The world’s largest sand island is a Green, well-watered subtropical paradise

By Patrick Totty

If you think Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, is a desolate expanse of dunes and brackish water, smother the thought. Smother it with visions of extensive rainforests, beautiful tropical beaches that stretch for mile after unpopulated mile, and freshwater lakes so clean that scientists say they contain the purest water on earth.  

The 640-square-mile, 70-mile-long island, part of Australia’s Great Sandy National Park and also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies off the southeastern shore of Queensland. At its core is a 700,000-year-old accumulation of sand dunes, patiently laid down by the Pacific Ocean, now fringed by white-sand beaches and mangrove swamps, and crowned by dunes, lakes and vast subtropical rainforests.

The ocean’s patient building and the island’s increasing ability over the years to retain sand added to its mass has built it up to a height of almost 800 feet in places, making it the only place on earth where lush rainforest grows on dunes higher than 200 meters (650 feet). Water seeping up through the island’s immense sand foundation, and down through its lofty dunes often emerges into freshwater lakes or slow-moving streams that are eerily quiet as they glide down their rock-free courses. Visitors who sip the water enjoy the pure taste imparted by the removal of virtually every impurity by the island’s sand filters.

Access to the island is very easy. It is located very close to the mainland and is served by sea and aircraft. On the island itself, visitors can hike or hire guided or self-driven 4-wheel vehicles to get around in. There are designated camping areas and ranger stations.

While not all of the island’s area is protected under a national park or World Heritage Site designation, the remainder is “vacant Crown land” that the state of Queensland has left deliberately undeveloped with the expectation that the Australian federal government will eventually add it to Great Sandy National Park.

The web site at http://dkd.net/fraser/ provides a very good overview of Fraser island, including some beautiful color photographs of its various attractions. The site also leads to links with various resorts and accommodations.

The site at www.powerup.com.au/~manfred/fraser.htm contains a fine discussion of a walking tour of the island. For other general information, the search engine Google will bring up an abundance of relevant sites under the category “Fraser Island.” To access Google, click the search button on your browser. Enter Google in the text box. Your browser’s default search engine should bring up several Google links. Just click on the topmost or likeliest looking one.