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Dingo on Seventy-Five Mile Beach
Fraser Island, off Southern Queensland’s east coast, is home to several packs of wild dingos (Canis lupus). This makes the UNESCO-listed sand island one of the best places in Australia to see them in their natural habitat.
Fraser Island is a unique and wonderful place; it is a poem in sand, punctuated by the occasional sculptured rock.
I’m not much of a geology student, but the landscape of Fraser Island is a living, pulsing thing that transcends time. As written in the UNESCO-World Heritage listing, the “immense sand dunes are part of the longest and most complete age sequence of coastal dune systems in the world and are still evolving”. The system dates back at least 700,000 years, and some of the dunes may be 400,000 years old. The sculpting of the magnificent silica sand blows by the wind is ongoing today, changing the island’s profile as we watch (see: Airways, Highways, and Waterways).
The world’s largest sand island, Fraser Island was formed over hundreds of thousands of years as winds, ocean currents, and waves swept sands north from the continental shelf of Eastern Australia, and deposited them over the remenants of an ancient terrain of sedimentary rocks from the Cretaceous age and volcanic rocks from the Mesozoic or Tertiary periods. The outcrops that have resurfaced – including the volcanic formations at Indian Head, Middle Rocks and Waddy Point – only add up to a very small portion of the island’s total 184,000 hectares of land mass.
Some of the older, underlying layers of sands have been stained shades of yellow, brown, and red by the iron-rich minerals deposited with them. When portions of those layers of sand are compressed and bound together with clay, they form a weakly consolidated mass. Over thousands of years, rain and wind have rubbed surface layers away, exposing this soft older core; at The Pinnacles this has resulted in subtly coloured sculpted forms.
Sand is notoriously low in the nutrients essential to plant growth, but in spite of this, Fraser Island is home to a diversity of spectacular vegetation (see: Into a Pristine Past). This, in turn has evolved to support a range of insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and almost 50 identified species of mammals – including the iconic Australian dingo (Canis lupus).
There are 25 – 30 stable individual dingo packs on Fraser Island, which gives the visitor a good likelihood of spotting at least one. To preserve their ‘wildness’ it is an offence to feed, harm, or encourage them. The animals on the island have not crossbred with domestic or feral dogs as extensively as mainland populations, and so are thought to be the purest strain on the eastern Australian seaboard – and possibly in the country.
Come and enjoy the landscapes of Fraser Island, and some of the flora and fauna that live there.
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Seventy Five Mile Beach from the Bus
Where else in the world is a straight sandy beach part of the national highway system? Seventy Five Mile Beach Road, also known as the Fraser Island Beach Track, runs almost the entire length of the island along the east coast. (07June2019)
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The Pinnacles Entry
At the entry to The Pinnacles walkway, visitors read how the coloured sands were formed when the Rainbow Serpent of the Butchulla people was killed by his lover’s jealous husband.
The Pinnacles
Also called Coloured Sands, the 72 different colours counted in The Pinnacles are from the different levels of iron in the sand and clay – or they might be from the thousands of pieces of shattered Rainbow Serpent that fell to the earth.
Pathway at the Pinnacles
The coloured sandstone layers were muted under the overcast sky. The trail is lined by she-oaks and pandanus palms.
Treads in the Sand : Middle Rocks
All the roads on Fraser Island are sand. You need a 4WD, a special permit, and a fair bit of skill to navigate them.
Windswept Walkway : Middle Rocks
Not far from The Pinnacles, but in a very different vegetation zone, we follow a windswept wooden walkway to Champagne Pools.
View to Indian Head
Much of the small percentage of rock found on Fraser Island is here on the east coast. From the boardwalk, we can look south to Indian Head …
View from the Walkway
… and north to Waddy Point.
Look, but don’t swim!
The waters around Fraser Island are home to marine stingers, dangerous currents, and a large shark population.
Stairs at Champagne Pools
The pools at Waddy Point are sandy-bottomed and almost completely surrounded by shallow rocks, making them the only place on the island where swimming in ocean water is safe, and allowed.
On the Rocks
The sharpness of the vocanic rocks that surround the Champagne Pools are in stark contrast with the beautiful silica sand most of the island is made from.
Champagne Pools
Every crashing wave aerates the water in the pools like a delightful jacuzzi.
Girls in the Bubbles
Flowers on the Track
The short “Imagine Walk” at Middle Rocks is lined with flowers …
Banksia
… and low shrubs.
Pig Face – Carpobrotus Glaucescens
Guinea Flower – Hibbertia
Dingo on the Beach
It is an offense to feed the animals, but this one still thought she might find some scraps from our picnic lunch.
Wild Dingo – Canis Lupus
They are such intelligent looking creatures! While dingos don’t generally attack humans, they can be dangerous, especially to small children.
Viewpoint on Tukkee Wurroo – Indian Head
The rocky outcrop at Tukkee Wurroo is very different in colour and texture from that at Middle Rocks.
White-Bellied Sea Eagle
A sea eagle circles overhead …
Waves on the Rocks
… and the sea foams below.
Fraser Island Landscape
Looking south from the vantage point of Indian Head, you can see how swathes of vegetation alternate with stretches of bare sand.
Walkway at Eli Creek
Our last stop was at Eli Creek …
Girls on the Walkway
… where a 200m wooden walkway takes you up the island’s largest freshwater creek.
Waters under the Walkway
They say the waters in the creek take more than a 100 years to filter through the sand, making them among the purest of the world.
People in the Creek
It was raining while we were there – which is hardly a problem if you plan to walk downstream …
Rafting on Eli Creek
… or raft down the fast-moving waters. The creek pours up to four million litres of water into the ocean every hour.
Evening on the Great Sandy Strait
Sadly, it was time to leave the island. The light was low over the waters as we waited for the ferry back to the mainland.
It is truly a rich and beautiful island, worthy of its UNESCO listing, and of our respect and protection.
As the Queensland Government Parks say, the challenge is to balance the conservation of the region’s natural and cultural assets with increasing demands for access and tourism.
I hope they manage, because I want to go back!
Until then,
Happy Travels!
Pictures: 08June2019
[…] had spent two days on a tour of Fraser Island off Australia’s east coast (see: Living Sands and Rock), and the ferry was scheduled to return to the mainland early evening. I was heading back through […]