James Postell, our intrepid writer from Australia, has created a wonderful addition to the travel series with his Daytrips Eastern Australia. James (photo on left) is actually an American from Pennsylvania who moved to Oz (that's Australia to you, mates) several years ago and now lives with his wife near Brisbane. He has the rare gift of seeing a foreign land through American eyes, and for this book has explored the entire eastern part of the country, selecting 60 great destinations to describe.
Although nearly all of his book is concerned with one-day do-it-yourself adventures, for this single trip he has bent the rules and allowed a 2-or-3-day excursion that is best taken as part of a group tour. It's that good.
A PACKAGED ADVENTURE IN OZ...Australia on your own
The jump-off point for this trip is Noosa, on the eastern coast about a hundred or so miles north of Brisbane.
Fraser Island and the Dingoes
This two-day tour of the world's largest sand island, and home to the planet's purest dingoes (photo on left), will be a trip you will never forget. The recommended bus tour will stop at the colored sands of Rainbow Beach, offer a swim in dune lakes so pure they will not sustain life, stop at the shipwrecked hull of the luxury passenger line Maheno, and allow for hikes across desert dunes.
Located on Hervey Bay and just 155 miles north of Brisbane, the sand island is part of the Great Sandy National Park. It is the most visited site in Australia (beating out Ayers Rock) and has the only highway that's also an airstrip. The third-largest island off the Australian coast averages nine miles wide and is 77 miles long. It is 1½ times the size of the Sahara Desert! Overall, it is 403 square miles of blowing sand dunes, thick rainforests, crashing waves, freshwater lakes, murky-looking swamps, pristine beaches, and incredible flora and fauna. Built up over 800,000 years, the sand has been swept north from New South Wales and deposited on the coffee rock base (a brown mix of clay and decomposed vegetation). Between the cyclones, erosion, high winds, droughts, and pulling sea currents, the island is continuously changing shape. Because of that feature, sailors are wary of the area around the island. Inland streams constantly dump millions of gallons of prehistoric water into the sea. And there are 40 lakes of varied size, shape, and character; one is so pure that no life can be sustained in it.
It was originally believed to be an Aboriginal camp due to the massive amounts of food available. But that changed quickly due to the discovery of gold, and the local Butchalla tribe was driven out in the 1830s. The island was converted to a quarantine station for people coming to pan for the metals on the mainland. As a result of the smallpox, influenza, and alcohol introduced to the tribe it diminished from over 2,000 to 150. The last of them were removed and put on reserves.
First named The Great Sandy Island by Captain Cook in 1770, it was later changed to Fraser in memory of a shipwrecked party led by James Fraser. Well, to be totally accurate, the first name of the island was K'gari (pronounced gurrie). Logging took over and the Giant Satinay (turpentine) trees were removed and used to build the Suez Canal, and were also utilized as pylons to reconstruct the British docks after WW II. Next came the Z Force commandos and their training for war. The camouflage used today was based on the colorations found on Fraser. Then the sand miners arrived and removed as much of the rutlie, zircon, and ilmenite-rich sand as they could before being asked to leave by the government. Finally today, the island is a nature wonderland for tourists from all over the globe.
The reserve has no kangaroos, but there are many nocturnal critters such as spiny anteaters, gliders, bats, bobucks, bandicoots (cat-sized rat), and of course dingoes. Horses, brought in by timber cutters, have been reduced to only a few brumbies (wild horses). But birds are everywhere! From majestic sea eagles to noisy lorikeets and disliked ibis, spoonbills, ducks, and a variety of kingfishers. The island has enough brown snakes, death adders, taipans, and red-bellied black snakes to wipe out a small town. But I've not met anyone who has seen any of them.
GETTING THERE:
By 4WD: Please don't bother. Some people choose to hire a 4WD vehicle and explore this island with no roads, but I warn you against it. It is difficult and very expensive if you get stuck. If you do attempt it, read the small print of the rental contract.
