Fraser Island

Tuesday 17th March – Emily's Birthday

Happy Birthday Emily. Sorry we missed your birthday. We were driving from Agnes Water to Hervey Bay, just a couple of hundred kilometres southwards. The weather was beautiful as we drove through pasture, sugar cane fields and groves of macadamia trees.

The information site at Hervey Bay recommended Lisianna holiday apartments right on the sea front, with a balcony on which I write this looking across the beach road to the safe, sandy beach. With the aid of the helpful owner of the comfortable apartments, we booked for a two day excursion to Frazer Island. The tour company will come to pick us up at 07:15 tomorrow and we will spend tomorrow night in a tent on the island. We leave the rental car here ( only 4WD roads on the island) and return for Thursday night. That will mean a very early 06:00 start to travel to Brisbane Airport on Friday morning, but we will return too late to travel on Thursday as night falls rapidly at about 18:30.

Spent the afternoon on the beach, swimming and snorkelling. As the tide fell, I discovered a small coral reef about 100m offshore. Nothing in comparison with the Great Barrier Reef, but there were several varieties of coral and fish. I've named it 'Emily's Reef' in honour of Emily's birthday, although being only a few metres across and perhaps 200mm above the surrounding sea bed level, I doubt it will make an appearance on any nautical charts of the bay. It's about 50m northeast of the seaward end of the pier.

Wednesday 18th March – Fraser Island

Picked up at 07:15 by what we mistook from the front to be a big green refuse truck, but turned out to be a 4WD 24 seater coach. Picking up a further 6 people, we crossed from Riverheads on the 09:00 barge to Fraser Island.

The bus was driven by Fritz, an exuberant Austrian Australian. We drove to Lake Birrabeen and swam in the white sand fringed perched dune lake, a hundred metres or so above sea level and with acidic water with a pH of 4.8. Then to Central Station for a quick walk through the rain forest, and on to the east coast. We drove up the beach to Happy Valley for a great buffet lunch, then northwards up the beach via various cliffs of coloured sand.

The cyclone had eroded a lot of sand from the beach, exposing 'coffee rock', a sediment where a lot of organic matter was mixed with the sand. (This formed the aquiclude under the perched dune lakes.) As we negotiated one outcrop, the bus rolled and the window next to Christine collided with a pandanus tree which had been brought down by the cyclone. The glass shattered, showering her with small shards of glass, but she was unhurt if a little shaken. We changed seats and for the rest of the trip she kindly let me have the window seat.

At about 17:00 we reached the camp at Cathedral Beach after visiting the historic Maheno ship wreck. The camp comprised permanent tents with wooden floors and a large communal tent with cooking facilities. To my surprise, Fritz turned out to be a man of many talents, one of which was cooking. Preceding the meal he cooked a taster dish of kangaroo which tasted similar to beef.

Thursday 19th March – Fraser Island

Awoke to heavy rain, but after a good breakfast, drove northwards up the beach to Indian Head, which turned out to be a porphyritic rhyolite headland. A sea eagle soared above and ospreys were perched in the pandanus trees.

Fritz preferred to call rain 'liquid sunshine'.

Then back southwards down the beach to walk to Lake Wabby, dammed by a moving sand dune called the Hammerhead Blow. We swam with large catfish, then walked south-eastwards for a couple of kilometres to where Fritz was waiting for us with the bus. Then to Central Station for a good lunch under cover as it was raining lightly. We then walked for a couple kilometres through the rain forest by a stream where we saw a catfish and an eel. Then it was time to rejoin the bus, return to the mainland on the barge, and back to the apartments.

It was an interesting trip despite the disappointing weather. Fritz was a great guide with a wide range of cultural, geological and botanical knowledge which he was enthusiastic in passing on to us.