Fraser Island

---

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-languageƐ mso-fareast-languageƐ mso-bidi-languageƐ}

On our way from Noosa to Hervey Bay, we stopped at Tin Can Bay for a short while, a quiet settlement at the southern tip of the Great Sand Strait.As we arrived at midday, we missed out on seeing Mystique, the resident dolphin who makes morning visits to Tin Can Bay marina for breakfast.

Our next project was to experience the magic of Fraser Island. We had been a little hesitant due to the cost involved, but a mini poll on facebook soon made up our minds that we just had to go. Thanks everyone for your advice! Fraser Island is, without a doubt, the highlight of our trip so far and I really hope that I do it justice with our blog entry.

The local Aboriginal people call Fraser Island ‘K’Gari’, which is very fitting as it roughly translates to paradise. It is said that all the sand from the eastern coast of Australia eventually ends up at Fraser Island, a ­gigantic world heritage listed sand bar measuring 120km by 24km. Because it is entirely a sand island (it was declared the Great Sandy National Park in 1990), 4WD vehicles are mandatory (and essential!) on the island. That’s where the expense lies if you don’t have your own 4WD. Luckily it had been raining a lot before our visit, and the sand along the beach was nicely compacted. It doesn’t take long to dry out though and by the end of our two-day stay a lot of the sand had become powdery again.

We hired our lovely Toyota Landcruiser from ‘Fraser Dingo 4WD Hire’ and were delighted with the beautiful, vintage, cream and purple “JoJo”. Instead of having to put up a tent, we could crawl onto the queen sized mattress in the back of the vehicle. JoJo also came with all the camp cooking equipment, so we didn’t even need to take any of our own stuff with us.

As soon as we were off the ferry (which, bizarrely, had its very own resident cat) we drove to Eurong, the island’s main township. Ashley who owns the hire company had drawn up an itinerary for us and basically driving along the beach was off limits for the first day. When we walked down to the beach we could see why: the swell was 5.1m tall and washing right up onto the bank in places, leaving no beach to drive along. It was awe-inspiring to see the ocean so wild and ferocious. We carried on to Lake McKenzie, Fraser’s most famous lake with spectacularly clear water and a small sandy beach, before heading to Central Station where we were to camp for the next two nights. Having found our camp spot in amongst the forest, we went for a beautiful long walk through Pile Valley which is home to giant satinay trees. Walking past creeks, you’d be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that there was sludge on the water’s surface… but when you look closer, you realise that the pale colour is due to crystal clear water trickling over white sand. Funnily enough, for a national park, there is not much decent signage for walking tracks on the island. There are signs telling you that there is a walking track, but they won’t tell you which walk or how long it is. Also, because all of the inland tracks look the same (narrow sand tracks with forest on either side), you feel somewhat like you’re walking in a maze and we did get slightly lost a few times.

Signs telling you about the native dingoes, however, are abundant! The dingoes on Fraser Island are the very purest bred dingoes but sadly there aren’t that many of them left. These free-roaming wild dogs have a reputation thanks to the Azaria Chamberlain case in the 1980s. The nine-week old was allegedly killed by a dingo on a family camping trip to Uluru but, as her body was never found, Azaria’s mother was tried for murder and spent more than three years in prison. She was released when a piece of the little girl’s clothing was found in a dingo lair, but the whole story remains somewhat controversial. Just last week, after many years of petitioning as several other children were attacked by dingoes, Azaria’s mother was finally pardoned and the cause of death amended on the death certificate. Whilst on Fraser, we met a German couple who had their very cute 4.5 month old baby boy with them – and daddy was carrying an impressive ‘dingo stick’ just to be on the safe side. It is actually a legal offense to attract a dingo using food or food scraps and signs tell you to always walk in groups and advise you to ‘defend yourself aggressively if attacked’. There are even designated fenced areas for food preparation and consumption.

On our first evening we cooked up a beautiful meal of salmon, sausages and veggies (promptly finishing our second bottle of gas – not the most efficient cooker!) and played a few games of yahtzee. As always, I got hammered by Dean… After dinner I had the ‘bright’ idea of taking our rubbish bag to the bins which were located at the entrance to the camping complex. It was only when I was halfway there that it occurred to me that I was walking 300m through dark forest, on my own, carrying a bag of yummy smelling food. There were a few rustles in the bushes and then I saw a dingo run across the path ahead of me. I was shaking in my flip-flops but figured that I might as well carry on to the bin because, if I turned back, I would be carrying the food for the same distance again. Believe it or not, Dean took the rubbish to the bins the following night as he wanted to see a dingo too!

