facts on everyones favourite island

Fraser Island…

•  is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel : the Great Sandy Strait •  is an eco tourism venue 

•  the timber and sand mining industries have been abandoned •  almost the entire island is protected •  its unusual formation of sand and rainforest make it a special source of adventure •  it is composed almost entirely of vegetation covered sand •  it has over 40 freshwater lakes •  it has deep freshwater lakes trapped 700 feet (212 metres) above sea level •  it has dense, lush rainforest •  it has cool eucalypt forests with crystal clear streams •  it has vast tracts of sand dunes •  it has wonderful coloured sand cliffs •  it has endless white beaches – many totally deserted

•   it has native wildlife including dingoes, echidnas, wallabies •  206 species of birds are at home here •  no domestic animals are allowed onto Fraser Island •  there are ancient Aboriginal sites •  it is a favourite venue for fisherman and 4WD enthusiasts •  there are no paved roads outside of resorts •  you can join a guided eco tour by 4-wheel drive ‘adventure’ vehicle •  you can take/drive your own 4-wheel drive vehicle •  you can go on a day trip •  you can go camping, bush-walking, four wheel driving, beach and lake fishing •  you can find solitude

facts on Fraser’s fabulous weather

•  Fraser island is situated some  500 kilometres south of the Tropic of Capricorn •  summer is pleasantly hot – the average daytime temperature around 30ûC •  summer months can however, occasionally rise above that and with higher humidity •  winter is mild, usually dry with average temperatures of around 20ûC •  most winter days are sunny •  there is never any frost •  sea temperatures range from 26û in summer to 19û in winter

Fraser Island is a special place

Fraser Island is the largest sand island on Earth 
Fraser Island is World heritage listed Fraser Island is a National Park Fraser Island is an ecological masterpiece Fraser Island is 123 km long by 15 km wide and covers an area of 163,000 hectares Fraser Island has developed over a period of 800,000 thousand years 200,000 people visit  Fraser Island each year…

staying on the mainland?

• It is easy to visit Fraser Island for the day whilst based in Hervey Bay
• A variety of accompanied tours and trips are available
• For more freedom, hire your own 4-wheel drive vehicle
• OR go as a foot passenger on a barge, sea cat or boat from Hervey Bay Marina or River Heads
• Spend the day lazing on the beach or use the facilities of Island resorts

Fraser Island’s dingos are the purest breed in Eastern Australia

how do we get there?

• Just north of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and just south of the Tropic of Capricorn
• approx 4 hours north of Brisbane on the Bruce Highway
• approx 1 hour from Brisbane by air
•  From Bruce Highway via Maryborough northbound/ via Torbanlea southbound and Hervey Bay & vehiclular barge from Urangan Boat Harbour or from River Heads
• four wheel drive access only…

hire your own or go on a ‘tour’

•  Mainline trains to Howard & Maryborough : trainlink coaches •  coach terminal at Bay Central •  sail directly into Fraser Island from anywhere in the world!

historical facts on Fraser island

•  The history of Fraser Island is inexorably bound up with that of Australian Aborigines.•  Anthropologists believe that Aboriginal peoples reached eastern Australia at least 40,000 years ago.•  The Aboriginal name for the island was K’gari which means ‘Paradise’

•  Tribes lived in the area now known as Fraser Island and Hervey Bay until the English arrived.•  Fraser Island was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770 whilst travelling the east coast of Australia.•  He presumed - wrongly -  that Fraser Island was joined to the mainland and the sheltered waters behind it were a bay.•  The waters of the Great Sandy Strait are very shallow and he did not sail far enough south to find the passage between Fraser Island and the coast.

•  In fact he was some 6 km offshore as he sailed north.•  Captain Cook named the BAY (not the place!) ‘Hervey’s Bay’ after Lord Augustus John Hervey an admiral of the Blue, the Earl of Bristol who was his commanding officer.•  Matthew Flinders passed through the area twice.•  In 1799 Flinders sailed around Fraser Island entering the bay and going ashore on the mainland at the present site of Dayman Park.•  He was the first European to step ashore at Hervey Bay.•  Flinders returned to the area in 1802 on his historic circum navigation of the Australian continent. 

• It is an irony of history that Flinders did not locate the Great Sandy Strait on either of his voyages.
• The island was named after Eliza Fraser who was shipwrecked there in 1836
• Maryborough is one of Queensland’s oldest cities and was first settled by Europeans in 1847 as a wool port.
• The first permanent white settler at Hervey Bay was Boyle Martin who arrived in 1863 with his wife and child.
• In the early days Maryborough served as an immigration port for free settlers and was second only to Sydney on the eastern seaboard.
• Hervey Bay was considered to be part of the Port of Maryborough.
• Sailing ships carrying immigrants anchored off the White Cliffs of Fraser Island and passengers were ferried to Maryborough in smaller boats.
• European squatters and settlers acquired the land around Fraser Island, Maryborough,  and Hervey Bay without thought or reference to the Aboriginal inhabitants: this resulted in predictable conflict.
• During the twentieth century timber felling and sand mining for minerals became big industries
• That ceased when Fraser Island attained its World Heritage Listing in December 1992
• It was Listed in recognition of the island’s exceptional sand dune systems, its rainforests on sand, and its beautiful freshwater lakes.
• Forests remain one of the island’s most controversial features.
• Large areas of satinays and brush box still remain.
• Pile Valley between Central Station and Lake McKenzie, where much of the logging took place, now has some of the tallest trees
• Tourism is now the backbone of Fraser Island’s economy.

