Come with me - A Day on Fraser Island

[Mad Aussie]

It's been awhile since I've taken the interested parties at ph.ca on a virtual tour in my region. Yesterday, we decided to head up to Fraser Island, the worlds largest sand island and a world heritage listed region.
I've lived within co-ee of 'Fraser' for more than 30 years, yet have never before taken the time to go for a look. What a fool I've been!

There were just 3 of us, my wife, one of my brothers (and his Toyota Landcruiser), and myself.

As I can, I'll add in more photos of the day to this thread.

Keep coming back and see everything we did, from dangerous jellyfish to sea eagles, the purest dingoes in the country to fish in crystal clear streams, miles of beach to rainforest, a shipwreck or two and an awesome rainbow over one of the prettiest lakes around.


A bit of info about Fraser Island from Fraser Island - fraserisland.net - Fraser Island Australia - World Heritage Listed

Fraser Island stretches over 123 kilometres in length and 22 kilometres at its widest point. With an area of 184 000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world.

Fraser Island's World Heritage listing ranks it with Australia's Uluru, Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef. Fraser Island is a precious part of Australia's natural and cultural heritage, it is protected for all to appreciate and enjoy.

Fraser island is a place of exceptional beauty, with its long uninterrupted white beaches flanked by strikingly coloured sand cliffs, and over 100 freshwater lakes, some tea-coloured and others clear and blue all ringed by white sandy beaches. Ancient rainforests grow in sand along the banks of fast-flowing, crystal-clear creeks.

Fraser Island is the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 metres. The low "wallum" heaths on the island are of particular evolutionary and ecological significance, and provide magnificent wildflower displays in spring and summer.



The immense sand blows and cliffs of coloured sands are part of the longest and most complete age sequence of coastal dune systems in the world and they are still evolving.

They are a continuous record of climatic and sea level changes over the last 700 000 years. The highest dunes on the island reach up to 240 metres above sea level.

The Great Sandy Strait, separating Fraser Island from the mainland, is listed by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention).

The wetlands include: rare patterned ferns; mangrove colonies; sea-grass beds; and up to 40,000 migratory shorebirds. Rare, vulnerable or endangered species include dugongs, turtles, Illidge's ant-blue butterflies and eastern curlews.

Originally we had planned to take 3 vehicles and lots more people on this trip, but as the days led up things went south. One of the vehicle owners pulled out a week before. Then my sister hurt her back so she and her husband pulled out in case the journey aggravated her back again. Then my youngest brother was taken to hospital and is currently in the infectious diseases award with suspected swine flu. As if just surviving his 2nd round of cancer wasn't enough for him. That took out another vehicle and more bodies.
And then there was 3! And then it rained. The weather and the forecast was now against us, things were looking a tad sad but we decided to go anyway because I've found that often inclement weather provides photo opportunities not seen on postcard perfect days.


We were up at 3am and met my brother Glenn at his place a little before 5am. 2 1/2 hrs drive further north and we were on the barge headed for the island.




Only 5 mins into our journey and mother nature was putting on a show for us ... hopefully a sign of things to come. It was!


A couple of kilometres from the barge, on Fraser, and we'd just rounded Hook Point at the southern end of the island. Miles of beach lay ahead.


We're away

[Mad Aussie]

All along the beach we have to ease up to negotiate these freshwater washouts. Caused by creeks and water seepage from inland, they can get quite deep and soft, and many a 4x4 has been rolled and destroyed (even killing the occupants) from recklessly attacking these at speed. In some lights, they can be difficult to see as well.




Passing other beach users. Normal road rules apply here on the beach so we must pass on each others right hand side ... driving on the left just like normal roads in Australia.


Excuse the bland composition of some of my shots but many are taken at 80 kph (50 mph) out of the window of the Landcruiser. This one looks to be the remains of the nose of an Indonesian fishing boat. We saw a few other bits along the beach from this boat as well. Australia has a constant battle with Indonesia to keep their fishing boats out of our waters.


