Fraser Island
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Image:Fraser Island view from Indian Head.jpg Fraser Island, aboriginal K'Gari, is the largest sand island in the world at 1630 km². It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992.
Fraser Island is located off the east coast of Australia approximately 200 km north of Brisbane, Queensland. With Cooloola, the island forms the Great Sandy Region, stretching 175 km north to south, varying in width up to 25 km, with the highest elevation of 260 m. The Fraser Island area is protected in the name of Great Sandy National Park.
The island is reached by ferry and a four-wheel drive vehicle is a requirement. There are plenty of available campsites with views of the ocean and migrating whales. There are also restricted areas where the land is left to rehabilitate.
Tour buses do travel the island but the true fun is renting a four-wheeler and driving on the beach and on the sand roads.
The freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. The most popular is Lake McKenzie which is inland from the small town of Eurong. It is where many a tourist stops for a restful swim. It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter. The beach sand is nearly pure silica and is good for washing hair, teeth, jewelry, and exfoliating the skin. The lakes have very few nutrients and are slightly acidic. Sunscreen and soaps are a form of pollution. Also urine will change the color of the water thus embarrassing anyone who did not use the convenient restrooms.
Eli Creek is a popular place to swim on the east coast of the island, as the water is fresh and cool year round. There is a boardwalk that is good for a short walk through the bush. Some cell phones will work south of Eli creek.
Image:LakeMcKenzieBeachWithPeople.jpg
The trees on Fraser island make excellent timber due to the rich sand full of minerals and silicone. Some of the Fraser island timber found their way into the walls of Suez Canal. Extensive logging took place right through to the mid 1900's. Rail way trackes were laid through the forest to facilitate logging, but were later ripped out. Railway Central Station remains as a popular tourism destination on the island. The station is surrounded by bushwalking tracks to enable full appreciation of the variety of plants living on the island. Some of the rarest fern grow along the rainforest near the station. With year-round south-easterly wind, huge sand dunes on the island move at the rate of 1 - 2 metres a year, burying away everything on the way, thus making sand on the island extremely rich with nutrients. Sand is contantly washed ashore from as far as New South Wales.
Dingoes are common on the island. These animals are some of the last remaining pure dingoes; so dogs are not allowed on the island. Tourists are warned not to feed the dingoes on the basis that they are wild dogs. There is no history of dingoes attacking humans on Fraser Island up until 1995 or so. In 2001, a boy wandered away from his family and was discovered dead, with indications of a dingo attack. The true circumstances of his death may never be known. It is also wise to secure your shoes as the Dingos sometimes take a shoe and chew it to an unusable condition. The remaining number of dingoes on the island is estimated to be approximately 150. Image:Copy of Creek4.JPG A major landmark of Fraser Island is the shipwreck of the Maheno. On June 25th, 1935 she was being towed from Melbourne to Japan for scrap metal when she was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. She has since severely rusted and it is not allowed to climb on the ship.
The original name of the island is 'K'gari' in the Butchulla people's language. It means paradise. The arrival of European settlers in the area was an overwhelming disaster for the Butchulla people. There are currently no aboriginal tribes living on Fraser Island.
The name Fraser Island comes from Eliza Fraser. Captain James Fraser and his wife, Eliza Fraser, were shipwrecked on the island. The name of the ship was the Stirling Castle. Captain Fraser died but Eliza did make it off the island. After that Eliza made money travelling around England and Australia telling her story of the events that had occurred while the Stirling Castle’s officers were on the island. She is known to have told several versions of the story; it is unknown which version is the most accurate.
In the 1950s, Fraser Island was proposed by Australia as a location for the resettlement of the entire population of the Republic of Nauru. Experiencing racial discrimination, Nauru rejected the offer of moving the entire population to Fraser Island, and new prospects for the movement of the entire Nauruan population to an Australian location still seem fraught with difficulties.
External link
- Satellite image from Google MapsTemplate:World Heritage Sites In Australia
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