Open left menu Fraser Island. Fraser Island - exotic holidays and unforgettable experiences Fraser Australia

Serene beach holiday- the main attraction of Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland.

– Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia

Vacation ideas

Fraser Island

Islands Queensland are in the lead as the coolest ideas for relaxation. They provide an opportunity to spend a holiday as if in paradise, and at the same time introduce us to nature. Queensland certainly has exciting natural resources, which he is ready to reveal to the traveler, but this development costs a pretty penny. Therefore, the ideas for relaxation that I propose must be carefully considered. is no exception, but we will try to minimize costs.

Fraser Island located at south coast Queensland, approximately 200 kilometers north of Brisbane. Stretching 120 kilometers in length and approximately 7 to 23 kilometers at its widest point, it is considered the largest sand island in the world (area 1840 km²), because. arose as a result of centuries of erosion.

– Low Tide, Fraser Island

– Shore, view from an airplane, Fraser Island

– East Coast, Fraser Island

Turquoise waves, long golden beaches, unspoiled nature, just paradise. By the way, translated from the language Butchulla, the aborigines who lived in these areas before European colonization, the name Fraser Islands was - K'gari, which meant "paradise" or "heavenly".

For a short period the island was known as the "Big Sandy Island". The modern name of the island is associated with the name of the legendary captain James Fraser, whose ship “Stirling Castle” was wrecked off the coast of the island in 1836 and the surviving sailors landed ashore.

The island has outstanding natural beauty with rainforests, eucalyptus trees, mangrove forests and peat swamps, dunes and coastal heaths. There are more than 250 kilometers of sunny sandy beaches with long, uninterrupted stretches of ocean, including more than 40 kilometers of strikingly colored cliffs. In the interior of the island are the majestic remains of a tall tropical forest growing on high dunes, this phenomenon is unique.

– Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island

– Wanggoolba Creek

Sand on Fraser Island accumulated over approximately 750,000 years on a volcanic base that provides natural drainage for sediment. These dunes move across the island, often covering forests and other vegetation. The rate of movement of the dunes each year depends on various factors, such as wind strength, amount of humidity, and, in fact, the plants themselves in the sand. These dunes gradually stop moving when they reach areas protected from the winds.

The dunes that make up the island were formed about 400 thousand years ago and have a height of up to 240 m. There are more than 40 fresh “hanging” lakes, which is one of geographical features islands. This is unusual for a sandy island, which is washed on all sides by ocean waters. The most large lake covers an area of ​​about 200 hectares, its name is Lake Boemingen. West Coast Fraser is occupied by mangrove forests and swamps, the eastern (facing the ocean) is a beach of quite white sand about 100 km long. The most popular and accessible lake for swimming (you need to walk three kilometers through the forest and dunes) is Lake Wabbi, the deepest on the island (12 meters).

– Dunes, Fraser Island

Most of the island, which contains intact tropical rainforests (about 1,645 km²), is part of Great Sandy National Park. Freshwater turtles live in well-warmed lakes, and the wild dog Dingo can be found on land. It is strictly forbidden to feed dingos on the island (fine from $3000) and you must follow certain rules when meeting them, which the guides will tell you about or read about on the park’s website.

– Wild dingo on the beach at sunset, Fraser Island

– Dingo on the beach

Excursion opportunities on the island are limited, but quite interesting. In Happy Valley you can explore the wreck of the Makhino, a luxury trans-Tasman passenger airliner, built in 1905 in Scotland. During the First World War it was converted into a floating hospital. The ship was sold to the Japanese for scrap in 1935 and during transport was caught in a storm that washed it ashore on Fraser Island. All attempts to save the ship failed and it was decided to leave it on the island.

– “Makhino” (S.S. Maheno)

– Sand Dunes or Sandblows, Fraser Island

The abandoned McKenzie Landing originally served as a connection between loggers and the mainland, and was used by the famous Z Force during World War II. Nowadays deforestation is prohibited on the island.

You can get to the island by ferry connecting the mainland and Moon Point. The island is separated from the mainland by a series of narrow, constantly changing straits, which together form Great Sandy Strait and you can get to the island from three main points - the main stream travels on ferries from the town Hervey Bay– official “gate” to Fraser Island, there is a crossing from River Heads and the southernmost route - ferry from the sand spit Inskip Point in the vicinity of the town Rainbow Beach.

IN Hervey Bay you can use the company's services Fraser Island Barges and ferry Kingfisher Bay Ferry for $175 (car and 3 passengers, price during peak season)

The western coast of the island is not very suitable for driving a heavy SUV, but east coast just a real highway. If you go deep into the island, the roads turn into sticky sandy tracks, where getting stuck in bad weather is a matter of just a few minutes.