We saw quite a few coconuts along the beach as well


As we were driving along we could hear 'pop' ... 'pop' ... 'pop' sounds as the tyres ran over something. I suddenly realised what it was. We were running over Bluebottle jellyfish, also called Portuguese Man o War.
The Man o' War is found in warm water seas floating on the surface of open ocean, its air bladder keeping it afloat and acting as a sail while the rest of the organism hangs below the surface. It has no means of self-propulsion and is entirely dependent on winds, currents, and tides.
The tentacles that can be up to 50 meters (165 feet) in length, but are typically only between 5 - 10 meters (15 - 30 ft). I've never seen them longer.
The Portuguese Man o' War is responsible for up to 10,000 human stings in Australia each summer, particularly on the east coast where I live and the welts and pain can last a few days. Yes, I've been stung, and yes, it does hurt. The north east winds bring them in so the smart look for them on the beach when the winds blow in from this direction.





Many more to come when I get time

[Mad Aussie]

After many kilometres of driving up the beach we arrived at the wreck of the SS Maheno. This was to be the furtherest north we would travel with the time we had. It takes many days to see all of what Fraser Island offers.

More info from Fraser Island - fraserisland.net - Fraser Island Shipwrecks

Fraser Island has claimed many ships with twenty-three wrecks were recorded in Fraser Island waters between 1856 and 1935, when the S.S. Maheno beached near The Pinnacles. The Sandy Cape light house was switched on in 1870 but this, and a smaller light on Woody Island, did little to alleviate the number of ships wrecked.

The Maheno - is the most famous of Fraser Island's wrecks and has become a landmark attraction. Built in 1905, the SS Maheno was one of the first turbine-driven steamers. She plied a regular route between Sydney and Auckland until she was commissioned as a hospital ship in Europe during World War One. She also served in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

In 1935, she and her sister ship the Oonah were sold to Japan for scrap.

The rudders of the boats were removed and they were being towed to Japan. When they reached Queensland Waters, a cyclonic storm snapped the tow chain and the Maheno drifted helplessly onto Fraser Island's ocean beach.

From here we turned south and back tracked a little way to see a small, but beautiful stream.

[Bambi]

truly an excellent set!!! thanks for taking me on the tour. but slow down a bit eh and enjoy the scenery

[Mad Aussie]

truly an excellent set!!! thanks for taking me on the tour. but slow down a bit eh and enjoy the scenery

No time. No time. We only had a single day, AND, on Fraser you have to plan your day around the high tide or risk getting caught in the dunes or watching your 4x4 sink slowly beneath the waves.
But don't worry, we did spend almost an hour hiding under a tree from the rain and waiting for rainbows as you'll see later

[Mad Aussie]

Out along the open beach we constantly were on the lookout for wild life and interesting structures.

A Fraser Island Dingo, reputed to be the most pure of them all. It's a $40,000 fine to feed these animals which is in no small way because of the danger they present to humans. Mainly children.




Fresh tracks in fresh sand


There's some reasonable sized dunes around here


Coloured sands in the dunes

[Mad Aussie]

This is one of our prettier raptors, the White-bellied Sea Eagle. We saw quite a few of these large birds




The Pied Oyster-Catchers were as weary as ever


Next ... Eli Creek's crystal clear waters ...

The little Red-capped Plovers looked out of place on the beach to me

[Mad Aussie]

A little after 10am we arrived back to a place, we had driven by to see the Maheno, called Eli Creek.
As you'll see from the photos, the weather wasn't given us the bright sun that makes the white, sandy bottomed creek sing with clarity and colour but it still wasn't bad at all.

Here we are looking at the mouth of the creek and a boardwalk that keeps visitors out of the environment and restricts how far up the creek you can go.


Looking back out to sea and Glenn's Landcruiser parked on high ground


Glenn walking across the boardwalk


Looking upstream


You can make a grand entrance here




It looks about 6 inches (150mm) deep, but in reality it's about 30 inches (500mm) deep. You can see a couple of small freshwater fish in there too.

[Mad Aussie]

Time to head further south and look for the inland trails to a magical sand lake (there are several on Fraser) so we headed back to the Landcruiser where a 4x4 tour bus and a plane we had seen earlier parked way down the beach had arrived with their load of tourists.

[MoinMoin]

Steve, that's an excellent pictures story. With these wonderful photos I can live the journey with you - even thousands of kilometers away!