January 2020

We had an afternoon flight up to the Sunshine Coast on January 1st on what would be our penultimate trip outside of the borders of NSW for nearly 18 months. We didn’t know that at that time as the Covid-19 virus had only just started to spread from that market in Wuhan.

We were heading to spend a number of days on Fraser Island (now called K’gari) so you might wonder why we did not fly into the much closer airport at Hervey Bay which is the gateway to K’gari. The answer was car hire. The cost of car hire at Hervey Bay was extortionate. The flight prices to sunshine were also a little bit cheaper too. That left us with a 2 hour drive up to Hervey Bay where we spend our first night.

The drive up was straight and uneventful until we reached Maryborough and we had to do a right hook through the town to avoid ‘congestion’. Soon enough we reached Hervey Bay and knuckled down for the night in anticipation of our big first day on the island in the morrow.

Where we are going… there won’t be roads

K’gari has no roads. To preserve the natural habit it consists of a small number of dirt tracks. The only highway is driving on the beach. A 4WD was needed to travel around. We spent an hour on our first morning picking up our 4WD truck from Atlas 4WD in Hervey Bay, going through the video safety briefing and then headed back into town to pick up our shopping. There are no Coles or Woolies on the island and only a small shop at the Kingfisher Bay resort. Dan made the mistake of buying some random brand of ciders in amongst the drink order. We would end up not drinking them later on.

The car ferry is only 50 mins from the mainland to the K’gari – terminating at Wanggoolba Creek Road on the southern third of the island. After driving on we made our way up to the observation deck to take in the views. As we climbed the metal staircase we noticed that someone had driven a very small car onto the boat. Very small by comparison to the rest of the passenger vehicles.

Our first port of call was to hit the middle section and spend the late morning on the shores of Lake McKenzie in the Great Sandy National Park – which is split between Fraser Island and then Noosa and Rainbow Beach on the mainland.

The Lake is almost completely unspoilt with no cafes or takeaway huts to ruin the view. The sand is of the purest white silica (similar to Hyam’s Beach in Jervis Bay). The water is also pure, so much so that it cannot support many species of life. That’s probably due to the fact that its a ‘perched lake’ as it only contains rainwater, does not have any streams or rivers feeding it or ground water. The pure sand does not only look good but acts as a barrier that helps retain the water and gives it it’s amazing blue colour.

After our lake visit we drove back through the jungle to get to our accomodation and check-in at the Eco Camp in Eurong on the west coast of the island – a funky eco glamping site right on the main beach. Before we could leave we found ourselves in a traffic jam – with no trucks able to move. Remember that interesting car from the ferry? Well it was completely stuck in the sand track. Using some pads, an army of guys willing to push and a rally driver to get it up the hill we managed to get the car out and thus allow everyone to continue on.

After settling in we headed to the beach for some dusk photos armed with sticks due to the population of wild dingoes. We also had to have our wits about us as the beach is also a highway.

There are about 100-200 dingoes (wongari) on K’gari and they form the apex predator role on the island ensuring other species of animals do not overpopulate. Due to the isolation on the island they are considered the most pure breed of Dingo. With increased visitors to the island there has been a number of incidents – hence the need to carry sticks – but luckily we just saw some in the distance and we passed each other like ships in the night.

Dune Raiders

Our first full day on K’gari was here. We loaded up our 4WD and headed onto the beach. Taking a big left turn we headed north – along 75 mile beach. Our destination was to the far north – the swimming hole at Champagne Pools. Soon enough we encountered a veritable convoy of jeeps and 4WDs as most of the best sites are on the beach – Eli Creek, SS Maheo, the Pinnacles, Red Canyon etc.

For most of the hour drive we had to only watch out for sand dunes and the occasional creek but as we neared the pools we had to contend with the narrow pass at Indian Head, followed by the busy limited parking at Champagne Pools. The drive was worth it as we walked down the boardwalk and got our first glimpse.

Natural formed rock pools create a great place for swim, if you can survive the waves! It’s quite unique as well due to the fact that it’s the only place on the island that you can swim in the ocean. A combination of intense riptides, dangerous conditions and Great White Sharks that dominate the waters off the beach.

We had to spend quite a lot of time so that the tides could go back out again,(the high tide is around 10am each day and it’s advised to not be on the beach two hours either side of this).

After lunch we made our way back down the beach to Eurong, stopping first at The Pinnacles – a collection of coloured sand cliffs. The various patterns and colours of the sand evoked memories of Maria Island in Tasmania.

According to the Dreamtime story the ‘Tale of the Butchulla women’, the cliffs were formed when a jealous suitor (Winyer) threw his boomerang at his supposed lover (Wuru) who was in love with a rainbow serpent (Wiberigan) who stepped in to take the blow and then shattered and sprayed the cliffs with thousands of colours thus saving Wuru.

Next up was the shipwreck of the SS Maheno. K’gari is the largest sand island in the world, no its no surprise that it has claimed a ship or two over the years. The SS Maheno was built in Dumbarton in Scotland before being delived to New Zealand where it was operated by the Union Company of New Zealand as an ocean liner between Sydney-Melbourne-Hobart-New Zealand. During World War 1 it served as a hospital ship in the Gallipoli Campaign. The army medical staff onboard treated casualties from the Battle of Hill 60 in August 2015 before being used in the Western Front.

But how did it end up washed ashore in North Queensland? In 1935 on the way to Osaka, Japan to be broken down for scrap a cyclone caused the ship to be broken off from the Oonah, which was towing it. It washed ashore and the crew were subsequently rescued. Today it’s a great spot for a photo.

Nearby was an impromptu car park that on further investigation gave away the spot for Eli Creek. The largest creek on the eastern beach it pours nearly four million litres of clear water into the ocean. It had this awesome board walk that went inland before allowing you to jump in and swim back along the swiflty flowing creek.

We then spent the evening getting sunset photos, making a barbecue dinner, playing cards and watching the stars as the night sky was so clear. We also went into the small shop in Eurong and got some drinkable ciders!

Just one more swim

On our way back to the ferry on our last morning we decided to stop off at Lake Boomanjin – to the south of Lake McKenzie. It’s not as well known as the former but that meant we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Its a complete contrast to Lake McKenzie with reddish brown water caused by dissolved organic matter from the surrounding rainforest but the swimming is still great. Its also the largest perched lake in the world covering some 200 hectares.

After dropping back our 4WD we headed south to our next destination of Noosa. Laura and Dan were going to drive down as far as Byron but we needed to get back to Sydney so just did the few nights in Noosa. Our accommodation ion was again excellent as we stayed in a Balinese style house down the road from Noosa Junction.

We spent our first night out in Hastings Street with some dinner and then cocktails at Miss Moneypenny. The next day we did the Noosa National Park coastal walk and saw some Koalas, lizards and even a pod of dolphins off Boiling Point.