Fraser Island: Literally Paradise

Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and World Heritage listed since 1992, is located just off the Queensland coast near Rainbow Beach. This island is a definite must-see for anyone visiting southeastern Queensland because it is such a brilliant anomaly.

Over thousands of years, sand has been pulled off the beaches of New South Wales and southern Queensland and deposited here in Hervey Bay, creating the island as it is known today. It is 120km long and around 15km wide, and surprisingly, there is infinitely more to do here than simply see a large pile of sand. The island’s ecosystem is just amazing—rainforests have found a way to take root in the sand, and there are hundreds of lakes “perched” on top of essentially, peat, a layer of decaying matter that stops the water from seeping into the sand.

The name “Fraser Island” actually comes from Eliza Fraser, the wife of the captain of the Stirling Castle which shipwrecked here in the late 1800s. The captain died but Eliza Fraser survived after being “taken captive” by the native Aborigines. The Aboriginal name for the island was K’gari, which literally means ‘Paradise’. They couldn’t have gotten the name more right.

Once Eliza Fraser was rescued and the general public saw what great resources Fraser contained, they moved in. Lots of logging began, especially around Central Station. Lots of forest was cleared until, in 1992, the island was declared a World Heritage Site. Now, you’re not allowed to take anything off the island—not even a twig or a pretty seashell you see on the beach.

There is so much to do here that the time I spent here didn’t even begin to cover everything. There is plenty of bushwalking, through rainforest, across sandblows, and along the beach. This alone could keep one busy on the island for weeks. There are literally hundreds of lakes to visit, each of which have their own character—Lake McKenzie is the most popular tourist attraction with its brilliant, clear blue water and eye-blindingly white sands. If you want out of the ordinary, you can find yellow, red, and green lakes as well to have a paddle in!

As if the activities weren’t enough, the scenery is just spectacular. It should be mandatory to have at least 512mb of memory on a camera or a backpack full of film to get on the island!

Quick Tips:

The island, like most of Australia, is filled with poisonous and otherwise dangerous animals (and water, too!). We were warned of all of these things on our tour.

-Do not feed the dingoes (there is a native population of ~150). They have been known to attack in the past (an 8-year-old kid was mauled by one when he happened upon one on the beach early in the morning and tried to run away). Feeding them just makes them more aggressive towards humans, and there is a ,250 fine for anyone caught feeding or harassing them.

-Watch where you are stepping. Six species of dangerous-to-human snakes live on the island, including the brown snake and two forms of taipan. Unless you find a tiger snake, these snakes won’t hunt you down unless you anger them first (a.k.a. stepping on them). If you do get bitten, seek immediate help.

-The sea is absolutely beautiful, and 75 mile beach invites you for the entire 75 miles to just jump into the twinkling surf. Don’t. Our tour guide told us about a 17-foot-long tiger shark that was caught in the nets at Rainbow Beach, just down the coast from Fraser. That was as long as our tour bus. Plus, once you stand on top of Indian Head and look into the water below, and see just how long those sharks are that are patrolling around the base, you’ll think twice about diving in.

-The only way of getting around the island is with a 4WD, which I’ve talked about in “Transportation”. In Rainbow Beach, there is a “Wall of Shame” of all the cars that have attempted to drive either along 40 mile beach, just south of Rainbow Beach, or on Fraser and have ended up bobbing in the waves. It’s definitely a good idea to check when the tides are because, if you drive at high tide and the water doesn’t get you, the soft peat-like rocks might. Either way, a 4WD costs a lot and I wouldn’t want to replace one.

-Since the island is a World Heritage Site, nothing can be taken off the island. You might be able to get away with the odd seashell, but I wouldn’t attempt to catch dinner from the schools of catfish in Lake Wabby.

Just be careful and mind the few rules given to you and you’ll thoroughly enjoy your time on Fraser.

Best Way To Get Around:

The only way to get around on Fraser Island is by 4WD, since there are no paved roads at all—just sand. We saw a lot of articles and photos of 4-wheel-driving gone wrong, including a recent accident in which many backpackers were killed, so I’d definitely recommend having some experience before taking on the island.

Another thing about 4-wheel-driving is that its only feasible to rent a car if you have quite a few people—otherwise the price is pretty steep if, say, you only have three people in your group. You can get up there and find other lone backpackers, but we really enjoyed our tour, which not only meant we didn’t have to find anyone to go with us, but we also didn’t have to worry about our lack of experience with 4WDs. Nor did we have to plan anything about the trip and worry about what we had missed.

