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Published: March 16th 2006
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Lake Mackenzie
is a window lake, popular with tourists because of its fresh clean water. K'gari
meaning God's of Paradise is the aboriginal name of Fraser Island. Located off the Queensland coast just south of the Great Barrier Reef, opposite the coast from Maryborough, and covering over a 180,000 hectares and 120 kilometers long it is composed mostly of sand, the largest sand island in the world.
A island of barren sand dunes. No!! An island with over a hundred fresh water lakes, the second highest concentration of lakes in Australia, some tannin and others crystal clear and surrounded by white sandy beaches. An island where rainforest grows.
To this paradise came I and a group of other people from Australia, Britain and Japan on a three day tour. We spent the first night lodged in the KingFisher resort on the east side and the second in the Eurong motel on the west side.
On of the first places we visited was
Lake McKenzie which is a window lake. There are three types of lake on the island, window, perch and barrage. Rainfall is quite heavy and the water percolates through the sand heading toward the east coast. In some areas the sand contour dips below the water table exposing the flowing water.
Discovering Cockles
a small crustation common in Australian waters These lakes are the window lakes. The water in them is fresh, very clean and pure making them very popular with tourists. However they do not support much life because of a lack on nutrient.
As the tour was fairly laid back, we visited Lake McKenzie several times during the three days for picnic and swimming. Great place, can highly recommend it.
Most of the second day was spent driving along the beach on the east side of the island. It is a four wheeled drivehighway. Many of the party had never seen
cockles before. The are quite plentiful on K'gari. Often the water goes out so quickly that they are left stranded momentarily above the sand.
We made our way up to
Eli Creek which is the largest creek on the east side with a flow of 80 million/litres water per day. There are many wild flowers along the banks.
Pass Eli Creek is the wreck of the
Maheno, which started life as a luxury cruiser and then was converted into a hospital ship in World War I. It was being towed to Japan to be broken down into scrap when it was washed a shore
Eli Creek
is the largest creek on the east side. during a cyclone. It was another wreck which gave Fraser Island its name. In 1836 several survivors of the wrecked Sterling Castle lived for about six weeks on the island in an enviroment of increasing hostility with the aboriginals. The island was named after one of the survivors, Eliza Fraser, wife of the captain. Why the island should be named after her when its has been occupied by aborigines for at least 5000 years is beyond me. Personaly I prefer the aboriginal name of K'gari.
A few kilometers north of the Maheno is a geological formation called the
Pinnacles.
Sculptured by the wind its orange colouring due to iron-oxide in the sand. The oxide also bonds the sand together giving a formation which is relatively stable.
Another stop, another swim. Seemed to be a lot of swims on this tour 😊 This time at the
Champagne Pools. Holes in the only rock outcrop on the island, filled by waves provide a natural swimming pool. There are also a few fish, though admittedly they are only gold fish size.
We spent a some time at
Central Station located in the middle of the island. It used to be
Maheno
started service as a luxury liner and was later converted to a hospital ship. a logging camp. Logging was carried out from 1863 to 1991. Today it is an information center surrounded by rain forest. The other major primary industry was sand mining which occurred between 1950 and 1977. Today K'gari has World Heritage listing.
In the last few hours, the more energetic spent the afternoon fishing. I being the lazy fellow I am, relaxed in the
salt water pool of the Kingfisher resort.
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