Fraser Island
Natural Tourist Magnet Fraser Island is the region’s most iconic tourist drawcard, enticing nature lovers and adventurers from around the country and across the world. With rainforests growing out of sand, abundant wildlife, stunning rain-fed freshwater lakes, ancient ferns and striking sand blows, this sculptured natural masterpiece has amazing sights for all lovers of nature. To get amongst it, visitors can go four-wheel driving on the generally hard sands of 75 Mile Beach, take a guided tour of the beauty spots by bus or tag-along on a four-wheeldrive excursion. The remote beauty of the western coast and nearby islands can be accessed by boat, and picking up a rod and heading to the beach for a spot of sport fishing, stepping out onto more than 90km of hiking trails or jumping aboard a scenic flight to get a bird’s eye view of the fascinating environment are high on the list of ‘must do’ island activities.
Butchulla people lived by three lores: 1. What is good for the land comes first 2. Do not touch or take anything that doesn’t belong to you 3. If you have plenty, you must share.
Originally called K’gari (pronounced “gurri”) by the Butchulla, it was Great Sandy Island for a short time and then renamed Fraser Island after Captain James Fraser, who beached his lifeboat on the island with his wife Eliza and the remnants of his crew in 1836, after his ship, Stirling Castle, foundered on Swains Reef more than 200km north.
Accommodation options range from the basic – camping in national park campgrounds and beach campsites – to enjoying all the trappings of resorts on both the eastern and western side of the island. Visitors can also rent holiday houses surrounded by trees and the plentiful bird and animal life.
Captain Fraser died in mysterious circumstances a short time later and Eliza was eventually rescued after spending time with several tribes. There is no record of when the island officially became Fraser Island, but the first mention of its association with Fraser was likely to have been in the British press, telling the ordeal of the captain and his wife.
It’s still evolving
Walk on ancient dunes
The universal value of the largest sand island on the planet was formally recognised in 1992 when UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List. This massive sand mass has been evolving for thousands of years, well before Europeans arrived in the mid1800s. Anthropologists believe it was the traditional homeland of the Butchulla people
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for at least 5,000 years, and likely much longer. The first written record of the region is from explorer James Cook’s discovery voyage of Australia’s east coast in 1770.
Fraser Coast Holiday Planner
Like Fraser’s awe-inspiring beauty today, the history of the formation of the island is just as fascinating. Fraser Island is believed to be a remnant of old sand masses formed in the past two million years as ocean currents and waves swept sand north from the continental shelf of New South Wales and southern Queensland.
Major dune building continued as sea levels fluctuated forming the world’s oldest recorded sequence of overlapping dune systems of different ages – some more than 700,000 years old. The phenomenon of mycorrhizal fungi, which liberate nutrients in the sand from vegetation deposits built up over the years, has made it possible for plants to grow on the island. Today, Fraser’s diverse natural environment boasts tall eucalypt forests, mangroves and what is believed to be the only reticulated (leopard) patterned fens, or peat swamps, in the world near Moon Point. The island has half of the world’s freshwater perched lakes, formed when sand is “cemented” together with decomposed organic matter and mixed with aluminium and iron to create an impermeable layer well above sea level. The largest perched lake on Fraser (and the largest in the world) is Lake Boomanjin, covering 200 hectares. Lake McKenzie, dwarfed in size at 80 hectares, outranks for beauty as one of the most photographed wildness spots in Australia. Renewed efforts are being made to find, recognise and develop the cultural sites of the island’s traditional Butchulla owners so future generations can learn, understand and respect their way of life. Butchulla heritage is still evident in archaeological sites, shell middens, ceremonial bora rings and stone implements. The Butchulla’s non-exclusive rights over 164,958 hectares of land and waters on K’gari were recognised by the Federal Court of Australia in 2014 and Butchulla land and sea rangers work closely with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service to manage land use and the waterways on the island.