As stated above, knowing the tides is a must. We also saw a couple cars stuck in the sand near Indian Head because they attempted to go through a patch that was too soft, so its good to watch the road and make sure you’ll be able to make it through somewhere before actually trying it. Our tour guide even made a few detours when he wasn’t completely sure of the bus’s ability to get through—you don’t have to be in a rush on this island, and plus, if you have to take a detour you might find something totally unexpected that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

4WDs can be rented in Noosa, if you want to drive up 40 mile beach on the way to Fraser, or at Rainbow Beach or Hervey Bay. Hostels in these areas also help to organize self-drive tours and give a bit of instruction beforehand. There are a few other things to consider when renting a 4WD:

-you need a permit for your car to drive on the island
-you need a permit (per person) to camp on the island
-you are liable for all damages to the car
-the more people driving on the island, the more damage caused to the island
-you’ll probably have to pay for food and fuel on top of the rental cost

However, renting your own 4WD gives you complete freedom to explore the island, so its really just a matter of weighing pros and cons.

The entire way to Fraser, and along part of 75 mile beach before we arrived in Eurong, James (our guide) talked up our “rustic Australian beach houses.” When we arrived in Eurong, one of the major “resort” areas on the island, we got to see them for ourselves—four, six-person rooms in one building, and a kitchen/lounge/patio in the other. They were painted bright blue and yellow, so I would describe them as colorful, but not necessarily as “rustic.” Our room was called K’gari, the Aboriginal word for Fraser Island, meaning Paradise.

The rooms were alright and pretty clean. They didn’t have a whole lot—just three sets of bunk beds, a table; and around the corner, a toilet and shower. The bathroom area definitely added a few laughs to our trip. The toilet, which actually had a door that closed, smelled, possibly like dingo pee, but not to the point that it was unbearable—really just enough that we noticed it. The shower, on the other hand, did not have anything to block the stall from the outside world, besides a shower curtain...a shower curtain that just happened to be clear, with little fishies on it. Not only this, but through the years a hole had been dug through the wall—just enough that you could look straight through from the main room at whoever was showering. Plus, to get to the toilet, you had to walk past the shower, so I definitely had a few incidents where I just couldn’t find enough to cover myself up before someone went traipsing through.

James gave us clean linens for our beds, which also already had blankets on them, so we didn’t actually have to use the sleeping bags we brought along. The only problem that we might have had with the beds is that my friend (but only one of my friends, no one else) got lice after this trip. We’re not sure if they came from the Noosa hostel or these beach houses, but needless to say, they weren’t pleasant visitors. I’d probably take my own pillow and wash it well afterwards if I went again.

James cooked for us both nights, which was included in the tour. The food was quite good—we had Spaghetti Bolognese the first night, and barbeque the second. We didn’t have to help with the actual cooking, but each person got to help with the dishes once or twice, which really wasn’t that much to ask.

The lounge room in the beach house was absolutely covered in previous visitors’ hand prints and signatures. I didn’t see a single person that had disliked the tour, but then again, I doubt that person would be signing the wall. I feel like there was a pool table in that room, but I’m not quite sure—all I remember of that room is that it held the fridges which held our beer.

Overall, not a bad place to stay on Fraser at all, especially since we had actual beds, bathrooms, and a kitchen!

We did a lot of research on various tour companies that operate on Fraser Island, and we finally settled on Trailblazer for a number of reasons. They leave from Noosa (although they can also pick up/drop off people at Rainbow Beach), which was much more convenient for us, since Noosa is accessible from Brizzy. They also offered the right length of tour: 3 days/2 nights, which fit perfectly into a long weekend at uni. On top of this, they were offering a $40 discount at the time of our tour, so we paid $259 for the whole package.

We stayed at the hostel that the tour is based out of, Noosa Backpackers Resort, so we were picked up with a herd of other people around 8am on Saturday morning (the tour leaves on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays). The bus made a loop of the other hostels in Noosa and then we were off.