sandy heaven…

•  Sandy Cape beach is at the northern end of Fraser Island with the Sandy Cape lighthouse nearby – built in 1870 at a time when shipwrecks in the area were many.
• 75 mile beach on the eastern side of Fraser Island is virtually the main highway on the island (4-wheel drive vehicles only!) but it is also the runway for light aircraft – including ‘Joy flights’.
• The Cathedrals are part of the high coloured sand cliffs fronting the surf beach north of the Maheno wreck. •  Indian Head is the rocky headland that anchors the sands forming Fraser Island: without the stability provided by rocks, the ocean might wash its sands away.
• Waddy Point is north along a surf beach from Indian Head .
• The Champagne Pools are not far from Indian Head.  Formed where a barrier of volcanic rock partially sheilds the beach from the ocean surf the pools provide a unique bathing experience.
• The Knifeblade sandblow just north of the ‘Maheno’ wreck is the island’s largest.
• The Tukkee sandblow is just north of Indian Head.
• Lake Wabby is being reduced in size due to a massive sand blow that advances around three metres a year.
• Lake McKenzie’s beach is considered by some to rank amongst the world’s ten best beaches.
• Lake Birrabeen is also a great beach for swimming and watersports.
• Lake Boomanjin is the biggest lake on the island.
• Coloured sands consisting of sands compacted and bonded by silt and clay to a hard consistency are exposed to give the island some of its most magnificent scenery.
• Over time, sand blows can form new ‘barrage’ lakes by daming up a natural spring
• On one 30 kilometre stretch of surf beach 200 creeks run into the Pacific Ocean – whilst some are large and continually flowing some are mere seepages.
• Eli Creek is the largest and most attractive creek on the eastern shore.  It flows many kilometres before spilling across the beach to pour 120 million litres of water a day into the sea
• In the waters below Indian Head, sharks, dolphins, mantarays, turtles, and whales (in season) can often be seen journeying and playing in the warm, clear Pacific ocean.
• Fraser Island sits on a huge reservoir of fresh water.

what fishing?

Year round – great fishing around Fraser Island and Wide Bay in estuaries, offshore and reef…

•  Coral trout, Red Emperor, Sweetlip, Parrot, Snapper, Baramundi, Beam, Mangrove Jack, Whiting, Flathead, Mackerel, Cobia, Golden Trevally, Yellow and Blue Fin Tuna

what animals?

• dingos are Australia’s wild dog presumably brought from Asia by visiting boats, or perhaps with the Aborigines
• there are no kangaroos
• there are no koalas
• but wallabies do live on the island 
• possums, flying foxes, echidnas and lizards are also here
• the big loggerhead turtles may sometimes be seen on northern beaches when they come ashore to lay their eggs
• fresh water turtles, sometimes called tortoise are at home in many lakes
• whales, dolphins, sharks and rays can often be spotted from the beaches

take only memories…
leave only footprints in the sand!

forest facts…

•  Magnificent old trees, ferns, palms and vines find sufficient nutrients in the sands of Fraser Island to form dense rainforests. •  They are so dense in places that light does not penetrate their canopy. •  Wanggoolba Creek valley near Central Station contains magnificent trees, huge kauri, rough barked satinay, brush box, hundreds of  piccabeen palms and many more pushing upwards towards the sun. •  One vine is unique to Fraser Island. •   Another vine drips clear drinking water if tapped.

•  There are ferns of all kinds, some in the clear water of the creek bed itself. •   Many of the tall rainforest trees are festooned with huge crows nest ferns and staghorns which the early foresters saved from felled trees and brought to the area. •  Central station in the heart of the rainforest has no trains!  It was the central Forestry Department ‘station’ / centre from 1920 to 1959. There is a small museum here, a camping area, picnic tables, and  barbecue.

fancy that!

Built in Scotland, in her day the S.S. Maheno was the pride of the Union Steamship Company’s trans Tasman fleet, crossing in 1907 from Auckland to Sydney in two days 21 hours, setting a record that was to stand for 25 years. She was wrecked on the east coast of Fraser Island whilst being towed to Japan for breaking up. The Maheno wreck is now a famous tourist attraction!

fancy that!

The bay of water called Hervey Bay is actually formed by Fraser Island. This bay has given the mainland city of Hervey Bay its name. Hervey Bay is pronounced  HAR-VEE – not herr-vy!

Whalewatching

The season – August to November…

fancy that!

Multiple layers of sand deposits which make up the island’s massive dune system provide a geological record of climatic and sea level changes over the past 700,000 years.

fancy that!

There are more than 40 lakes on the island.  Some are windows into the water table whilst most of the others were formed in a unique way and are effectively giant rainwater puddles held in sand dune hollows by a layer of sand rendered impermeable by reed humus rotting into it over centuries. They are called ‘perched’ lakes because they are perched high up in the dunes.