– “Champagne Pools” – in this place the reef forms protected rock niches where the wave rushes, rolling over the edge of the rock, forming clouds of foam. This is the only place on Fraser Island where you can safely swim in ocean water.

– Indian Head – a rock jutting out of the sand at the northern end of 75 Mile Beach

Swimming on the eastern beaches is not recommended. The thing is that the dominant direction of the wind and, as a result, the waves create very insidious underwater vortices that begin to be pulled into the ocean - a reverse current. There are no lifeguards here. Besides, Fraser Island- This is the place where the two largest tiger sharks were caught. You can swim in the ocean only in one place in the north of the island - Champagne Pools.

Where is Fraser Island located?

Fraser Island it is the largest and most famous sand island in the world. This Paradise Island located in Eastern Australia approximately 300 kilometers north of Brisbane (approximately 3 hours by car). Fraser Island extends over 124 kilometers with a width ranging from 7 to 25 kilometers. Its area is 163,000 hectares. Fraser Island is a unique, luxurious, rich Australian natural heritage.

Fraser Island climate

Fraser Island is a natural paradise, it has a maritime subtropical climate with precipitation of 1800 mm per year, mainly from December to May. In summer temperatures reach up to 30 °C. However, winter temperatures range from 14 to 21 °C and July is the coldest period of the year.

Beaches and recreation of Fraser Island

The largest beach on Fraser Island is located approximately 120 kilometers along its east coast. This beach is one of the most magnificent beaches in the world. This amazing place features an amazing variety of scenery: long surfing beaches, dramatic cliffs, lush rainforests, beautiful lakes With fresh water, huge basalt capes and salt lakes with eerie mangrove forests. Fraser Island also has many amazing sights, such as the Maheno Wreck, beautiful pools, Ely Creek or Indian Head ( a good place, where you can see sharks in the surf).

Fauna of Fraser Island

The beaches and forests of Fraser Island are home to a wide variety of wildlife, including 230 bird species (Australia's largest and most diverse bird community), such as sea eagles, ospreys, kites, falcons, gulls, cockatoos, terns, or honeyeaters. parrots are endangered. Fraser Island is also home to the wild dog Dingo. Unfortunately, due to the threat of people on the island, the number of Dingo dogs is decreasing from year to year. People have killed many dogs believing that these animals could pose a danger to people. There are also other mammals such as possums, swamp wallabies, sugar gliders, flying foxes, echidnas and kangaroos.

Lake on Fraser Island

In addition, Fraser Island is home to more than 100 lakes. Which are among the cleanest freshwater lakes in the world. Perhaps the most famous of these lakes is Lake. The lake is located on top of a sand dune. This is an excellent location that extends over 150 hectares. There is a beautiful beach there, consisting of almost pure quartz sand. This place, along with the largest creek on east coast The islands are two main symbols and places. beautiful island Fraser.

History of Fraser Island

Scientists believe Fraser Island has been inhabited for 800,000 years. Previously, this amazing island was called "Great Sand Island" and was occupied by the Aborigines. They, in turn, named this island “Kigari”, which means “paradise” in their native language. Aboriginal Australians occupied this island starting 5,000 years ago. The island had between 400 and 600 inhabitants before the arrival of Europeans in the 18th century.

Unfortunately, like many other parts of the world, the arrival of Europeans on Fraser Island in 1836 led to the death of the local population. Captain James Cook and Matthew Flinders sailed around this island at the end of the 18th century. However, the first British to officially arrive on this island were Captain James Fraser and his wife Eliza Fraser. They arrived on the island because they were shipwrecked. Captain Fraser died on the island, however, his wife survived and was rescued. She returned to England and told about this story, so the island is now called Eliza and James Fraser.

The British took advantage of the island's wealth of timber. They cut down forests, which began in 1863 by American Jack Pigotty and continued until 1991. Fraser Island has several high-grade deposits such as rutile, zircon, monazite and ilmenite. These developments began to be used in 1950. However, due to environmental action, mining activity on Fraser Island lasted only until 1977.

Fraser Island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. And it is part of Australia's natural and cultural heritage. Therefore, Fraser Island is currently the most visited place in Australia. The island can be reached by ferry from Hervey Bay or by plane from Maroochydore Airport from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Fraser Island currently, is for recreation, one of best places in Australia.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island (English: Fraser Island or Great Sandy Island) itself is one of the attractions of Australia. This is a large island made entirely of sand, which has no analogues in the world. In 1992 it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The island's area is 1840 square kilometers and is geographically part of the state of Queensland. Fraser Island stretches along the coast of the Coral Sea. Scientists claim that the island was formed by huge sand dunes that formed more than four hundred years ago.