The tour guide, James, was, simply put, a real spark of life. He was from western Australia but had been doing these Fraser tours for about 3 years. He knew exactly what he was talking about and made all the little factoids he had interesting; we got off the island wanting to immediately write all of them down in our journals before we forgot! We really felt like we learned so much just about the history and the ecology of the place in such a short span of time. He also had amusing stories, of which we’re not sure how many were totally made up—but at the very beginning of the tour he was already regaling us with the story of his pet kangaroo on the farm that would admire herself in their hallway mirror.

Our bus was a 17-seater named Uncle Gus. It was comfortable and had plenty of windows so no matter where I sat I never felt carsick—and every time in the bus we sat somewhere else so we could “mingle”. He was named Uncle Gus because it rhymed with something that was said quite a lot when he got stuck—“f-in bus!”.

James immediately won favor with everyone in the tour when we stopped at the most important place in Rainbow Beach—the bottle shop. Obviously, alcohol wasn’t provided in the tour, but he told us to take as much as we wanted because it would be a long 3 days on the island otherwise. After that, Uncle Gus was pretty much stuffed full of cheap beer and wine, which was mostly gone by the end of the first night.

We really liked the fact that the tour went to some lesser-known places throughout our 3 days on the island. We probably wouldn’t have seen places like 40 mile beach, Lake Birrabeen, or Lake Garawongera (which wasn’t even on the schedule but we went to on James’ whim, rather than going to Lake Boomanjin). I don’t know if I could have enjoyed this tour any more and I recommend it to absolutely anyone.

This beach isn’t actually on Fraser Island, but rather, is in the Great Sandy National Park (Cooloola section), which is between Noosa and Rainbow Beach. The beach, like 75 mile beach on Fraser, has actually been declared a road by the Queensland government, so when driving along the beach you have to follow road rules, especially the 80km speed limit—and apparently there are cops that like to sit behind dunes and get speed demons.

This stretch of beach is not only a road but, at least for part of it, a campground as well. It would be a beautiful place to camp—going to sleep with the roar of the ocean in your ears, unzipping the tent in the morning and looking out at the crystal clear ocean lapping at the wheels of the 4WDs driving by…

I will forever think of this stretch of beach whenever I hear Moby’s “Body Rock,” the music that James turned on whenever he zoomed onto the beach. I’d never driven along a beach before, and it was such a great feeling, seeing the sand dunes on one side and the ocean literally sparkling on the other. I think I was just awestruck—but so was everyone else, because the bus got very quiet. Either that or no one could hear themselves think above the music.

We didn’t stop for a while because James both wanted to beat the high tide and because we had plenty to do on Fraser Island later in the day. We drove around the Cherry Venture shipwreck, which apparently, up until the year before, had been picture-worthy, but had since collapsed. When we passed it, it pretty much looked like a rusted heap of metal.

The one place we did stop was near Rainbow Beach, just before we cut inland to avoid having to drive around Double Island Point (so called because from Captain Cook’s vantage point, it looked like two islands rather than a peninsula). The cliffs here were rainbow, where Rainbow Beach gets its name from, because of the different amounts of iron in the sand. We didn’t spend too long here—just long enough to admire the multicolored cliffs and the black rivulets drawing pictures in the sand.

After leaving the beach and arriving in Rainbow Beach itself, James had one hell of a whopper to tell us. At the end of the street we were driving down, there was a large boat propeller. He told us that a couple years ago, Rainbow Beach had had such a scorcher of a summer that the entire town chipped in and they bought a huge fan to cool themselves off. We all just stared at him blankly until he told us the real story—but this was just the first of many tall tales we were fed.

Most people on Fraser Island make a beeline to Lake McKenzie (the lake most often seen in photographs of Fraser) as soon as the Manta Ray ferry lets them off. Our group never made it to McKenzie, however, opting for Lake Birrabeen instead. The tour does this because Birrabeen is just as picturesque and perfect as McKenzie is, but with so many less people. In fact, when we first arrived at Birrabeen, we were the only people there.

On the way to the lake, James explained to us the mechanics of having a lake on an island composed solely of sand. Birrabeen, like all other lakes on the island, is a “perched” lake, meaning that matter has decayed and formed a harder layer of peat underneath the lake that holds the water on top of it. While some of the lakes on Fraser turn the color of peat, a wonderful brownish yellow color, Birrabeen and McKenzie have not, instead taking on a crystal clear deep blue color.

We walked down to the lake through some forest and kept getting little peeks of it through the trees, but it was startling when we finally saw the entire thing. The lake is really just too perfect to be true—you dream of sands that fine and white, and water that blue, but rarely do you see it. Taking a camera here is a must, and you can easily leave it on the shore when you take a swim since I doubt there are too many thieves in such a secluded location.

