K’Gari: 4WD Beauty Spots Day Tour

K’Gari (Fraser Island) is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is the largest sand island in the world.

The World Heritage property covers 181,851 hectares and includes all of K’gari and several small islands off the island’s west coast.

It is the world’s largest sand island, offering an outstanding example of ongoing biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes.

The development of rainforest vegetation on coastal dune systems at the scale found on K’gari is unique, and the island boasts the world’s largest unconfined aquifer on a sand island and half of the world’s perched freshwater dune lakes.

K’gari has exceptional natural beauty with more than 250 kilometres of clear sandy beaches with long, uninterrupted sweeps of ocean beach, strikingly coloured sand cliffs, and spectacular blowouts.

https://www.stateoftheenvironment.des.qld.gov.au/heritage/world/fraser-island-world-heritage-natural-criteria

The Beauty Spots tour visits some of the most iconic Fraser Island sites in one day. We don’t own a 4WD and have never driven in sand, so this was a good option for us. The tour leaves Kingfisher Bay Resort at 7:50 am. I had a little bit of vertigo during the night, so I let the bus driver know and grabbed a seat up the front. Because of its long wheelbase, it can travel more quickly on the sandy tracks, and it is also a smoother ride, so something to take into account when selecting a tour if you get carsick like me.

When we left the resort the fog was still pretty thick, but as we reached higher parts of the island, it began to break up. Lake McKenzie was our first stop of the morning. Lake McKenzie is one of a number of perched lakes on K’Gari. These lakes are filled by rainwater. They are lined by a layer of compressed vegetation and sand that runs underneath much of the sand on the island. I think we got the best of the views as when we got there, the fog was still hanging over parts of the lake, but it lifted entirely before we left.

The water was stunningly clear, and it was warmer than I’d expected when we left the bus. I made the rookie error of thinking it was going to be too cold to swim and left my bathers in the bus. I had to be content with wading in the crystal clear water.

After enjoying the lake for a while we went back to the carpark, into the picnic enclosure that is surrounded by a dingo-proof fence. You are not supposed to take food down to the lake because it attracts dingoes and only having food in the enclosures keeps everyone safe. After our morning tea, we boarded the bus to head to our next stop – Central Station.

Early European settlers in the area came to K’gari because of its wealth of timber. Central Station was established as a forestry camp. Logging was officially stopped in 1991, and Central Station is now a camping and information centre for the surrounding rainforest. We followed the short boardwalk along Wanggoolba Creek through the beautiful rainforest. It’s hard to believe the rainforest is growing on sand.

Not far from Central Station is another rainforest walk through Pile Valley. The walk is through a section of the rainforest with large Satiney trees. These were logged because of their straight trunks and resistance to marine borers. They were used as piles on the Suez Canal and docks in England.

After this we headed to the east coast of the island and the K’gari beach resort for a buffet lunch. Our guide reiterated the danger of dingoes in the area and asked us not to venture out onto the beach, which was outside the resort’s dingo fence. On his tour the previous day, the rogue dingoes at Eli Creek had gone after a 10-year-old boy, but luckily the boy’s father was able to defuse the situation and keep the dingo away. We wandered the small settlement after finishing our lunch but stayed within the fences.

After lunch, we hit 75-mile beach on the bus. The beach is a gazetted highway; all road rules apply, including the 80km/h speed limit. As we drove up the beach, planes were taking off and landing. We stopped, and members of the tour were able to take a scenic flight over the sea and island. The flights took about 15mins, and the passengers were dropped off at a point 15 mins up the beach, where they rejoined our tour. Hubby decided to go and got a great view of the whales migrating up the coast. There were also sharks patrolling the waters every 200m or so up the coast. Another reason (apart from the strong rips and currents) to stay out of the water here. While he was flying we were spotting whales from the bus. We also drove past Eli Creek and saw the three dingoes that have been causing trouble. They were stalking around the people fishing.

We picked up Hubby, then continued on up to the Maheno Wreck. The ship was being towed to Japan for scrap and the tow chain snapped in a storm and she washed up on Fraser Island.

This would normally be where the tour turns around but our guide had heard there was a beached whale a little further up the beach. He decided to take us for a look. When we got there the ranger was keeping an eye on it and so was a dingo. Beached whales are a food source for the Island’s dingoes, but since this one was still alive and moving, the dingo decided it wasn’t a meal quite yet.

The whale was a Brydes whale. The ranger said it had already got itself off once but got turned around and came back in. They wondered whether the sharks were patrolling and harassing it.

We stayed on board the bus, and the driver drove up then back so everyone got a good look; then we were headed back to our last stop for the day – Eli Creek. On the way there, we saw a front loader coming the other way. It seems the rangers were preparing in case they needed to dig out around the whale. They had already lost three whales this season to beaching which was a lot, especially considering it’s only the start of the migration. They don’t know whether there is something that is causing them to beach more, or it is just a factor of the increased whale numbers.

Eli Creek was where the Dingoes had recently bitten the French sunbaker on the backside, one had also pulled a ten-year-old boy into the water. Our guide recommended that everyone grab a stick and stay in groups. He recommended that any families with children stay either on the bus or very close to it and not cross the creek. We hopped off, Hubby took a stick, and we headed off for a bit of a walk. Eli Creek is a popular place to spend the day. There are toilets, and you can walk up the boardwalk and drop into the creek to float down the fast-flowing waters to the beach.

We crossed the creek, and immediately, two of the dingoes walked past us, checking us out and then went up into the sand dunes.

I joked that the two dingoes were trying to keep our attention while their mate snuck up behind us. Two rangers came from the boardwalk recommending everyone stay off because one of the dingoes was on it. Two ladies from the bus needed to use the toilets, so they continued, but we said to the third to hang with us so she wasn’t alone. While chatting, I heard some rustling in the nearby bush, and I turned around to see the third dingo emerge about 2m from me. I made sure I stood up tall and kept my eyes on it as we’d been told to do. It turned toward the sea and kept walking, following after the other two dingies. The two rangers followed it, saying, “That’s blue, the problem one …” The rangers are doing a really good job warning people and monitoring the situation to try to prevent further attacks.

This was the last stop. On the way back across the island, our guide encouraged us to check out the change in ecosystems from newest to oldest as you move from East to West. The newest sand dunes are covered with grass and scrubby coastal vegetation that stabilises the sand as it first builds up. This then matures into open woodland, then rainforest. Finally, soil depletion on the west coast leads to a regression in plant size, the west coast also has swampy areas of high biodiversity and mangroves along the coastal fringe.

We had a very full day and this tour was the highlight of our stay on K’Gari.