Among the local aborigines, the name of the island originally sounded like Kagri, which translated into Russian means “Paradise”. It was renamed in the last century; today’s name is similar to the name of Captain Fraser, who crashed his ship not far from the island.

Fraser photo

For several years, Captain Fraser and his wife lived on the island with the rest of the surviving crew. In 1840, European colonialists came to the island and formed a new settlement. A war broke out between the aborigines and Europeans, during which almost the entire local population was exterminated. Today, only 400 people live on the island, eleven of them are surviving descendants of the Aboriginal people.

The whole nature of Fraser Island is unusual and attractive. For example, here you can see high sand dunes rising almost 150 meters. One of the main natural attractions of the island is its sandy lakes; there are more than forty of them. Basically, these are small lakes from which streams flow into the Coral Sea.

There are also several large lakes eg Lake Boemingen. The area of ​​this lake occupies more than 200 hectares. A small river called Ely Creek also flows through the island. Tourists visiting the island always wonder why the lakes and rivers are not absorbed into the sand? The fact is that at the bottom of these lakes there is a dense “bed” of peat, which forces them to remain on the surface. This is truly a unique phenomenon.

Tourists are attracted to Fraser Island primarily by its magnificent sandy beaches. They are surrounded by exotic vegetation, which can also be considered a local attraction.

Near the beach there are small groves of palm trees and eucalyptus trees, and if you go inland, you can find untouched tropical forest with thickets of lianas and eucalyptus trees. The record-breaking eucalyptus grows in this forest; its height is 70 meters. This eucalyptus gave rise to declaring the forest on the island a protected zone. In this reserve you can observe more than eight hundred species of tropical plants, as well as animals inhabiting these places.

The island is home to wild Dingo dogs, although their numbers are decreasing year after year. This happens because they interbreed with domestic dogs, and the purity of the species disappears. In this regard, local residents on the island were prohibited from having dogs.

As for other representatives of the animal world, here you can find such exotic animals as possums, echidnas, fruit bats, or flying foxes. There are still horses on the island that were once brought here by Europeans, however, they are all wild.

Among the reptiles on the island, there are combed crocodiles, many different lizards and snakes. One of the rarest animals here is the marsupial wallaby. This is a type of kangaroo that is smaller in size.

The coastal waters of the island are home to tiger sharks, humpback whales, dugongs, dolphins and many rare species of jellyfish and fish. Among the rare bird species, it is worth noting the ground parrot, honeycreepers, kingfishers, seagulls, and cockatoos.

When translating from a language local residents Fraser translates to "Kgari-rai". Indeed, there are not many places in the world with sandy beaches, clear water, flower meadows and blue sky above. Why isn't it heaven?

More recently, Fraser Island was recognized as the largest sandy place in the world. Coastline extends over a distance of 110 kilometers. The main highlight of the island is its sand dunes. Some of them reach a height of up to 250 meters. Combined with emerald forests, they look very much like snow.

The name of the island was given by a family of Europeans, castaway off its shores. It cannot be said that at that time relations between the population of the island and civilized Europeans were hostile. And of course, few people were happy about this addition. For a long time, the Frasers were even held captive by local residents.

In 1992, the island was listed world heritage and created a nature reserve on its territory. But regardless of such important events in Fraser’s life, the island has always been popular with tourists.

What is surprising is that, despite the ocean surrounding it on all sides, the island abounds in fresh water bodies. Scientists nicknamed them “hanging”, due to the fact that they seem to hang between the salty ocean water. In total, there were 100 such reservoirs on the island. The most famous was Lake Mackenzie. It's all because of his extraordinary beauty and fresh waters. The lake is fed only by moisture from precipitation, and the water in it is practically distilled, which affects its animal composition. It is completely devoid of organisms, even germs and bacteria. But most importantly, it is surrounded by a snow-white sandy beach.

The largest freshwater lake is called Boemingen, and it extends over 200 hectares. Despite the tropical hot climate, the water here is always pleasantly cool. This is what made the lake famous among tourists. The numerous eucalyptus trees growing on the coast give a special highlight. There is also a small rain forest nearby.

Throughout the history of the island, the population has constantly changed. There are currently just over 400 people living on the Fraser, of whom only 11 are descendants of the Aborigines who held the Fraser family captive. After that crash, some time passed and colonialists poured onto the island to establish settlements here. Naturally, local residents opposed this, and the war began. There were much more Europeans, so the aborigines were almost completely exterminated. These days the island is a tourist destination with numerous parks, hotels, entertainment programs etc. You can get here by plane, but the best option There will be a barge crossing with your own car.