The water in Birrabeen is slightly acidic, making swimming in the lake good for your skin. The lake gets very deep very quickly, as we found out, but treading water feels a bit better on the feet than standing in gooey brown stuff. While it was a bit chilly when we first jumped in, mostly because it was May and more winter than summer, it was warm enough that the body got used to it quickly, rather than leaving you shaking. I think James said the temperature was around 25°C.

The whole visit to the lake could be termed a “spa experience,” because not only is swimming good for glowing skin, but if you sit on the beach and stick your toes in the water, little tadpoles come up and bite dead skin off your feet. This sounds painful, but it was really just incredibly ticklish. The sand on the beach is so incredibly fine that you can rub it on your skin and it leaves it feeling really smooth. The end result of all this was rather amusing: most of the girls coated themselves in sand, washed it off, and then laid out.

We spent at least two hours at this beach, alternately lounging, bathing, and playing soccer or catch. It was the perfect day—barely a cloud in the sky—at the perfect location, and an absolutely perfect start to our Fraser vacation.

Our next stop after Lake Birrabeen was the fairly close-by Central Station. This used to be the main station for logging on Fraser, because of its close proximity to lots of giant satinay trees, which were perfect for use as a ship’s mast. This also makes it a great place to take a short hike through the Fraser Rainforest.

James took us along the path for a short while. Before we started along the path, he stopped us and asked us very seriously if we had picked up our DBPS in Rainbow Beach. When he was greeted with a blank look, he elaborated… “Your Drop Bear Protection System?” My friend and I looked each other and stifled our giggles, because we had heard the myth of the drop bear from another James when camping at Lake Cootharaba. Sadly, none of us had bought our DBPS’s so we were all in great danger.

There used to be koalas that lived on Fraser Island, but when the loggers came, they chopped down all the eucalyptus that the koala lives in. The koalas had no other choice but to start eating small animals, like lizards, to stay alive. They have begun eating larger and larger animals, so now, if you walk through the forest in Fraser, or many areas of Australia, it is best to walk with your hands making a cone above your head. Then, if a drop bear jumps down out of a tree onto you, it will simply slide right off.

Not only are there drop bears on Fraser, but there are hoop snakes to watch out for as well. These snakes like to live at the top of hills, and when they see some likely prey, they roll up into a wheel and roll down the hill after you. The only way to avoid these are to run in zigzags, of course, while holding your hands over your head to protect yourself from drop bears.

James proceeded to run through the forest like that and we all stood back and laughed at him. He was quite sad that no one believed him—although one girl screamed when he talked about hoop snakes because “she HATES snakes!”—because sometimes he actually gets whole groups mimicking him through the forest.

The track ran along Wanggoolba, or the Silent, Creek for quite a while. This creek actually is completely silent. You really do not know it is there until the path turns and you see water running below you. The creek is silent because there is nothing for it to trickle over besides sand. It’s fascinating and definitely a new experience to watch the water flowing along without any noise at all.

This review is continued in Wanggoolba Creek Walk, pt. 2.

This is a continuation of my Wanggoolba Creek Walk review.

In the creek there are some very old and exceptional ferns. The fern that James pointed out to us was over 2,000 years old, and had huge fronds that he said were some of the largest in the world. Because it is so old, if you walk in the creek, polluting it with your oils, you could possibly kill the fern—so if you even think about doing this, you are slapped with a $1250 fine.

At this point James left us to move Uncle Gus to the end of the track. We walked through the forest for around an hour, first along the creek and then uphill past some massive trees. It’s no wonder they logged on Fraser for so long, because some of those trees were absolutely humongous (possibly not on Californian redwood standards, but still). It’s also amazing that trees this big can take root in sand—but they have and since the sand is so rich in minerals, they have done quite well.

One thing that definitely provided us with entirely too much amusement was the rotten tree near the end. All of us got inside it at one point or another, so there’s plenty of pictures of us sticking our heads through various holes in the trunk. It was pretty cool to stand inside, since the trunk had rotted from the inside but was still standing to almost its original height. Looking up was like looking through a telescope.

