Fascinating Fraser

Greetings readers! If you’re coming back from a bank holiday we hope it was good, and if you haven’t had one, fear not for you still have a new jumbo size blog entry to read!

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from our stop on Fraser Island, it was one of the stops we’d put into the itinerary without too much research due to the fairly huge amount of time consumed sorting out various other aspects of our travels. As it turned out we had a very enjoyable time exploring the varied landscapes and birdlife of Fraser Island.

For those (like us) not previously familiar with Fraser, it is the world’s largest sand island and a UNESCO world heritage site. An island of sand? A bit boring you may think… not this one! The formation of the island has its roots hundreds of millions of years ago when there was a large landmass called Gondwanaland (when the continents were joined together). As the continents slowly split off, large sandstone mountains in the region that is now Antarctica slowly eroded away to form large sandbanks. Over time as continental plates shifted these sandbanks moved up to where Australia is now. The final part of the story is the rise of sea levels after the last ice age which submerged what is now the Great Sandy Strait and isolated several large sandbanks, the largest of these is 123km long – this is Fraser Island.

As the early plants such as grasses grew and decayed on the sand they left nutrients for new vegetation, and over long periods of time layers of nutrients and plant matter have built up on the top of the sand, and this now sustains various different ecological zones with verdant growth including the only rainforest in the world that grows on sand.

In addition to supporting plant life these nutrient layers have in some cases hardened into crusts and now form the basins for some of the many freshwater lakes on Fraser. (For those interested these are called ‘perched dune lakes’, there are only a small number in the world and Fraser supports nearly half of them). We did a little free diving in one and were pleased to see the endemic Fraser Island turtles.

Apart from very close to resort areas there are no tarmac roads on Fraser, just sand tracks, some very soft and all 4×4 only. The best driving on the island is actually on the ocean side beach called 75 mile beach, when you’re cruising long the beach at 80 kph just watch out for aircraft – they also use the beach as a runway.. we took off from and landed on the beach!

Large areas of the island have no vehicle or hiking tracks at all, so the only way to take a look at these largely inaccessible areas is aerially from a plane. We were lucky to be able to charter a three seater plane from Fraser Island Air for this exploration, and very obligingly they even took the door of the plane off for us. (So we were flying around with one side of the cockpit entirely open, harnessed to seats and hanging out of the door taking pictures – photographing through a window often causes unwanted reflections). We can now say for sure that 180kph wind is pretty strong – especially when trying to control and frame up a camera, but it’s also something well worth doing.

Below you can see our Fraser Island photo-story – we hope you enjoy it. Finally, our sources tell us National Geographic have also visited Fraser very recently, so keep an eye out, maybe you’ll see more of Fraser there, but remember, you saw it here first!

The Great Sandy Strait separates Fraser Island from the mainland.

Big Woody Island neighbours Fraser Island and is another nature reserve.

75 Mile Beach underlines the sheer size of Fraser, the world's largest sand island.

The coastal waters are rich in fish, and in winter are a world class whale watching area.

Battalions of soldier crabs forage along the tidal zone.

Fraser also has one of the genetically purest populations of Dingoes (wild dogs).

The wreck of the Maheno (a Scottish ship) is one of the few man made landmarks on 75 Mile Beach.

Further inland, sandy rainforest opens onto large freshwater lakes like Lake McKenzie.

The white sand and calm clear water of Lake McKenzie seem more suggestive of a coral reef than a dune lake.

As abruptly as lakes appear from the forest, large isolated pockets of sand called 'sandblows' also appear, smothering almost everything in their path.

The sandblows move slowly across the island with the wind. Here the Boowon sandblow progresses slowly towards Lake Wanhar.

Lake Wabby is now part filled by sandblow, this is likely to happen to Lake Wanhar as well over time.

Fraser Island is at its most beautiful around Wathumba Creek where rainwater that has percolated through Fraser sands for sometimes hundreds of years returns to the sea.

Wathumba Creek shows its full splendour from the air.

In the forest areas birdlife is abundant (and demanding for some!).

Mistletoe birds add some colour without being quite as brash as the omnipresent lorikeets.

Azure Kingfishers wait attentively by pools and creeks.

Sadly there will always be some who make a fashion faux-pas - shaved heads are so last season!

Sunset over the pier at Kingfisher Bay Resort concludes another big day of exploration on the extraordinary Fraser Island.

We stayed at Kingfisher Bay Resort and Village, an eco-tourism driven hotel that we would recommend as the best on the island for those interested in understanding the natural history of Fraser – http://www.kingfisherbay.com