Fraser Island is very different from the continent of Australia primarily due to its comfortable warm climate. That is why it has such rich flora and fauna. Due to the wide variety of vegetation, the island is rich in animals. In fresh water bodies you can find turtles, in the forest - bats, as well as endemics - kangaroos, opossums, etc. To get closer to the animals, tourists are invited to take a canoe excursion. Well, how can you do without birds? The island is simply a paradise for birdwatchers. More than 350 species live here, including rare specimens.

Since Fraser Island is considered entirely tourist center, in addition to excursions and relaxing on the beach, there is wide choose sports and extreme entertainment: surfing, bodyboarding and many others. Some people even come here just to ride around the island on a yacht and look at the marine life.

Well, of course, if you don’t want to think through the route yourself, you have the opportunity to use different sightseeing tours. Each of them necessarily includes a visit to Happy Valley, where the remains of a liner washed ashore during the First World War are located.

Since there are a lot of tourists, the population is very worried about the environmental situation on the island. Therefore, in our time there is active promotion of tourism under open air in tents or campsites. It is assumed that in this way it will be possible to preserve the well-being of the environment.

Welcome to Australia. The land of eternal summer and warm ocean. Many islands surround this unique continent. One even features a surreal Pink Lake. The islands resemble snow-white beaches and tropical vegetation. Now you will learn about one of them. This is Fraser Island.

It is unique in that it consists entirely of sand, which is as much as 1840 km2. Fraser is recognized as the largest sand island in the world.

It is located off the coast of Queensland in the Coral Sea.

Fraser Island on the map

• Geographic coordinates -25.295827, 153.134729
• The distance from the capital of Australia, Canberra, is about 1170 km
• The distance to the nearest Brisbane airport is approximately 230 km

According to scientists, sand dunes appeared here about 400,000 years ago. Sand hills can reach 240 meters in height. On the island you will find more than 40 so-called “hanging lakes”. But these lakes do not hang in the air, and do not even look like Lake Sorvagsvatn. IN in this case The name is associated with the fact that all these lakes are fresh, and the island is surrounded by salty sea water. It turns out to be a kind of metaphor - fresh lakes as if hanging in the salty ocean. And besides, the lakes are fed only by rainwater; they have no springs.

The largest of the Boemingen lakes covers an area of ​​200 hectares. You can swim in the lakes; the water is warm and shallow. The most deep lake Webby has maximum depth 12 meters. But now, due to the influx of tourists, some of the hanging lakes are a little polluted.

Fraser Island in numbers

• Length 120 kilometers
• Width from 7 to 25 kilometers
• Area 1840 km 2

The name of the island comes from the surname of the courageous lady Eliza Fraser. In 1836, a ship sank off the coast of this island. James Fraser, Eliza's husband, was his captain. You can hear the full version of this story from the lips of local aborigines or tour guides. Briefly, it is as follows: having survived the death of her husband and newborn child, Eliza was captured by local residents for 6 weeks, but she survived and was able to later talk about it (it must be clarified that in those days the relations between the aborigines and the colonialists were, to put it mildly , far from friendly). In honor of her, the island began to bear the name Fraser. But long before these events, the aborigines of the Butchulla tribe who lived here called it K’gari, which means “paradise.” That is, these people actually lived in paradise.

Pet the whale

What is another name for this unearthly corner on Earth? Sand dunes and magnificent tropical forests coexist perfectly here. Seemingly incompatible natural areas, but not on Fraser Island. Tropical thickets with eucalyptus and palm trees, bamboo and mangrove trees coexist with beautiful beaches, desert dunes and the attractive ocean. An amazing place to relax and unwind. The island became a home not only for the aborigines, but also for many species of plants, animals and birds. Here you can find kangaroos, the wild Australian dog dingo, opossums, echidnas and even mustangs. The island is home to more than 350 species of birds. Whales, which usually swim nearby from August to October, give travelers special joy and delight.

In 1992, Unesco included Fraser Island on its World Heritage List.

Things to Do on Fraser Island

• Local national park“Great Sands” you can see a giant eucalyptus tree 70 meters tall. This is the real pride of the park and the island
• A visit to the passenger liner "Makhino", washed ashore in Happy Valley in 1935 during a storm
• Jeep rides along the sandy hills
• A flight on small planes along a 100-kilometer paradise beach will fill you with special delight.
• Rafting enthusiasts will love rafting down the Ely Creek straight into the ocean
• Sailing on yachts will allow you to see marine life in their natural habitat, and if possible, then giant but graceful migrating whales

Fraser Island photo