When we reached the end of the track, James and Uncle Gus were there waiting for us. Once everybody filtered in, James decided to show us one of the dangerous inhabitants of the island. The funnel web spider, the most poisonous in Australia (and therefore, the world), used to only live in Sydney but has slowly made its way north. Now, it lives in little holes underneath trees and logs. He just wanted to make sure that we didn’t go sticking our fingers in any holes just to see what was there, since you can die from the bite rather quickly. He told us that he used to actually stick a twig down one of the holes so we could meet a funnel web for ourselves, but once one got so angry that it shot up the twig and was nearly on him before he could drop it! Needless to say, he has good reason to leave them alone now.

Time passed so quickly on this walk, and we were so completely enclosed by the rainforest that it seemed to be brilliant midday when we finally emerged, that we didn’t realize how late it was getting. However, James did, and with a declaration of “It’s beer o’clock! We’re late for beer o’clock!” we were herded back into Uncle Gus and headed back down the bumpy sand track to Eurong.

75 Mile Beach stretches all the way north to Indian Head from the southern tip of the island along the eastern coast. This beach, like 40 mile beach on the mainland, is considered to be a highway so cars fly along at around 80km per hour. Both beach’s names may seem to be an anomaly in the metric-using Australia, but they were both named before Australia changed to the metric system some 20ish years ago.

The beach is absolutely beautiful and offers miles upon miles of pristine sand and sea. The only problem we could find with the beach was the fact that you can’t actually swim in the water, which could be considered to defeat the purpose of going to the beach in the first place. Massive sharks—sighted at over 17 feet long—hang out just off shore, so you can swim if you feel like it (and we saw a few people doing so), but you will be, as James said, “shark bait.” Even though we didn’t actually bathe on the beach, we rather enjoyed just sitting on the softer sand (not any sand that could possibly be considered road) and watching the sky change colors with the sunset and seeing the stars come out. I probably saw the most stars I had ever seen here.

The beach is a great starting point for going pretty much anywhere on the island. Lake Wabby is the closest lake to the beach, with tracks leading either through forest or sandblow that are about a kilometer long. We went to a lookout over the Hammerstone Sandblow which was reasonably close to the beach, and the view was brilliant—we could see all the sand, followed by a bit of forest, and then the dazzling waters off 75 mile beach just beyond.

Many attractions are located literally on the beach or a very short walk away. Eli Creek is located between Eurong and Indian Head, and while it starts a fair bit inland, you can jump into it whenever and float back out to 75 mile beach. The Maheno shipwreck lies pretty much in the middle of the highway. Indian Head, the northern tip of 75 mile beach, offers stunning views of the entire area after a short hike up the 80m rock. There are also helicopter rides offered that take off and land on the beach itself, since it is also classified as a runway!

Many of the resorts and campgrounds are located along 75 mile beach as well. Eurong is more towards the southern end of the beach and has a number of beachhouses and other guesthouses.

We stopped on the beach for some quick pippy races on our way to Indian Head. James showed us how to dig up pippies, the native shellfish, and once we had all dug up a fair number (really quite quickly), we raced them to see which one would dig itself back under the sand the quickest. Mine didn’t even come close to winning—I think they fell asleep!

Lying in the middle of 75 mile beach, some 2/3rds of the way to Indian Head, is the rusted out shell of the shipwrecked Maheno. This ship, built in 1904 as a luxury Trans-Tasman liner, briefly served as a hospital ship before returning to its original calling after World War I. In 1935, the boat was declared unfit for the seas and was put on a tow line for the trip from Sydney to Japan, where she was to be sold as scrap metal. However, this trip did not go quite as planned when they ran into a cyclone. The boat had no power of its own, so when the towline broke, it floated along until it beached itself on 75 mile beach, where it is still lying today.

The shipwreck literally lies in the middle of the highway, so whether you want to see it or not, you have to stop near it because of the traffic. Plenty of people park and wander around the wreck, which causes a double hazard—people that don’t know how to park and leave barely enough room for cars to get through, and both children and adults that run across the road regardless of any oncoming traffic. The sand here makes driving particularly interesting, since it has been churned into a soft mess, making it slow going even for Uncle Gus the bus.

The shipwreck itself is obviously very rusted and falling apart, and walking inside or on the wreck is banned because of the sheer danger of something giving way underneath or around you. You can still see that it is a ship, especially around the bow, where it has held together remarkably well. However, as you move towards the stern, some of the ship is upright and some has collapsed inwards, making most of the main features of the ship totally unrecognizable. While it still looked like it had a few more years in it, it will probably soon end up like the Cherry Venture wreck on the mainland—a heap of scrap metal with no form or interest whatsoever.