By Bus: There are several bus tours available based on your timeframe, the money you want to spend, and what you desire to see. You can book directly, but to have it all laid out for comparisons, contact Palm Tree Tours in Noosa, T: (07) 5474-9166. I preferred the 3-day Adventure Safari, T: (07) 5447-3845, that provides pick-up at your accommodation in Noosa, handles all tours and lodging at the Eurong Beach Resort — all for AU $249/twin share. Tour options include: Trailblazer Tours, T: (07) 5444-6957, for around AU $130-$229; Fraser Venture Tours, T: 1-800-249-122, for AU $82/day, Fraser V.I.P.Tours, T: 1-800-649-988, for AU $220-$286; and the Wilderness Lodge Tours from Kingfisher Bay Resort, T: 1-800-072-555, for AU $225-$285.
PRACTICALITIES:
Hiking clothes and footwear appropriate for rainforest and sand treks are recommended. Sunscreen and bug spray are a must, and take along treatments for bug bites. It's not a good idea to swim unless the area is patrolled. The waters are dangerous for lots of reasons. There are free-roaming animals and they are wild despite their tame appearance. Dingoes can be a real threat and have killed children and attacked adults in the past. Follow these guidelines on the island:
- Always stay with your children.
- Walk in groups and keep your distance — watch quietly but do not attract, encourage, or excite dingoes.
- NEVER feed dingoes — they are naturally thin and don't be tricked to think they are hungry. It is illegal (AU $1,500 fines and up) to feed them or leave food where they can reach it.
- Lock away all food supplies and scraps — even clean BBQs and lock up dirty dishes.
- If you feel threatened by a dingo — stand up at your full height, face the dingo, fold your arms and keep eye contact, if in pairs — stand back to back, confidently call for help, calmly back away, do not run or wave your arms.
The sources for some of this information was gleaned from Australian Geographic and a book called "Fraser Island" by Angela Burger. I would recommend both of them as a good source for further biographical, geographical, and natural history insights. But also check out Fraser-is, Env.qld, or Unesco.
FOOD AND DRINK:
Most tours supply all food and refreshments. The resorts have cafés, pubs, bakeries, grocery stores, and restaurants onsite. Picnic sites are located in most of the highlighted stopping spots.
LOCAL ATTRACTIONS:
Numbers in parentheses correspond to numbers on the map.
CLICK ON MAP FOR LARGE PRINTABLE IMAGE
The tour operators will organize the best schedule to see what you want on the 2-3-day tour. Normally, the guides pack two full days of options and allow a day to chill out or take in additional (for additional costs) sights. The goodies listed below are an example of some of the exotic adventures in store at the island.
Before the skip across the Great Sandy Strait, the tour will stop at River Heads (1). The break allows passengers to stock up on treats and water at a small grocery store on the shoreline. It isn't necessary to clear the shelves as plenty of food and drink will be available on the entire trip. I think the main reason is to allow the driver to drop the tire pressure to 18 pounds as required to navigate the sands of Fraser. The large 4WD bus then lumbers through foot-deep sandy ruts, across a narrow strip of beach, and onto the Fraser Venture (2). The ferry is shaped like a sloop and the mass of buses, 4WDs, and passengers are loaded in minutes. This low-slung ship is clean, offers a whiff or two of diesel exhaust, and has about five feet of steel above the waterline. On the short 5-mile journey from the mainland, tea, biscuits, muffins, and coffee are served. Even on a calm day expect some sea spray mixed in with your drinks as you cross over. You might notice the absence of seagulls at this point. Apparently the sand is pure silica and the gulls need sea grit to allow the digestion of food. On the entire trip the coach captain will be spouting facts and trivia about the island and its inhabitants. Like the dingo is actually a Singapore wolf originally brought to the area by seamen who used the animal to locate land. Supposedly they can smell land from 300 miles out from shore.
Weaving around obstacles and oncoming vehicles, the bus heads along the sand track called Mine Road. There are several different paths used to traverse the island, and this is one of the main tracks that cuts across the island. The first destination on Fraser is Lake McKenzie (3). The lake is so pure, with a ph of 4.0, that it will not sustain any form of plant or animal life. It is about 70 degrees F, is a light green color around the sandy beach, and cools off into a deep dark blue color about 20 yards out. You're not supposed to drink from the lake, but I did and it tastes like distilled water. The freshwater pond is surrounded by dense green trees, is about a mile in diameter, and ringed with dazzling white sand.
