Fraser Island Information
Fraser Island, is the worlds largest known sand island, being 124 kilometres long, covering an area of 165,280 hectares, and rising to a height of 235 metres. The island is the northern-most of five sand islands nestled close to the east coast of Queensland.
Fraser Island is situated just east of nearby Hervey Bay . A short barge trip from Hervey Bay's River Heads will land visitors on the western side of the Island. The island is also easily accessed rom Rainbow Beach.
The island was named after a shipwreck victim, Eliza Fraser.
This sub-tropical island has an amazing array of natural wonders including beautiful rain forests, pristine lakes, endless surf beaches, immense sand blows, cliffs of coloured sands, crystal clear streams and vast stretches of mangroves. The island encompasses an amazing variety of landscapes, long surf beaches, cliffs and gorges in shades of orange, red, yellow and pure white sand, dense rain forests, vast, desert-like sandblows, freshwater lakes perched high up in its dunes, winding streams, great basalt headlands and salt pans with eerie mangrove forests.
Scientists believe Fraser Island has developed over a period of approximately 800,000 years, with most of its sand arriving from northern New South Wales, washed into the sea by the big rivers of that area, and strong sea currents that carry it north. The sand collected around small rocky outcrops. When the sea level dropped during the last ice age, the prevailing south-easterly winds heaped the sand into massive dunes throughout the island
Sand is the island's foundation, but water is its life force, giving rise to the island's vast tracts of forest. Fraser Island has an abundance of freshwater in its many lakes and crystal clear creeks and streams. Pristine clear mirror lakes and the peat- coloured perched lakes, are some of the largest of their kind in the world. Across the broad stretches of the ocean beach and running through the cool shady havens of the rain forest, comes the flow of the island's many creeks and streams.
Most of the island's annual 1800 mm of rainfall arrives between December and May. The island absorbs rainfall like a huge sponge and releases it into lakes and constantly flowing creeks.
Water has meant the creation of exceptional rain forests, growing in sand and surviving on nutrients from the breakdown of other plants. Towering satinay and brush box are among the forest giants, some over a thousand years old. The variety of vegetation on Fraser is exceptional, ranging from mangroves to kauri forests and wallum heathlands that fill with wildflowers in the early Spring.
The beaches and forests are the habitat of more than 230 species of birds - one of the largest and most varied bird communities in Australia. Isolation from the mainland has also ensured the purity of the island's dingo population.
Listed as a World Heritage site in 1992, Fraser Island joins the ranks of the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Kakadu National Parks as being of universal significance as the largest coastal dune system and sand island in the world and for its special environments. As a precious part of Queensland's natural and cultural heritage, it is protected for all to appreciate, enjoy and respect.
This World Heritage listed phenomenon has dense rainforest, which house a huge variety of plant life and animals, and also have the most delightful crystal clear streams running through them. Heritage listing has given the island international status as a place with extreme natural beauty.
Probably the best way to see Fraser Island is by four wheel drive vehicles. Hervey Bay has a number of four wheel drive hire companies. Guided tours of the island also operate from Hervey Bay daily. It is also accessible by air. Charter planes land regularly on the beach at Fraser Island.
Fraser Island has about 40 spectacular freshwater lakes, spanning some 202 hectares, The major places of interest, include :
Eli Creek - The creek pours 4 million litres of beautiful fresh clean water every hour, into the ocean. It is the largest freshwater creek along the east coast of the island. Swimming is permitted in this fresh fast flowing creek.
The Lakes - Fraser Island has many lakes including Lake McKenzie, Lake Birrabeen, Lake Boomajin, Lake Bowarrady, Lake Wabby and Ocean Lake. Some of the lakes are unique "perched lakes" held by impermeable rock in depressions between sand dunes, and located well above the sea level. Lake Boomajin is the largest perched lake in the world covering over 200 hectares. Probably the most popular lake is Lake Mckenzie, which is surrounded by a rich blackbutt forest and provides crystal clear water for swimming. Swimming in these lakes is memorable experience. The lakes on the island each have their own individual character - from lakes stained red with tannin to others with pure white sand and crystal clear water.
The "Maheno" Wreck - Situated approximately 64 kilometres from the southern tip of the island, on the eastern beach, lies the wreck of the Maheno. The ship was blown ashore in 1935, during a cyclone. She was previously a luxury ex-Trans Tasman liner, being towed to Japan for scrap, when her tow rope snapped during the cyclone.
