Fraser island (Hervey Bay)

Hervey Bay:

The bay would have been baptized by James Cook, who bypassed here by his boat on May 21, 1770.

The story goes that Hervey Bay was named after a naval officer of Captain Cook. Not long ago Hervey Bay consisted only of a strip of small villages that ran along the coast. In 1976 the population was only 8,000.

Today it is a commercial village totally fixed on selling (touristic) tours. You can visit the Hervey Bay Natureworld, Vic Hislop's Great White Shark Expo, Neptune's Reef World "and the historical museum.

Fraser island:

The island is 122 km long and 5 to 25 km wide and is the largest sand island in the world. There is a tropical climate, and the landscape is very diverse: mangrove forests, tropical rain forests, eucalyptus forests and dune landscape. The island is rich in animal species too, especially birds; more than 350 species have already been found on the island. Fraser Island is often used by migratory birds as a resting place on their journey between Australia and Siberia.

Only a few mammals live on the island. The most common are bats, but also Australia's least dogged-mixed dingos. In the many lakes on Fraser Island not too much life occurs because of the acidity and low nutritional value of the water. The water is just too clean. Only a few frog species have adapted to these conditions. Some of these lakes are more than 300,000 years old, older than all other coastal lakes in Australia. From "Indian Head" you can often see dolphins, sharks, mantras and sometimes whales in the waters around the island.  

The roads are unpaved and due to the loose sand, these are only accessible for cars with four-wheel drive. The beach serves as a highway. At Eurong, the beach also serves as a runway for small aircraft. There are several shipwrecks along the coast; the best known is that of the Maheno, which is on/in the beach. There are a few settlements on the island, and various resorts and campsites.

Approximately 300,000 tourists come every year. Since 1992 the island is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

For hundreds of thousands of years, rivers wash sand and other fine material to the sea where the current transports it to the north. Three rocks of volcanic origin (Indian Head, Middle Rock and Waddy Point) acted as a base of settlement and collected the sand which led to the creation of the area.

Since the end of the last ice age, between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, Fraser has become detached from the mainland due to the rise in sea level. The persistent south-easterly winds blew the sand up to high dunes. Some dunes, such as Mt. Bowarrady, have reached an altitude of more than 240 meters and are among the highest dunes in the world. 

Fraser Island is called by the original Aborigines K'gari (paradise). There is archaeological evidence of occupation at least 5,000 years ago, and perhaps much longer, because the Aborigines set foot on Australian soil more than 50,000 years ago. Remains of Aboriginal occupation have been found in many places on the island. In 1802 Matthew Flinders set foot on Fraser Island, followed by a number of explorers, escaped prisoners and castaways. In 1836, a few survivors of Stirling Castle, who had been stranded there, lived on Fraser Island for about six weeks before being rescued.

During their stay there arose an atmosphere of hostility and aggression between them and Aborigines living on the island. One of the survivors was the wife of the captain of the sunken ship, Eliza Fraser. The island was named after her by the Europeans. The settlers were mainly interested in wood and a lot of original rainforest was cut down. They were also guilty of sand extraction. Since 1991, the island is a national park.