrabeen where we were able to swim and relax with the whole place to ourselves.This is a perfect example of a ‘perched lake’ composed entirely of rainwater with no connection to the ocean. It sits on organic matter which creates a seal so the rainwater can’t seep through. Our guide, Jacob, was so knowledgeable (as well as having a great taste in music) and pointed out lots of features and interesting pieces of information. We saw:- trees that shed their bark (see picture), the world’s oldest ferns (see picture) plants whose seeds turn into bread and a blue tongue lizard. We ended the day with a walk along the beach before a barbeque supper.
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| Indian Head on the eastern tip of the island |
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| 75 mile beach at dusk |
Our second day saw an early start to watch the sunrise although a storm quickly ended our plans. After an early breakfast we made our way to Indian Head at the tip of the eastern side of the island (so called when Captain Cook saw the first Aborigines gazing out to sea as he approached). This is a sacred spot and it was easy to see why. We spent a couple of hours on the rocks which offered spectacular 360 degree views and gave us a platform to spot plenty of marine life. We saw tiger sharks (it’s too dangerous to swim around
Fraser Island), manta rays and sea turles. After we drove to Eli Creek (the largest freshwater creek on the eastern side) which pours 8 million litres of fresh water into the Pacific each day, passing the Pinnacles, the multi coloured sand cliffs formed by rain blowing from the Pacific ocean, and the famous ‘Maheno’ shipwreck which ran aground after a cyclone in 1935 (see picture).
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| The Pinnacles |
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| The Maheno shipwreck |
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Jacob relaxes at Eli Creek
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Our final day took us to
Lake Wabby, the only lake on the island that supports many different types of fish and was wonderful to swim across. On the way we saw a dingo at last and on the way home wild horses and a kangaroo bouncing along in the grass!
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| The stunning approach to Lake Wabby |
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| Trees that shed their bark |
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| Dingo alert! |
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| On the shore of Lake Birrabeen |
I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and would recommend Trailblazers to anyone who gets the opportunity to come to this part of
Australia. The group and our guide made it a very memorable experience ( 3 English, 5 Germans and 12 Taiwanese!). It was pitched perfectly by our guide Jacob. A very memorable experience.
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