Indian Head - This magnificent basalt headland standing 60 metres in height, on the eastern beach provides excellent vies and is the choice fishing spot during the tailor fishing season in winter.
Coloured Sands - Many of the sand cliffs on the eastern beaches include coloured sands, in yellows, reds and orange colours. The cliffs have been sculptured by the winds.
Camping Grounds - The island boasts many National Parks and private camping grounds with showers, toilets and water. The main camping areas include Central Station, Dundaburra, Cathedral Beach Resort, Lake McKenzie, Lake Boomanjin Wathumba Creek and Waddy Point. 0
Wangoolba Creek, near Central Station
Central Station - Central Station was originally established as a forestry camp in 1920. Today it is the main information centre for the island. The area include picturesque walks along Wangoolba Creek and the nearby picnic areas. The creek flows silently over white sand along the floor of a thick rain forest. Wangoolba's creekside walkways pass the angiopteris ferns, an ancient species boasting the largest single fern fronds in the world. Close-by are huge stands of Kauri and Hoop pine fringed with large staghorns. This is a popular stopover point. Exploring these forests can take up an entire holiday on Fraser.
Resorts - There are a number of resorts on the island which cater for all standards of accommodation. These include Kingfisher Bay Resort, Eurong Resort and Happy Valley Resort.
Towns - The main townships on the island include Eurong, Happy Valley and Orchid Beach..
Anchorage's - The island has many safe anchorage's including Wathumba Creek and Garry's Anchorage on the western side of the island.
The island is one of Queensland best fishing spots. The east coast is renown for its tailor, whiting flathead, swallowtail and tarwhine. There is an annual fishing competition on the island which draws huge crowds during the tailor season.
Fraser Island houses 40 dune lakes, and these are the homes for many native animals species, as well as an enormous variety of plant life. There are a number of packages available to tourists, as well as a variety of resorts on the island itself. For more information on these, click on the text icons on the left of your screen.
In this fragile eco system the rainforest consists of huge satinay and brush box, kauri pines, piccabeen palms and the rare angiopteris fern which is one of the largest ferns in the world. All this growing in pure sand ! There are many wonderful walking tracks through these areas to enable visitors to appreciate the unique beauty of the island.
Fraser Island is home to over 200 species of birds along with a variety of mammals, wallabies, snakes, dingoes, possums, turtles and flying foxes.
PRISTINE LAKES AND CRYSTAL CREEKS
If sand is the key to how Fraser Island was formed, then water has been the reason it has become so special. The combination of environments, particularly the rainforests, have established through Fraser's wealth of freshwater sources.
CREEKS
Crystal clear creeks and streams flow through the cool, shady forests and out into the sheltered waters of Hervey Bay on the western side of the island. Along the ocean shore, hundreds of streams punctuate the smooth, sandy beach. Of all the creeks and streams on Fraser, two stand out as exceptional. Wangoolba Creek at Central Station and Eli Creek on the eastern side of the island. Eli Creek on the eastern side of the island, is the largest of the freshwater streams flowing into the ocean. Eli is a popular swimming spot for visitors, with walkways for you to appreciate its beauty.
LAKES
It would be hard to imagine lakes clearer than those on Fraser Island. The water is so pure that the 40 or so lakes support relatively little life. There are three types of lakes on Fraser, window, barrage and perched lakes. Window lakes occur when the ground drops below the water table. The fine white sandy base acts as filters, giving the water its clarity. There are several window lakes including Yankee Jack, Ocean lake and Lake Wabby. Lake Wabby is also termed a barrage lake, which is formed by the damming action of a sandblow blocking the waters on a natural spring. Wabby is relatively close to the ocean side of the island and unlike the other lakes it supports several varieties of fish. It is also a good example of the sandblow phenomena, gradually encroaching on the deep green waters of Wabby as the sandblow makes its gradual progress westward across the island.
Swimmers in the lake should not run and dive off the sandblow - the water is very shallow close to the edge of the lake. Perched lakes occur above the water table. Saucer-shaped depressions with a hard, impervious base of organic matter and sand, form a catchment for the rain eventually creating the lake. The peat-like base generally stains the water the colour of tea. In the northern half of the island, Lake Bowarrady is the highest of the perched lakes being some 120 metres above sea level. In the southern part of the island there is Lake Birrabeen and the popular Lake McKenzie. Lake Boomajin approximately 190 hectares in area is the world's largest perched dune lake.
