FRASER ISLAND
The largest stretch of sand dunes in the world
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Fraser Island is a great place to explore all of the historical, amazing and fun things on the Island. It has radical rainforests, spectacular sand dunes, fantastic four wheel driving and luxourious lakes to top it all of it is the oltimate holiday paradise.It has alson numerous awards for example. it was listed on the World Heritage List in 1992, in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values, and was included on the National Heritage List in 2007.
Location
Fraser Island is located off the Queensland coastline, about 300km north of Queensland's capital city of Brisbane.Fraser Island is situated just off the mainland of Australia in the Fraser Coast region of Queensland. Access to the island is made easy by having a ferry take you over. There are several feries departing and returning to Fraser Island throughout the day.
Size
The marvellous Fraser Island sweeps over 123 kilometres in length and 22 kilometres in width at it's widest point of the island. With an area of 184 000 hectares it is the biggest sand island on the earth.
The sand dunes
The huge sand blows and cliffs of coloured sands are part of the longest and most entire ancient arrangement of coastal sand dunes in the world and they are still growing in size and beauty. The highest sand dunes on the island reach up to 240 metres above sea level. Wow!
The sand dunes are also are a great sorse of entertainmen t you can run, roll or tabogin down into the fresh lakes.
The dunes are made up of sand that has been growing for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock.
The Maheino shipwreck
The word Maheno means ‘island’ in Maori, which is the native language of New Zealand.
The Maheno was made in Scotland in 1904.It was the world’s first ever triple screw steamer, weighing a massive 5323 tonnes.The Maheno was for a long time used as a hospital ship in World War 1, following which it was purchased by a Sydney shipping company who planned to use it between Sydney and New Zealand. After several years of this trans Tasman journey the Maheno was sold to a Japanese shipping company.At that time they were running very low on money. The company made the decision to sell the huge propellers from under the still-working Maheno. The reason behind this was to fund the towing of the Maheno by a ship named the Ottawa back to Osaka in Japan. Once in Japan the Maheno was to be melted down and be sold as scrap metal. It was on the journey that Maheno was hit by an unseasonal cyclone off the coast of Fraser Island. Luckily there was enough people to sail the ship through the cyclone.
Some of the stories of the ship washing up on Fraser tell the tale of the Japanese crew being too afraid to get off the vessel, after hearing of the rumour of the aborigionals eating other humans and themselves, if they couldnt find bushtucker or any animals.
Attempts were made to refloat the Maheno.This was unsucsesful so eventually it was left abandoned on Fraser Island.
History
The Butchulla people are/were the indigenous people that once roamed Fraser Island. There were six tribes in the Butchulla Nation. The territory extended through Fraser Island, past Double Island Point, Tin Can Bay, through Bauple Mountain and north to a point at Burrum Heads in Queensland.
The Butchulla people's traditional name for Fraser Island was K'gari which means paradise. According to Butchulla legend, Fraser Island was named K'gari after the beautiful spirit who helped Yindingie, messenger of the great god Beeral, create the land. As a reward to K'gari for her help Beeral changed her into an eco-friendly island with trees, flowers and lakes. He put birds, animals and people on the island to keep her company.
The fresh water lakes and creeks
There are around 40 creeks on the island, there are also lots of lakes, lagoons and swamp areas they are some of the favourite attractions of the island.
Perched Dune Lakes
There are Forty perched dune lakes that can be found on the island. These lakes are formed when things like leaves, bark and dead plants, gradually build up and harden eventually by the wind and the rain. Fraser Island contains half of the world's perched lakes.
The world's largest being l Lake Boomanjin covering 190 hectares. The island also has the world's highest being the world famous Boomerang Lake, at 130m above sea level.
Barrage Lakes
Fraser Island has barrage lakes, barrage lakes are formed when moving sand dunes block a watercourse.
Window Lakes
Here is one way that a window lake can be formed. Window lakes can be formed when a mayjor seasonal change accrues,
Creek Eli
Creek Eli pumps 80 liters of water a day of fresh water into the ocean every hour.You can walk along the boardwalks around Creek Eli or take a dip in the refreshing crystal-clear water. The glistening white sand complements the lakes intense blue fresh water it is really a beutiful creek. Creek Eli is the largest creek on the eastern side of the island.
Lake Mc Kenzie
With is clear blue waters and sparking white sandy shores, which covers more than 150 hectares. It is over five meters in depth. Perched high in a sand dune that is over 100 meters above sea level.
Basin Lake
basin Lake is one of the best examples of a black water perched lake. It covers an area slightly larger than a football oval and is eight meters in depth.
Lake Wallaby
This lake is the largest barrage lake on the island. Lake Wabby is the deepest creek in the world because it is 11.4m deep!!!!!!
The largest creek with a flow is Bogimbah Creek, 8km north of Kingfisher Bay, It has a flow of 166 million litres of water a day.
Four wheel driving
Four-wheel-driving on Fraser Island can be extremely dangerous. Here is an examle of how dangerous it can be. Three people died in a crash on Fraser Island in 2009.
The speed limit on the beach is 80km, on the island tracks the limit is 30km's.Make sure your not driving along the foredunes to at high tide, because cars can become unstable and roll-over causing serious injury or even death.Cars get bogged lots on Frser island when there driving on soft sand so evoid the soft sand as much as you can, I mean the last thing you want to happen is for your car to get bogged and you have to spend hours trying to think of a way to get it out. That wouldn't be fun.
The Fauna
The Wetlands
In the wetlands there are: rare patterned ferns, mangrove colonies, sea-grass beds and up to 40,000 migrating shorebirds. There are also lots of either rare, vulnerable or endangered species which inclue dugongs, turtles, llidge's ant-blue butterflies and eastern curlews.
Wales, dugongs and dolphins
Hervey Bay is one of the largest humpback whale-watching areas in Australia.
More than 5,000 whales stop in the waters of Hervey Bay every year as part of their annual migration during July and October.
Dolphins and dugongs can usually be seen playing in the waters of Fraser Island throughout the year.
The Birds
Above 350 species of birds have been listed to live on Fraser Island. It is a resting place for some migratory birds. While some only visit, many other species make it their home due to its variety of habitats.
Dingoes
Because of their isolation, Fraser Island's dingoes are thought to be the purest strain of dingo in Australia.
Please remember that they are wild animals and you must not feed them or approach them. Dingos have caused a lot of injuries and trouble in the past so try to keep clear of them especially when you are eating, because they are known to growl at or bite people when you dont give them food because, they are used to being fed by humans.
Mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish
Other mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish
- 48 species of mammals inhabit Fraser Island and most of them go out and hunt at night.
- 79 species of reptiles have been listed and this includes 18 species of snakes, 6 of them are dangerous.
- 18 types of frogs and 24 freshwater species of fish found on the island.
- Countless species of saltwater fish inhabit the surrounding marine waters.
These are some of the endangerd species on the island
The Flora
rainforests
Subtropical forests growing solely on sand, this is the only place in the world that tall rainforests grow on sand. In the rainforests some of the types of flora that grows is eucalyptus woodland and mangrove forests.
The Wetlands
In the wetlands there are: rare patterned ferns, mangrove colonies and sea-grass beds