FRASER ISLAND
The worlds largest sand island
Fraser Island the largest sand island in the world
Fraser Island is a National park, it's located 300km north of Brisbane and 15km off the coast of Harvey Bay. Fraser Island is famous for it's crystal clear and beautiful fresh water lakes.
HISTORY
Over the past two million years, ocean currents and waves have swept sand north from the continental shelf of New South Wales and southern Queensland. Sand accumulates and covers the bedrock to form dunes parallel to the coast, leaving only peaks uncovered—today's headlands.
Strong onshore winds blow some loose sand inland into high parabolic (hairpin-shaped) dunes, which spread to engulf everything in their paths and form a sequence of overlapping dunes.
Fraser Island and Cooloola are remnants of old sandmasses that once stretched 30km east. Major dune-building has continued in episodes as sea levels rose and fell, forming a sequence of at least 8 overlapping dune systems of different ages. Some are more than 700,000 years old—the world's oldest recorded sequence. These processes continue shaping the sandmasses.
The native animals in Fraser Island
Worlds most beautiful place you will ever see
FLORA
The rugged terrain of Fraser Island is clad with a diversity of vegetation ranging from luxuriant tall rainforest to heathlands and mallee growth. The island has over 750 vascular plant species. This incredible volume of Fraser Island’s biomass grows only in sand, with relatively little nutrient. While the taller forests draw their nutrients from the concentration from a subsoil (B horizon) provided that it is accessible to the plant roots, the more impoverished plant communities rely for their nourishment on the small quantities of plant nutrients which are voraciously re-cycled. There is a clear nexus between forest types and the dune systems which determine the available nutrients.