Fraser Island

We had a stopover in Brisbane for one night to allow us to pick up a parcel (of left behind belongings) that Steve had sent to us care of a friend's place. At that time we didn't have much information about caravan parks in north Brisbane and chose one not too far from where our friends live. It was a small park and most of the sites were taken up by permanent residents in quite old caravans, which gave the park a run down look. We were only there overnight, the showers were hot and had good pressure and we got the washing washed and dry so it didn't matter that the park perhaps wasn't the best of neighbourhoods. We now have a directory of "Queensland caravan parks and touring accommodation" which will be helpful. Each state in Australia is quite independent and getting detailed information on a state before you get there isn't easy. We do have books that cover all of Australia which suffice for most of our needs and can use the internet too.

After Brisbane we travelled to Hervey Bay, the main reason for going there was to go to Fraser Island. We did a day tour to the island several years ago and were keen to go back. The island is the world's largest sand island and is completely forested, although timber was taken until the 1920's. The island is about 110km long and 10km wide. Because all the driving is on sand 4WD is the only way to travel. We left the caravan in Hervey Bay, packed the truck up with our camping gear and took it to the island by barge. The barge trip was about 30 minutes, although there are shorter and longer trips departing from and going to other landing sites.

The roads are pure sand ranging from hard firm to very soft and dry, but almost always traversed by tree roots, and are rough and undulating. Some sections were quite challenging, but the truck lurched her way through with hardly any effort. The occupants were well shaken by the end of 50km of these roads though.

The first day we went across the island and out to the eastern beach. Along the way we stopped off at "central station" which was a forestry centre during logging days. There were lots of information boards there and a stream so clear the sandy bottom looks like it's the surface. From here it was a fairly rough slow road to Lake McKenzie a perched lake with extremely fine white sand and crystal clear water. It is quite strange seeing a lake with dazzling white sand surrounded by bush. The next lake we passed was a barrage lake where a mobile sand dune has blocked a watercourse. The sand dune continues to advance and it will eventually fill the lake. When we got out to the eastern beach we were surprised how little dry beach there was to drive on, even though it was only an hour past low tide. We had planned to travel several kilometres along the beach before finding a camp spot but with the tide coming in and not much free space we only went 3km north. We found a nice clearing just off the beach, tucked in behind some Banksia and other trees that gave us shelter from the light breeze. We had our tent pitched and camp set up by 3pm so had time for a wander down the beach and Al tried fishing before sunset. The sun sets at 5:30pm, which seems early and there is no twilight.

Overnight we were visited by dingos. We didn't hear or see them but found their tracks on the beach and on the track leading up to our campsite. Having now spent several hours by the sea we had discovered that at hight tide the water went right up to the dunes and a low tide there was generally 40 or 50 metres or dry sand to drive along. Much less than what we remembered from our trip several years ago. Armed with this knowledge and the fact that the tide was falling we headed north 18km up the beach to a lovely crystal clear creek, Eli Creek. The travel along the beach was hard and smooth with an occasional rocky outcrop that had to be negotiated either by driving around and over the rocks or by track off the beach. After visiting the creek we headed south driving for 34km before taking a track inland to Lake Boomanjin, another perched lake. Here there was a camping area inside a high netting fence (dingo proof). We didn't see any dingoes here but did see one when we were travelling down the beach. After setting up our tent we went for a walk along the lake shore and we able to get within 5 metres of a grey heron that was intent on feeding. As it moved along at the edge of the water we moved along the shore following it and it took no notice of us. It was great to be able to get so close and to watch it.

That night we had rain showers but it was dry when we woke. We packed the truck and left the tent up to dry while we went for a walk through the bush. After about 20 minutes of walking through generally scrubby trees it started to rain. We decided to abort our walk and returned to camp under the shelter of our umbrellas. Fortunately the rain stopped when we got back to camp so we were able to pack up our wet tent without getting wet ourselves. We had a ferry booking for 2:30pm so made our way back along an inland track stopping off for a picnic lunch near another lake. Fortunately the showers stayed away for the day.