We were able to walk around the entire ship when we arrived, but the tide was soon lapping on the outside of the ship and made it interesting getting around in the ankle deep water. It also made it interesting attempting to keep the camera dry with the number of splashing children about.

We didn’t spend a whole lot of time at the wreck since we had such a packed schedule for the day, but we were probably there for between 15-30 minutes. This was just enough time to explore the wreck without getting very bored.

Indian Head is the large rock sitting at the northern end of 75 mile beach on the eastern coast of Fraser Island. This rock, around 80m tall, is the rock around which all the sand of the island slowly collected through time, creating the largest sand island in the world.

Driving to Indian Head was not a problem, since it was a straight shot from our digs in Eurong up 75 mile beach. Once we parked just below Indian Head, it was a short 10 minute walk up to the very top, which offered some of the most amazing views on the whole island. To the northwest, there was an expanse of beautiful beach best viewed from the rock, since driving there meant going through very soft sand and waiting for the two cars that had already lodged themselves in said sand. To the south was 75 mile beach stretching long and thin along the entire Fraser coast. Everywhere else was scintillating, sparkling turquoise water, so clear that we could literally see exactly what was swimming underneath it.

There were two main lookout points—a tamer rock where you could sit down and enjoy the scenery, or the rock that involved a bit of climbing and walking on small ledges to get to. I originally was at the former, but soon made my way over to the latter, where about half our group was standing with James looking directly down into the water below.

When I was making my way around the top of the rock, I actually ran into someone wearing a DBPS (drop bear protection system). This is really just a Vietnamese-style rice hat, but I had to wonder weather they bought it to block out the sun or to block out the deathly grip of the drop bear.

We saw a lot of wildlife in a very short time without much difficulty at all—and I wasn’t even wearing my glasses! We saw sharks ominously patrolling around the rocks below, along with flowing manta rays. The sea turtles definitely caught all the girls’ attention the most—we saw two or three of them and I even got a snap of one (of course, it looks like a dot, but I know it’s a turtle!). After a while, James tired of his perched lookout and gave us another 20 minutes on the rock, which we spent in absolute awe. I literally could have spent the entire day up there, just pointing and screaming out to people when I saw another form of fauna. However, had I done this, I would have very much regretted it a few hours later with a terrible sunburn.

I definitely recommend making the drive over to Indian Head, regardless of where on the island you are staying, especially if it is as perfect a day as we had. Little other scenery I have laid eyes on comes close to that seen from the top of Indian Head.

Anyone who has ever visited a waterpark is familiar with the lazy river—a river with a surprisingly strong current in which you can either laze on a tube, floating in circles around the park, or futilely attempt to fight the current and end up going nowhere. Eli Creek is Fraser’s lazy river, but instead of being chlorinated water flowing through concrete riverbeds, it is fresh crystal clear water cutting a swathe through Fraser rainforest and 75 mile beach beyond.

We stopped at Eli for lunch on the way back from Indian Head, but before we were allowed to eat, we had to participate in the Fraser tradition or swimming in the creek. According to our guide, James, you haven’t truly visited Fraser until you’ve splashed in the quick-moving waters of Eli. And, also according to James, the creek we were about to swim in was only half of what it used to be—a few years ago, you could give into the creek and come up in chest deep water, but then a cyclone came along and rearranged sand and beach so much that if you tried to dive in now, you’d be luckily to come away with your neck in one piece.

There is a boardwalk running along the south side of the stream, which makes it much easier to make your way upstream. The walk along the clattering wooden planks is worth stopping for in itself as you wind your way through the eucalyptus, watching people splash in the creek. The boardwalk also has a few “authentic Australian” longdrop toilets, which are hard to come by on Fraser.

While protecting yourself from the strong Australian sun is always a must, it is advised that you wear neither sunscreen nor any other sort of oil or lotion while bathing in Eli, or any other fresh body of water on Fraser. These are considered to be pollutants. Obviously, some people had already slathered on sunscreen, but it's best to wear as little as possible while swimming.