Each of the lakes has its own particular character. Mysterious, moody and beautiful, they are excellent subjects for photography, great places to see birds, other fauna and flora and a welcome oasis for the hot Summer days. Scenic 4WD circuits and walking tracks in the southern half of the island take in some of the largest of the lakes including McKenzie, Birrabeen, Benaroon and Boomajin, There is a walking track to Lake Wabby from the beach.
ENVIRONMENTAL CODE
To maintain the natural beauty of the lakes on the island, please ensure you observe the following guidelines:
Do not pollute waterways with soaps or detergents.
Power boats and vehicles are not permitted in the lakes.
Do not feed dingoes or other native annals.
Boil all water taken from natural sources on the island.
Respect the peace of the other visitors.
Take only photos. Leave only footprints.
Sand is the key to how Fraser Island was formed, then water has been the reason it has become so special. The combination of environments, particularly the rainforests have established through Fraser's wealth of freshwater sources.
NATIONAL PARKS, FORESTS & SAND
Fraser Island is part of the Great Sandy Region, the section of coastline stretching from the north shore of the Noosa River below Lake Cooroibah and Cooloola National Park, to Sandy Cape at the northern tip of Fraser.
About half of Fraser Island is currently national park. The Great Sandy National Park occupies the northern half of the island. The southern half is almost entirely crown land and state forests, proposed for national park, subject to resolution of Aboriginal land interests.
Information Centres
Fraser has various centres providing information about the island and Great Sandy National Park. Information Centres can be found at Eurong National Parks and Wildlife Office, Central Station, Dundaburra and Waddy Point.
Forests
Fraser's forests are one of the island's most remarkable and controversial features. Though the island was heavily logged, large stands of satinays and brush box still remain. Pile Valley, between Central Station and Lake McKenzie, where much of the logging took place, has the tallest of the towering satinay and brush box.
Satinay and brush box form part of the island's sub-tropical rainforests together with piccabeen palms and kauri pines. Fraser's rainforest are home to rare and ancient species including the angiopteris fern, which has the largest fern fronds in the world. The angiopteris fern is notable due to its use of water pressure rather than structural tissue to keep its fronds erect. The walkways along Wangoolba Creek at Central Station, inland from Eurong, pass several of the magnificent ferns.
Further north and inland from Happy Valley, the Yidney Scrub is home to a forest of 200-year-old kauri pines.
Fraser's vegetation is not all tall forest. Wallum heathlands occupy much of the lowlands. They consist of shrub lands, scribbly gum trees and wallum banksia. The heathlands spring to colour during August and September with a profusion of wildflowers.
The western coastline of the island is fringed with mangroves backed by areas of cypress pine.
Sand Formations
The dune systems of the Great Sandy Region, which include Fraser Island, are the largest and oldest in the world dating back more than 30,000 years. Fraser is the world's largest sand island. Along the ocean coastline, the dunes take on at times sculptured shapes, giving rise to the names 'The Cathedrals' and 'The Pinnacles'.
There are 72 different coloured sands that occur on the island. The best coloured sands can be seen along a 35 km stretch of the ocean beach north of Happy Valley.
Sandblows are the other major sand formation, caused through the gradual action of shifting sand across the island. The Knifeblade, just north of the wreck of the "Maheno", is the largest of the island's sandblows. A lookout provides excellent views.
Rocky Headlands
Fraser Island's build up of sands and dune systems hinges on the rocky headlands of Indian Head, Middle Rocks and Waddy Point. Indian Head is the true anchor for the island. It stands at the end of Seventy-Five Mile Beach and in addition to being a major landmark, it provides an excellent lookout onto the beaches and dunes.
Further north, Middle Rocks' Champagne Pools are deep natural rock pools, ideal for swimming. Waddy Point is a popular base for anglers and provides good views from atop the lookout.
WORLD HERITAGE LISTING
Fraser Island attained its World Heritage Listing in December 1992 in recognition of the island's exceptional sand dune systems, its rainforests on sand and its pristine freshwater lakes.
Fraser Island is the tenth World Heritage listed site in Australia, joining the ranks of the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics of Queensland, Uluru National Park (formerly Ayers Rock) and Lord Howe Island. The listing recognises Fraser's combination of environments as having outstanding universal value and its protection for future generations as a global responsibility.