After about an hour's swim, the bus is loaded up and heads to Central Station (4). The driver will fill heads up with more yarns — and some pretty good ones at that. The station was once the main logging camp on the island, with many of the timber-cutter's cabins and facilities well preserved. It wouldn't be at all surprising to see a lumberjack stroll from one of the log huts and say "g'day." The driver will switch hats and begin a walking tour along the rainforest filled with Satinay pines, 300-year-old king ferns, orchids, and palm trees. You will be warned of the dangers lurking 30 feet above. The bush pineapples are known to drop and do serious damage if you happen to be directly underneath. As you follow along the boardwalk, check out the stream running alongside the path — Wanggoolba Creek. It looks to be covered in Jurassic-age slime, but in fact is so clear that you can see the green leaves on the bottom. Walking under the 150-foot trees and breathing in earthy scents feels as close to Eden as it gets.
Two more stories and you will arrive at Eurong Beach Resort (5). The 3-star, absolute beachfront accommodation is a ten-acre refuge with luxury apartments, cottages, motel-style rooms, cabins, and family flats. It is a casual place with a general store, two pools, a karaoke pub, a gas station, a gift shop, and one of the few public phones to be found. Oh, mobile phones are basically useless on most parts of the island. The food is basic, but tasty and the beer is cold as is the fine selection of wines. You will be served cafeteria style and can go back for seconds and thirds.
The first tour on the eastern side should begin with the Ranger Station (6), about 100 yards up the beach from the resort. It is loaded with great posters, maps, and a small display of the island and its creatures, and with friendly advice. Really do try to make it there first and get some background information on what else is in store for you. When the Mad Max Bus is ready to roll, the driver will count his wards and head north along Seventy Five Mile Beach (7). If your guide/driver sees something worthwhile he or she will pull over and explain what's happening. There will be quite a few stops along this official highway called Route 1. You may notice the driver will often look to the sky — remember that this patch of sandy road is also a landing strip for the commuter planes, and all vehicles must give right of way.
The transport will come to an abrupt stop at One Tree Rocks (8) if the dingoes are hanging out when you pass by. It seems to be a popular hangout for the yellow dogs. If they are shy, the trip continues up the beach to the first notable attraction, called Rainbow Gorge (9). The dunes on Fraser Island are called "continuously forming sand dunes" because they are constantly building on themselves and are affected by the changes throughout the millennia. Like archaeological digs that unveil the layers of history, Rainbow Gorge reveals a layered-cake view of different sand types, clays and minerals. The rainbow effect is created from a mix of inorganic and organic materials being exposed the air and bleeding the colors for all to see. The Aboriginal legend of the gorge goes something like this: Wuru, a young girl, was to marry an old man named Winyer. But Wuru was in love with a handsome boy named Wiberigan (that means rainbow). When the old man found out about this competitor in love, he hunted Wiberigan and killed him at the gorge with his boomerang. The boy fell and died on the spot, his blood covered the gorge and formed a rainbow. In all honesty, the sands are not very rainbow-like nor are they all colors of the bloody rainbow. They have a dappled texture with the predominant color being yellow or tan. But you can definitely see the layers and the gorge looks like Spielberg created it for a Star Wars desert scene.
Next up, the Maheno (10). This wreck of a luxury liner may jog a memory, as it is a standard backdrop for many bikini-clad calendars. The giant boat looks like a rusted erector set in the shape of a battleship. The ship was used to treat passengers to an elegant trip between New Zealand and Australia in the early 1900s. It was a 459-foot triple steam-engined powered boat used as a hospital ship in WW I and in 1935 she was sold as scrap to a Japanese company. While being hauled from Australia, the towline from the Oonah tugboat snapped in a vicious cyclone and she ran aground on Fraser. Apparently, they took the screws off the Maheno to lighten the load, and she was dead in the water. Being too damaged to refloat, the salvage company stripped off the valuables and left the hull there to rust into oblivion. It does look like a skeleton with ribs poking from the depths of the sea of blinding white sand with only ghosts responding to commands of abandon ship. It is now the sand-bound flagship for fisherpersons from all over the area. Supposedly it is a hot spot for tailor, and hundreds of anglers line up for a nibble.