The creek is incredibly shallow—at many points this makes it a job to just float along on your back—but it is still brilliant to swim in. The water is chilly (especially at the beginning of winter) and refreshing—so once you get in, you never want to get out again for fear of freezing! The current is incredibly strong and sucks you very quickly back out to the beach again. I wouldn’t recommend leaving anything on the bank while you take a quick dip, or else you’ll end up having to walk all the way back up the boardwalk because the current won’t let you upstream!

There were plenty people at Eli, but many were eating lunch, as we planned to, so the creek wasn’t too crowded. I really enjoyed just walking up the boardwalk and floating downstream again and again—and its just shallow enough to allow for a nice game of frisbee as well!

Our rough itinerary called for us to visit Lake Boomanjin, one of the largest perched lakes in the world, after our lunch at Eli Creek. However, our guide, James, decided to take us to Lake Garawongera instead.

On the way to Garawongera, we stopped at a little store to buy ice-cream. Unfortunately, my friends didn’t feel that we would need money that day, being on a remote sand island, so we didn’t have any on us. We calculated that it would be $10 for us to each get something…and then, as we were walking with the group to the store, we found a $10 bill! There weren’t any other patrons in the store, and no one else claimed it, so we quickly found ourselves enjoying Magnums as we bounced along the road to Garawongera.

James told us before arriving at Garawongera that it wasn’t quite picturesque in quite the same way as Lake Birrabeen. He informed us that the lake was the color of champagne, but on arrival we unanimously decided it was the color of pee instead. The lake and its shores also had a lot more sticks and weeds, and the sand wasn’t nearly as fine. However, it was still nothing to complain about, and soon our entire group had either fallen asleep (following James’ example), or jumped in.

I spent a fair amount of time on the shore sunbathing, mainly because the sun had been obscured by towering dark clouds and I wasn’t terrified of turning into a lobster. The other reason I spent a fair amount of time on the shore was the fact that, without the sun, the lake really was quite chilly. Luckily, the lake didn’t get deep nearly as quickly as Lake Birrabeen, so I was able to get in and play ball without getting my top half wet for a good 15 minutes or so. I finally did dunk myself, but it took a long time for the water to feel much warmer.

Garawongera, despite being the color of pee, was still exceptionally clear and clean. The bottom of the lake was just like Birrabeen—squishy peat that your feet sinks into. This peat is both what keeps the lake sitting on top of the sand and what gives the lake its yellowish color. Out in the deeper parts of the lake, there are groves of weeds saluting you. A few people swam that far, but as the lake was much deeper there, and those people came back shivering, I decided to give that a miss.

Garawongera was definitely a relaxing destination, as James’ 2 hour doze on the shore made evident, but it was my least favorite of the three perched lakes we visited on Fraser. While still a brilliant place, just like everything else on Fraser, Garawongera does not offer quite the excitement or scenery of some of the other lakes on the island.

On our way through Rainbow Beach to Fraser Island, we stopped in and cleaned out the local bottle shop. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the alcohol mysteriously disappeared on our first night at the beach houses, and anything that was left was consumed before our dinner on Sunday night. James decided that this just wouldn’t do, so we headed over to the Beach Bar.

The Beach Bar is located in Eurong, which is part-way up 75 mile beach on the eastern coast of Fraser. From our beach houses, it was just a short walk up the beach, although we had to be very careful and carry fairly decent flashlights to make sure a) we didn’t get run over by any cars and b) we didn’t get eaten by dingos.

There were a fair number of people at the Beach Bar when we arrived, but these people barely filled up one room in the pub. Most were backpackers or American students, as is to be expected in a place like this. We soon found why James made us load up on the alcohol before we left the mainland—they were definitely making a killing at the bar. I bought a can of XXXX (the pride of Queensland) for around $4, probably doubling or tripling the price of what I paid on the mainland. This is why I bought a sole can rather than several.

There were two main parts to the bar—the inside, where the music was playing and where the bar was located, and the covered outside area. We were in that area, filled with plenty of picnic benches for large tour groups like ours. It wasn’t exceptionally interesting, since my friends and I really didn’t have the money to get as tipsy as some of the people in the bar, but James soon remedied that. We pushed together a few of the tables and after a bit of explanation, started a game. It was a hand-slapping game that involved a bit of thinking and quick reflexes, which many people didn’t possess by this point. This game soon had a lot of us laughing uncontrollably. I lost terribly.

The music was typical pub music. When we went inside to the restrooms (where, on the wall, there was inscribed “Eurong.” “No, I’m right!”), everyone was line dancing to hip hop.

