For the inquisitive traveller, who wants to know everything they can do and see on Fraser Island, this is the place to be. Fraser Island is well documented as the world’s largest sand island and one of Australia’s most important world heritage wilderness areas. It is also one of the countries best known family holiday destinations for those who love the great outdoors and a magnet for international travellers, especially those who are following the backpacker trail. Anyone can easily get to Fraser Island. Coaches and trains run regular services to nearby mainland destinations and airline services fly direct from Sydney and Brisbane to Hervey Bay.
Fraser Island is a unique destination for many reasons. Firstly, there are no roads and you must hire a four wheel drive vehicle to get around or travel on one of the many organised tours or camping holidays. Accommodation is available in either resort style, holiday homes and apartments or backpacker lodges. Access to and from the island is via a vehicular ferry which runs from River Heads to the east coast of Fraser Island or from Inskip Point to the islands southern tip. Light aircraft provide aerial scenic flights and access to the ocean side of the island where they land on the beach.
Any visitor to Fraser Island is in for a scenic treat. The island is famous for its magnificent stands of pristine rainforest that have withstood the rigours of a past logging industry and a history of sand mining. Its large number of perched and window lakes are amazing and its ocean beach is almost endless. Some of its best loved natural attractions include Lake Mackenzie with its white silica sand beaches, Wangoolba creek, Eli Creek, The Maheno shipwreck and the Cathederal coloured sand cliffs. At the northern end, Indian Head and the Champaign Pools are frequently visited. Fraser Island is also a National Park containing a wide variety of native flora and fauna. It is the home of the huge Satinay tree which provides the world’s hardest hardwood. So hard it was actually used to line the banks of the Suez Canal when it was built. The population of Fraser Island Dingoes that remain here are the most pure of the Dingo breed still in existence.
Fraser Island has a history including a long relationship with Australia’s indigenous Aborigines who called it K’Gari which means paradise. In early European times, a number of shipwrecks occurred, one of which gave the island its name when a woman by the name of Eliza Fraser became an unwilling resident of the island and lived for several years with the local Aboriginals before being rescued. Everything taken into account, Fraser Island is one of Australia’s best and most interesting places to visit.