On our second day it was time to hit the beach. In our cool 4WD, that is :-) It was a lot of fun cruising up the ‘beach highway’ (the normal road rules still apply and the speed limit ranges from 80kph down to 30kph). We had strict instructions to keep JoJo away from any salt water so we were a little nervous to start off with, but our tidal report was spot on and we were absolutely fine. The first sight we came across was very sad: the baby whale which was beached a week earlier and couldn’t be saved. Its body was decomposing and the smell was overwhelming. All I could think about was its poor mum that would have been in the sea, unable to help or get her baby back. Further up the beach we reached the wreck of the Maheno, a former passenger liner blown ashore by a cyclone in 1935 as it was being towed to a Japanese scrapyard. It’s a very impressive sight and we got very snap happy!

When a couple of tour buses arrived at the wreck, we got a glimpse of what Fraser Island must be like during summer and school holidays. The Lonely Planet describes it as ‘a giant sandpit with its own peak hour and congested beach highway’. We felt so lucky to be there during low season, not least because driving on the narrow inland tracks would be a nightmare during high season. The speed limit is 30kph (not that you could drive any faster anyway) and many of them are one-way only. However, there are plenty of tracks on which ascending vehicles must give way descending vehicles by reversing into tiny sandy passing bays – not an easy task when the sand is bone dry and soft as quick-sand.

On our way back along the beach, our tidal report told us that we had enough time to stop and do the 1.5 hour inland hike to Lake Wabby. And I’m so pleased we did! Lake Wabby is surrounded on three sides by eucalypt forest while the fourth side is an ENORMOUS sandblow which encroaches on the lake at a rate of 3m each year. The sandblow is so impressive that, if you stood with your back to the lake, you might think you were in the dessert. Despite the cold water, a number of teenagers were having a swim. We figured that they must have been skinny dipping as, when they saw us and a tour bus load of people behind us, they were laughing their heads off, daring each other to get out of the water but firmly staying put.

Our next stop was beautiful Lake Birrabeen which I absolutely loved. It’s not as popular as Lake McKenzie so there were very few other people and a sense of peace and calm. All of the island’s lakes are very full at present and this was certainly evident at Lake Birrabeen which would normally have a shore but, instead, had a whole lot of trees under water instead.

Before heading back to our camping spot, we decided to drive to the Central Station picnic area and use their BBQs to cook up some dinner. Bizzarely, after driving 150km or so around the island, this is where we finally got ‘sand stuck’! The sand in the parking lot was incredibly soft and powdery and we couldn’t get out of any of the four exits without our wheels spinning out of control. There was a lot of digging and maneuvering before we came to the conclusion that we might have to sleep right there and get help in the morning, as nightfall wasn’t far off and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. Thankfully our very last effort paid off – basically pointing the car at the only straight exit and flooring it. It sure gave us sweaty palms and a giggle but I reckon our Fraser Island experience wouldn’t have been complete without getting stuck!

The other thing that we felt we had missed out on was seeing dingoes (aside from my walk of terror to the rubbish bin) and so there was a lot of excitement when, on our drive back to the ferry the following morning, we spotted a couple of dingoes wandering around in the bus at the side of the road!! They were clearly a couple, marking their territory, and didn’t seem too phased by us at all. One of the decided that it didn’t like being followed by us, so let us drive past before following us. They’re such beautiful creatures we felt that our trip to Fraser was now complete. Nevertheless, leaving the island was pretty sad and both of us would have loved to stay another day or two. Perhaps next time!

Before and after visiting Fraser, we had the pleasure of staying with Caz and Dave in Hervey Bay. Thanks, you guys, for having us at your beautiful home and for making us so welcome. It was great to get to know you and the PS2 ‘Buzz’ game is now firmly on our wish list, haha. What piece of trivia do we remember? That there was once a royal employee called the ‘Groom of the Stool’!

---