World Heritage Listings began almost twenty years ago under the auspices of the United Nations with establishment of the World Heritage Convention, to which Australia is a signatory. 127 countries are party to the convention, established to identify, protect and preserve properties which qualify for World Heritage Listing.
The two criteria against which Fraser Island was judged eligible for listing as a natural site were as follows: if it was an outstanding example representing significant on-going geological processes, biological evolution and man's interaction with the natural environment; and if it has superlative natural phenomena, formations or features.
While the World Heritage Committee does not have the power to dictate how the listed site is managed, signatories to the convention, such as Australia, have an obligation to observe the ethic of the listing. The purpose of World Heritage Listing is to recognise Fraser Island as having unique and precious natural environments of universal value that should be protected.
Fraser Island has emerged from a century of exploitation of its rich resources - timber, sand minerals and fish. Logging and sand mining have ceased after many years of campaigning by environmental groups. The challenge for the island in the future will be in managing the growth in tourism.
A detailed management plan has been developed by the Fraser Implementation Unit, part of the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, for Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region which sets a strategy to the year 2010.
The responsibility of protecting Fraser for future generations, however, belongs to all visitors in respecting the island's environments.
ABORIGINAL HISTORY
More than 5,500 years ago Aboriginal groups first began living on K'gari, the island we know today as Fraser Island. The island was inhabited by one aboriginal tribe called the Butchulla people.
The Butchulla have an enchanting Dreamtime legend of the island's creation, a tale, which by tradition, is passed verbally between the generations but has been recorded in print by one of the Butchulla descendants, Olga Miller, in Fred Williams' history of Fraser Island, "Written In Sand". The legend refers to the god, Beiral, who sent Yindingie and his assistant K'gari to make the land for the people. Together they made a beautiful place, too beautiful for K'gari to want to leave. She persuaded Yindingie to let her stay, not as a spirit, but as an island with beautiful forests and lakes like mirrors for her to see into the sky. Then he made the people to keep her company and happy.
Fraser Island's bountiful forests and seas and its endless supply of freshwater had indeed made the island a paradise which lived up to the legend.
Fishing, either with spears or herding schools of fish into scoop nets and fish traps, provided a rich diet. Eugarie, a shell fish that lives beneath the surface of the sand below the high tide mark, was also a favorite food. To cook the shell fish they were embedded lightly in the sand in rows, dried grass and leaves were heaped over the bed of shells and set alight. Cooking took only a few minutes. The discarded shells, which over centuries developed into large mounds called midden heaps, now form one of the most important archaeological records of Aboriginal habitation on the island.
The Aboriginal tribes were not entirely isolated on Fraser Island. They travelled to other islands and the mainland by way of canoes. The canoes were made from two slabs of bark which were joined together in a frame made from saplings. There was a central spine or inside keel to which ribs were attached and a gunwale ran around the edges. The centre edges were woven together with kangaroo sinews and made water- tight with gum and resin. Canoe trees can still be sighted on tours, bearing the tell-tale sign of the canoe shape missing from the skin of the trunk.
The relative peace and tranquility of life for the Aboriginal tribes of the island ended with the arrival of white settlers on the mainland. At the time Matthew Flinders first set foot on Fraser at Bool Creek, the population of about 480 was one of the strongest communities on the coast, Flinders remarked on their fine condition during his peaceful meeting with them.
The ambitions of the European squatters and settlers to acquire the land around Maryborough, without thought or reference to the Aboriginal inhabitants, resulted in predictable conflict. But the misdeeds of a few Aboriginals were more than outweighed by the horrors inflicted on local tribes by white settlers. Poisoning of waterholes and serving up meals of flour and bran laced with strychnine and arsenic were among the ways the whites dealt with the black "problem".
Wholesale slaughter of hundreds of innocent Aboriginals took place in retribution for crimes by a few. Settlers enlisted renegade blacks from New South Wales to act as Native Police, giving them impunity against their mass killings of fellow Aboriginals and providing a convenient excuse when blamed for the bloody raids.
Mainland Aboriginals were exiled to Fraser Island, but here too they were persecuted, with many being driven into the sea to their deaths on Christmas Eve of 1851 by Native Police under the local white commandant.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the population of Fraser Island Aboriginals had been decimated. A Christian mission was established on Fraser,and survived until 1904 when control passed from the Government to the Anglican Church. With closure of the mission, Aboriginal residents were sent to mainland reserves where their lives were rigorously controlled and their freedoms and rights curtailed.
