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Published: December 13th 2006
Travelling from Airlie Beach to Brisbane, the classic side excursion is one to Fraser Island. Backpackers (mostly English and German) do it in their droves. They hire a 4WD and tents and whizz around the island for 2-3 days on this the largest sand island in the world.
Within our time schedule and having been put back a day by our delayed Whitsundays cruise, we could only fit in a day trip, whistle-stop tour using the non-descript Hervey Bay, as a base.
Fraser Island is a well-preserved wilderness, protected by its world heritage site status and it's unique ecosystems are abundant. It wasn't always like that. During colonial times, sand mining and logging took place on the island but now all that is in the past and the gretest threat is probably us, tourists!
In a day tour you get to see forests of both natural and planted species, freshwater lakes, clear silent creeks, wildlife and sand - lots and lots of sand. A drive along the main highway of Fraser (the beach) takes the tour past the crashing waves of the Tiger Shark infested waters. There's a big old ship-wreck for a photo call and decorative coloured
Laura At Lake McKenzie
..with its white sand and clear acidic water (great for the hair and for cleaning your jewellery , apparently).sand formations but for all it's sights, nothing really stands out as being "amazing" on its own and since it's the whole picture that's unique, it's hard to appreciate this extraodinary environment. One unfortunate problem of Fraser Island's draw is the influx of tourists coming daily in their bus-loads to the island. Just being here we felt we were only adding to the problem and probably undermining the future conservation of the place. A huge 600 room cheapy concrete hotel has been erected to house and feed the overnight trippers - mainly a Pommie onslaught, I might add.
Our visit was not memorable but on a more fortunately timed visit you might see migrating humpback whales, sharks in the surf or the wild and pure-bred Dingoes that roam the island (although given their slightly menacing disposition you might not want to). After our visit we were glad we only spent one and not two days, in the sand.
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Try everything twice...
in case the first time is a dud! We did Fraser Island on a day trip in a 7 seater Toyota Landruiser. We saw loads of wild life, hardly any poms and had lunch in a seclude cove of the island. Oh well, sounds like you've been pretty lucky/happy in the travels so far. Go Australia!!