Fraser Island Day tour review
Our amazing road trip from Sydney to Cairns with Britz Campervans has had many highlights with more still to come, but one we were eagerly anticipating was a visit to Fraser Island. A place that many fellow travellers before us have reported on its beauty, its unique environment and the many great tours that head there form the mainland every day. Finally it was our turn thanks to a day trip organised by Fraser Explorer Tours.
Getting to the island
Our journey started right at our BIG4 holiday park at Vernon Point. A cute little park with a homely feel situated to the east of Hervey Bay. Most people stay in this area specifically for the Fraser Island tours so its easily accessible thanks to the tour bus that picked us up right outside the park. With just a few quick stops for more tourists we were on our way to Rivers Head for a short ferry crossing. Rivers Head is so called as its where the Mary river and the Susan river meet. With just a smattering of houses here there's plenty of land and quite a view to enjoy too. Our ferry was ready to leave at 8:30 for a short 35 minute crossing to Fraser Island where a whole host of impressive 4x4 buses and cars were waiting for us all.
Our tour guide and driver for the day was Kevin, a friendly, helpful and very funny man who had the impressive skills of being able to drive the bumpy terrain of this sandy island. Yes this entire island is a series of sand dunes that were once mountains of Antarctica some 400 million years ago. Somehow plants and trees managed to grow on this island creating a very unique scenery. Its quite a surreal experience as we set off, our age 4 wheel drive bus navigating the every changing sand tracks as we passed through deep forest.
Lake Mackenzie
With just a day on the island we had a packed itinerary so our driver Kevin didn't mess about. We headed straight in to the jungle and some 15km from the ferry crossing to Lake Mackenzie, a freshwater lake with no tributaries and rather surreally surrounded by perfect white sand. After travelling through the jungle, appearing on the shore of this small but perfect lake is quite a sight. The water has an acidity level of around 5.5 making it naturally very clear. A swim here is a must and with an hour to enjoy the scenery and the water we jumped on in along with plenty of other tourists here. The water was divine, like swimming in a lake of the purest mineral water.
The temperature was perfect and the depth shallow enough to enjoy easily with our 17 month old daughter too. She delighted in splashing about and this was really a whole new experience for her having own swam in swimming pools. Its a beautiful place worthy of a few photos and thankfully has some shade along its shore too. An hour seemed to fly by so quickly but with so much more to see it was back on the bus and onwards to our next stop
Central Station
In the 1920s Fraser Island had a central headquarters for its extensive logging operations. Much of the island's primary forest was logged and only since its that stopped in the 1950s has the forest recovered. Central Station situated along Wanggoolba Creek once had a number of buildings to service the industry but thankfully today it serves as the perfect spot to walk amongst the massive trees and along the creek.
Here you'll find a variety of tree species including Kauri and Bunya Pines, Satinays and Flooded Gums too. Central Station now serves as a great picnic area and there's plenty of easy walks to be had too. We headed over to Wanggoolba Creek where a boardwalk was built in the 90s to allow tourists to view the trickling water and amazing flora. Its actually one of the quietest creeks you'll ever come across. As the island is 100{bec4beb4183ddc16376e6eff89836f2abe3407e857522bf84005ba0ad48d654d} sand there are no rocks or stones for the water to hit against causing sound, so the water flows silently along a sandy stream, meandering through the forest.
75 mile beach
After a tasty buffet lunch at the Eurong Beach Resort we hopped back in our big 4x4 bus and drove straight on to the beach! This was an entirely new experience for me and amazing to watch the shallow waves crash just a few metres from our bus as we whizzed along the sandy highway. Its incredible to think this beach is 75 miles long and you can cover a fair amount of it in a vehicle too. Its quite a lovely to see speed limit signs along the beach and a driving etiquette with other vehicles including the occasional plane! There's plenty to see along this stretch of coastline too.
SS Maheno
One of the highlights on 75 mile beach is the rusty shipwreck of the once proud SS Maheno, a ocean liner operating between New Zealand and Australia, washed ashore during a cyclone in 1935. She's laid here on the beach ever since slowly rusting away with only the top deck and the front of the ship now sticking out of the sand. Its an amazing sight and you can get right up close for some very artistic photos. Its no wonder the wreck has been used for wedding photoshoots as its an eery sight, wave lapping at its dilapidated hull. I imagine it wont take many more decades to completely destroy whats left.
Pinnacles and Eli Creek
There are a couple more stops along this vast beach, a short but fast bus ride away, bouncing along the sand and dodging the occasional rock formation as we drive. Kevin had some great aboriginal stories to tell us along the way which made the tip whizz by. The Pinnacles are a rock formation created over the last few hundred thousand years. Minerals have washed through the sand dunes here creating harder and wildly colourful cliffs. Its a great sot for a quick photo and to understand more about how the islands formed. Then its back on the bus heading back towards Eurong Resort where we had around 45 minutes at Eli Creek. This iddilic little spot is the perfect place for a dip in the shallow waters that flow from the island in to the sea. Its a popular place with the local residents of this island, just a couple of hundred at the last count. A fun place for a quick dip to cool off in the afternoon heat.
Heading home
We stopped back at the Eurong Beach Resort to wash the bus of salt water before heading across the 14km wide island back to the ferry crossing. The day was over all too soon but thankfully the journey back is as scenic as the rest of our day. The vegetation here is quite amazing and you never tire of the experience of wading through sand instead of dirt roads. The ferry crossing is scenic too and the ship's cat kept our daughter entertained the entire way.
Thank you
A big thank you to Fraser Explorer Tours for hosting us on the one day tour of Fraser Island. Prices for the standard day tour start at $170 AUD per person which includes pickup from your hotel, ferry crossing, entrance to the national park and a tasty buffet lunch at Eurong Beach Resort. While the weather and driving conditions obviously can't be guaranteed its a unique opportunity to visit a very interesting and unusual island. I didn't know such a place existing with grand forests growing out of a pure sand island.
For more information visit The Fraser Explorer Tours website and you can follow them on twitter and Facebook too.