We didn’t stay much longer at the bar, since our tour group had split into the smaller groups of people who knew each other prior to the tour. There weren’t terribly many people to talk to outside our group anyway, and the trusty TVs, always there to watch sports on when you’re bored at a pub, were absent. Had we wanted to spend a fortune on alcohol, I’m sure the bar would have been a much more exciting place.

Our last destination before departing the wonderful island of Fraser was Lake Wabby. Wabby was much closer than any of the other places we visited on Fraser, being only a short drive up 75 mile beach. Our guide let us out there, and handed us a boogie board before heading back to the beach houses to clean up.

There are two main tracks to Wabby—either through the forest or across the sandblow. To get there, we took the 1km track straight across the sandblow which had walled in Wabby between itself and the forest. I really felt like I was in one of those movies where people are lost in a desert, because all I could see around me were dunes of sand. Eventually, we climbed the last dune and found a steep dropoff into a greenish lake.

Unlike Garawongera, since Wabby is bordered on one side by a sand dune, there was plenty of space to spread out and do whatever you like on the sand. We quickly put our boogie board to good use, making a track down the steepest part of the dune to ensure maximum velocity while sandboarding into the lake below. The track took a little while to get right—like remembering to put a little ramp at the end so one does not go plowing straight into the lake—but it was a work of art when it was done.

Then came the fun part. We hiked up the slope to the top of our track, which was a very good exercise in strengthening the calves, then took a few running steps, hopped on the board, and plowed our way down the hill. My friend and I went together, sitting down on the board, and even that was a rush. It was a bit difficult keeping my feet from grinding into the sand and slowing us down, but we still hit the lake at a fair clip and made a nice splash. Even more of a rush was going it skeleton-style, with your chin inches from the sand as you fly into a wall of water. We had managed to construct our track so flying into that wall wasn’t nearly as painful as it could have been, with the more skillful of riders actually skidding across the top of the lake.

Everyone in our group, whether boarding or sitting from the great vantage point near the water, had a blast and time flew by like the riders on the sandboard. At one point, we attempted to beat the record of 5 people on one board, but that didn’t quite work. We ended up with the interesting spectacle of two guys lying on top of each other flying down the dune instead!

This review is continued in Lake Wabby, part 2.

This review is a continuation of my Lake Wabby review.

The German in our group was definitely the most adventurous, surfing down the hill and only falling off when he hit a bump about 5/6 of the way down. This was really quite an impressive effort, and one that no one, even him on a later try, came close to matching. I didn’t dare try that solely because of my ability to injure myself in bizarre ways.

After we had been boarding for awhile, another tour group came along and attempted to hijack our track. This was a little annoying because since they hadn’t spent the time moving around all that sand, they didn’t treat it quite as well, so we ended up with a bunch of bumps and holes in the track (the reason Gerard fell off while surfing). However, once they made their own track, it was quite fun having races down the hill. I had never tried sand boarding before, and I loved both the rush and getting to try it in such a spectacular location!

The lake was a beautiful place to be, even if you were just lounging on the beach. The water wasn’t quite as clear as Lake Birrabeen, being more of a cloudy greenish color, but as soon as you got in it was obvious the water was exceptionally clean. This lake, possibly because it is closest to the edge of the island, had a lot more wildlife, including large schools of catfish that looked like they would make a great dinner, if only we were allowed to catch them. They weren’t shy fish at all, and would swim right up next to you—which really freaked out a girl that sand boarded into the middle of one of the schools!

Wabby was about the same temperature as the other lakes we swam in, and luckily, as we arrived, the towering thunderheads parted and the brilliant sun came out, making it just warm enough to dive in. The water got very deep very quickly, to the point that most people who fell off their boards into the lake couldn’t touch the bottom.

We could have stayed at Wabby all day, but our guide had a set time for us to be back near 75 mile beach, so we sadly relinquished our track and headed out. We took the forest track back to the beach, which was slightly longer but was covered from the sun, and had a much more stable footpath. By this point, we could recognize and name many of the gum trees we walked past, especially the scribbly gum, which really looks like people have scribbled all over it.

This path ended at the same place as the sand blow path, in a little grove of trees perfect to lounge under and have a lazy lunch. Worn out from all our boarding and walking through sand, we took full advantage of this and enjoyed our last hours on the wonderful island of Fraser.