Fraser Island

The world’s largest sand island – what an amazing place! Time for us to put our 4 wheel drive to the test and see what our Ford Everest is capable of!

We left our caravan at the caravan park in Hervey Bay and took the barge over to Fraser Island for a long weekend (3 nights, 4 days). We had to pack up the car with the camping gear (tents, sleeping bags, food, water, etc.) and 4 wheel drive equipment (air pressure, max trax, snatch straps and many other things I’d never heard of until a couple of months ago!).

This was my third visit to Fraser Island. The first time I took a day tour, the second time R and I drove there (15 years ago) in completely the wrong car. We nearly died and someone had to tow us off the island. So, this time I was both very excited and somewhat nervous to go back. But, I was pretty sure our car was going to be able to handle it.

It is also dingo breeding season at the moment and the dingoes are a bit aggressive (2 attacks on children in the 2 weeks leading up to our visit). So the kids were nervous about being attacked by a pack of dingos and we had to camp in the fenced in (electric) camping areas – one in the centre of the island and one at the top north-west point.

A Bit About Fraser Island

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world (essentially a very large sand dune!) and a world heritage listed area. There are also over 100 perched lakes on the island (many of which are inaccessible). A perched lake is a lake that is made purely of rain water and located in a sand dune. There are a couple of “towns” on the island – basically resort hotels and air bnbs and only these towns are have a paved road. So, you need a high clearance 4 wheel drive car to drive around the island on the sand roads.

Kingfisher Bay to Central Station

We drove a short distance from Hervey Bay to River Heads to catch a 45-minute ferry over to Kingfisher Bay (resort) on the west side of Fraser Island. You can see the ferry in the photo below.

As soon as we got off the pavement in Kingfisher Bay, we had to let out some air from our tires to get ready for sand driving.

We also had to buy a better road map when we got to Kingfisher Bay because all the ones I printed off the internet weren’t very good and the GPS was very sporadic on the island (there’s also no phone or internet connection). The map cost $17!! And, I accidentally didn’t see a little arrow supposedly indicating one way on one of the roads so on the first day we ended up missing where we wanted to go and had to make a huge detour! But, we eventually made it to our campground at Central Station in the middle of the island just in time to set up our tent before the sun set and it became very dark. Central Station is situation in a very old rain forest with huge trees. It’s amazing to me that such big trees can grow in a sand dune!

Central Station to Eli Creek

We woke up early the next morning as we had a long day of driving and excitement going from Central Station all the way up to Waddy Point (our campsite for the next night).

First, we drove from Central Station in the middle of the island (see highlight on left) over to the beach at Eurong on the east coast.

75 mile beach on the east coast is the main highway and the airport landing strip! You can watch a video below to see a snippet of what this drive is like.

Eli Creek

I think we all agreed that Eli Creek was probably the highlight of the Fraser Island trip. You can only cross the creek (and drive the beach for that matter) during the 2 hours on either side of low tide. (So you need to keep one eye on the tides at all times and plan your trip there for when the low tide is somewhere around mid-day).

At Eli Creek, you blow up a little floaty device, walk up the boardwalk to the creek and just float down with the current. Apparently, Eli Creek dumps 1 million litres of water into the sea every hour! We ended up spending a few hours here just going up and down again and again. And, we returned the next day to do it all again for a couple of hours as well!

Maheno Wreck

The Maheno was a cruise ship (looked a bit like the Titanic) that was also used as a hospital in Gallipoli during WWI. It was retired in 1935 and while it was being towed to Japan, the towing vessel lost it during a cyclone. It washed up on the beach on Fraser Island and has been slowly being eroding ever since.

Champagne Pools

Close to the top, we stopped at Indian Heads and swam at Champage Pools. The pools are essentially rock pools. At (relatively) low tide, the pools are calm while the ocean rages in the background causing some water to rush in and create “champagne” bubbles. While we were there, there were rays (manta? sting?) just behind the rocks at the pool. See the videos below to see the rays.

After our swim in the pools, we drove on to Waddy Point and our next fenced in campground. The scenery had completely changed now and instead of deep, dark rain forest, we had eucalyptus trees and palm trees.

The Lakes Drive

The next day, we headed back down 75 mile beach to Dilli Village (which isn’t a village) and took the Southern Lakes drive (the green road on the map below) back to Central Station.

The lakes were all beautiful – crystal clear water and white sandy beaches. The most famous is Lake McKenzie which we actually saved for our last day so that we would have more time to enjoy it. To be honest, Lake Birrabeen is very similar to Lake McKenzie but it’s further off the beaten track so not many people on it.

Driving on the Island

Since one of the best things about Fraser Island is 4 wheel driving on the inland roads, I thought I should end this blog with a couple of videos of what it’s like to drive on the inland roads so you can get a feel for it – enjoy! (apologies for the angle of the sun and dirty window).

All in all, we had a really amazing 4 days in Fraser Island, but we were really ready to sleep in our own beds again when we got back!