Fraser Island

Australia boasts innumerable islands along its coastline, many of which are located only just offshore and easily accessed via ferry services.  Despite their proximity to the mainland many of these islands remain largely undeveloped, pristine slices of paradise cherished by the locals and tourists alike.  Fraser Island, soon to be known by its aboriginal name K’Guri (meaning Paradise), was the first such island that we had the pleasure to visit.  Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island at 1,840 sq km, but you’d never guess by looking at it.  This is because by same strange evolutionary miracle it’s almost completely covered by rainforest, making it the only place on Earth where rainforest (or much of anything for that matter) grows on a bed of pure sand.  Intrigued? You should be.  The island was once treasured by the logging industry, but luckily by the 1990s the loggers were cleared out and the island became a world-heritage listed national park for all to enjoy.  We opted for a guided tour of the island since Major Tom wouldn’t last a second on the sandy 4x4 tracks carving up the island.

Arriving on the island via ferry

In the rainforest

There are a number of historic and beauty spots on the island, but the most famous of all is Lake Mackenzie.  This permanent freshwater lake is one of many perched lakes sitting on a thin impermeable layer of plant matter on a massive sand dune.  The lake is said to be a natural spa of sorts with soft and fine sugar-white sands that can act as an exfoliant, and the soft freshwater of the lake a natural conditioner for both hair and skin.  Of course the lake is no slouch in the beauty department either, so even if you’re not going for a swim you’d still walk away from this place feeling relaxed.

The shores of Lake MacKenzie

The main thoroughfare of the island is Seventy Five Mile beach which is the only beach in all of Australia that doubles as a highway, but don’t bother trying to swim because if the scary rips here don’t get you then the scary sharks surely will.  It was along this beach that we spotted one of Australia’s wildlife icons, the dingo.  Originally brought to Australia a few hundred years ago by Asian fisherman, the local aboriginals noticed how effective the dogs were at hunting and bartered for a few of them.  Today they are considered an alien species as well as a pest and set for gradual extermination, but the Fraser Island dingos are considered to be the most pure bred in the world and it is the only place in Australia that they are a legally protected species.  I was quite surprised when I learned that the dingo is a solitary animal as I’d always assumed they were pack animals, but I was doubly surprised at how emaciated they looked.  Apparently they run a bit lean naturally, but the ones along this beach had gotten used to being fed by tourists and had forgone trying to hunt.  Since feeding the dingos has now become illegal for safety reasons, the more stubborn dogs have become a bit malnourished and some have become aggressive towards humans.  Luckily, we didn’t encounter any of the latter.

Up close and personal 

Seventy Five Mile Beach

The next noteworthy beauty stop was Eli Creek.  This small creek, like all creeks on the island, is fed by pure filtered spring water pumping from deep within the sand island.  The water is so pure that there is no problem drinking it right from the creek (provided you do so a bit upstream of the drunken swimmers further downstream).  The creek is also flowing at a good click and many people choose to float downstream on this natural lazy river (bring your own tube).

Eli Creek

We hadn’t quite realized the size of the island and the time it would take to get from one place to another, so doing a day trip to the island was a bit frantic thanks to the tour itinerary.  I would have liked to spend more time at the beautiful swimming spots of Eli Creek and Lake Mackenzie and omitted some of the other sightseeing we did like the colored sand cliffs and the shipwreck.  If I could do it again, I might opt for an overnight trip, but all in all it was a good day and the tour guide provided some excellent and interesting commentary on the european and aboriginal history of the island as well as the aboriginal uses for many of the plants in the environment.