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Seventy-Five Mile Beach
This has to be one of the most beautiful stretches of ‘highway’ anywhere! Voted one of the best coastal drives in the world, Seventy-Five Mile Beach on Fraser Island is part of Australia’s National Highway system: speed limits apply – and you need to give way to approaching aircraft!
Paradise.
That’s what the Butchulla people, the Traditonal Owners of what is now Fraser Island in Southeast Queensland, called it: K’gari, Paradise.
According to the Aboriginal Dreamtime story, the great God in the sky, Beiral, created all the people, but the people had no lands. Yendingie, a messenger, was sent down from the sky to make the sea and the land. When Yendingie arrived at what is now known as Hervey Bay, he had a helper – the beautiful white spirit-princess K’gari. She worked long and hard with Yendingie, and fell in love with the beautiful place they had created. She begged to be able to stay there forever.
Finally Yendingie agreed. “You may stay here, but you cannot stay in spirit form. I will need to change you.” So he changed her into a beautiful island. He added birds and animals – and trees and flowers – so she would never be alone. He created some mirrored lakes so that she could see into the sky. He made creeks and laughing waters that would become her voice, and he gave the people knowledge and laws, so that they and their children would always be there to live in harmony with K’gari, to keep her company, and to treat her with respect.
When I was told a version of this story, I was standing somewhere along a Fraser Island beach, where, looking back over the landscape, it was easy to imaging a sleeping spirit princess, draped in jewel-green forests and silver clouds.
Thanks to Air Fraser, like Yendingie and K’gari, I could appreciate those mirrors-lakes and lush forests from above. UNESCO-listed Fraser Island truly is a unique place of uncommon beauty: the world’s largest sand island with a remarkable eco-system (see: Fraser Island Forests and Waters).
Come meet K’gari.
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Air Fraser Island and Fraser Explorer Tours
Fraser Island’s unique conditions require built-for-purpose transportation. Our tour bus is a 4-wheel-drive multi-geared MAN vehicle, custom-designed in Germany. The Gippsland GA8 Airvan is a single-engined utility aircraft manufactured in Australia. Both are at home on the sand.
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Pilot in the GippsAero
I love small planes, and I reckon there is almost no better travel souvenir than aerial views of a place you are exploring.
Whistling Kite
A raptor circles overhead to show us how it is done.
Taxiing
Watching the waves on the beach as we cruise along it in a plane is a new experience for me! (iPhone6)
Over Lake McKenzie
Lake McKenzie is truly a heart-shaped gem from the air! As a ‘perched’ lake, it has no river inflow or outflow and contains only rainwater. The white sands surrounding it are almost pure silica.
Lake Mckenzie
The acidity of the water keeps it crystal clear and free of growing organisms, as I had discovered myself the day before when I ventured into it. The waters feel like warm silk, and the sands are soft underfoot.
Over Lake Wabby
I love the different perspective you get from the air! Lake Wabby is a barrage lake that came about because the encroaching young sand dune, the Hammerstone Sandblow, blocked its water supply.
Hammerstone Sandblow
The sands look quite different when you are trying to traverse them!
Lake Wabby
Lake Wabby’s emerald colour was more intense at ground level, but the lake’s distinctive half-moon shape was harder to appreciate.
The Coast from the Cockpit
I love watching the coastline from the cockpit – even when the skies are closing in.
Light on the Pacific
The weather was rainy, and squalls came and went. It was wonderful to watch the dramas of light play out over the water.
Mists over Fraser Island
The soft rains drape the sleeping form of Princess K’gari as we continue our flight.
Bus on the Beach
We circle back toward Seventy-Five Mile Beach; the tour bus and its earth-bound occupants come into view.
Vehicles on Seventy-Five Mile Beach
Special permits, extra insurance, and driving orientations are required by anyone wanting to drive on Fraser Island. Road rules apply, and Nature takes a dim view of operators who don’t respect the conditions (Evening – 07June2019).
Wreck in the Water
We had seen this vehicle the evening before (07June2019), not long after it had bogged itself at Yidney Rocks. The tourists on board managed to exit safely through the roof, but the incoming tides made rescuing the bus itself impossible. (Our driver had opted for the longer, inland route – even there, we had to stop to rescue a police 4WD vehicle that had strayed too far into the soft sandy shoulders.) When we saw this vehicle again less than 12 hours later (as pictured here), it was pretty much destroyed by the overnight seas.
The Maheno on the Horizon
The skeleton of the SS Maheno, on the other hand, has been weathering the waves since washing up here in 1935.
Snapping the Shipwreck
Between 1856 and 1935, twenty-three shipwrecks were recorded in the waters around Fraser Island. The Maheno is the best known, and is a stop on most tourist itineraries.
Maheno – The Island
Although the ship was built in Scotland, the name Maheno is the Maori (New Zealand) word for ‘island’.
Splash on the Maheno
The Maheno started life as a luxury passenger liner in 1904, and was at one time the fastest ship to cross the Tasman between Australia and New Zealand.
Waves over the Maheno
She served as a hospital ship during World War I, making runs in the English Channel and between the British Isles and New Zealand.
Sculpture in Rust and Water
Waves and Rust
At the end of her days, she was sold for scrap, and was under tow from Sydney to Japan …
Waves over the Cabin
… when she was caught and beached here in a 1935 cyclone that devastated parts of the Queensland coast.
Rusty Skeleton
Almost Abstract : Water and Rusty Iron
Seventy-Five Mile Beach
Looking north from the shipwreck, the beach looks quiet and inviting … but: Users, Beware!
Paradise, yes.
But, also a land of bogs, wrecks, and ruins.
It always pays to respect Nature – and Princess K’gari.
Until next time,
Happy Travels!
[…] 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). […]