Eli Creek (11) is a great spot to stretch, have a walk and maybe float down the freshwater stream a few times. Halting at Eli Creek, you can change into a swimming suit and take the plunge. Warning — despite what the guide says, the water is bloody cold! The second-largest creek on the island has a water flow of almost one million gallons per hour. The water is supposed to be somewhere around 200 million years old (though the literature clains 80 million). You can doggy-paddle along the curvy stream with fellow tourists and scramble over a few shallow spots until approaching the beach about 80 yards from the beginning. At the wooden bridge that crosses over the little stream is a sign that details the area and the creek. Don't read it before you jump in the water, though. It is loaded with eels hiding in the vegetation along the banks, and keelback snakes too. But they are not supposed to be a threat, just like the striped rocket frog and empire gudgeon fish. Tall grass-covered creek beds surround the slowly rippling water of the creek until it dumps onto the beach where it pools up into a 40-yard, round, wading pool. At this point the driver may fill you in on the dangers of getting stuck in the sands of Fraser, especially near the creeks that flow onto the beach. Some of the creeks dump as much as 1½ million gallons of fresh water onto the beach every hour. If you happen to get stuck near or on the flows, it takes only two hours to swallow your vehicle whole. Remember the warning about not renting a vehicle for this trip — the island consumes quite a few trucks each year.
This will probably be the extent of the first day's activities, and you will be escorted back to the resort for a meal, drinks and a party at the pub.
The next day will most likely start on the beach again, and a drive to Lake Wabby (12), a body of water known as a barrage lake. That means that a sand blow, a moving dune of sand, blocked a creek to create a lake. The fish-laden Wabby is loaded with Salmon Tailed Catfish, and the dominant turtle is called Kefts. Bur first you must cut a swath between the scubby trees on the ocean-side dunes across about a mile-wide desert. The mirage of heat waves will break into a greenish lake with a 25-yard embankment that dives straight into the water. The lake is in a basin with dense bush and trees on the foreshore. There is clear evidence of the sand blow activity with treetops sticking from areas of the dunes. The tops, looking like small shrubs, are actually large trees that have been covered in 20 feet of sand. The wind whips from the beach area and pushes the sand inland in slow waves to encroach on anything in its way. Eventually the lake will be overtaken and covered by the sand.
If you choose to continue up the beach, The Aquarium (13) is waiting to greet you. Also called the Champagne Pools, they are a great place to relax, sit in the rock pools, and watch the world go by. Another notable landmark and a great place to sneak over to for dinner is the Kingfisher Bay Resort (14). It is an eco-friendly accommodation with fine dining and luxury rooms. It's worth a look if you can find a ride to the western side of the island.
That should fill the second day, and the final glorious trip on day three will take you south along Seventy Five Mile Beach, past Hook Point (15). A ferry will transport you over the narrow causeway and back onto the mainland at Rainbow Beach (16). The left side of the bus will be filled with four-story cliffs of multi-colored sand formations etched in their face. It looks like Mother Nature's graffiti with swirls and markings of all colors. The sand is crunchy around the base of the cliffs, with small pools of life huddled in the shade. There are 72 different colors of sand, and they are supposedly over 40,000 years old. The "dream-time" story related to the cliffs talks about a beautiful maiden called Murrawar who would sing to the cliffs each morning. But a bad man attacked her one day and threw his boomerang at her. The girl's faithful rainbow came to the rescue and both the boomerang and the rainbow were shattered. The cliffs and beach are the remains of the great battle.
Rounding the point at Rainbow Beach is the landmark that deceived Captain Cook when he was navigating the area. Because the two knobby rock formations looked like two separate islands from the ocean, he named this Double Island Point (17). The bus will cut a bit off the point as it enters Cooloola Beach, 40-Mile Beach, and home to the MV Cherry Venture (18) (photo left). This was a cargo ship that came ashore over 20 years ago, and its single steam stack is slowly sinking into the sand. It looks a lot like the other wreck described earlier, but it is loaded with local graffiti.
The final stretch will be driven through the logging forests, through a few small towns and back to your accommodation.
Copyright © 2004 James Postell. This chapter from Daytrips Eastern Australia has been modified slightly to work better online, and has had color added.
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LAND OF THE ASCENDING DRAGON
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