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After our second night in Noosa, we wanted to get to Fraser Island, to take in the world heritage listed sandiness for ourselves. We found a great route to do this.

The lady at the useful tourist information centre in Noosa told us that Inskip Point was the nearest place at which we could cross to Fraser Island, and that the crossing only takes around 15 minutes (as opposed to the 45 minute journey from the further Hervey Bay crossing).

She also gave us a map which showed that there was a fairly direct way to get to Rainbow Beach (where the Inskip Point ferry tickets are purchased) along the beach. When I pointed this out, she said “you can only go up there with a 4X4” and I took this opportunity to demonstrate a maximum amount of smugness at our decision to buy one in January.

So we headed off to catch the $5 ferry to the other side of the river, from where we would access the beach and drive up to Rainbow Beach along the 50 or 60 KMs of beach (cutting out a much longer, and far less scenic drive).

We got to Rainbow Beach after an hour or so, and Anna’s Lonely Planet, and the woman at the Tourist Information Centre, had told us that we would buy the ferry ticket at the ferry “office” or something, this is not the case, you get them from the petrol station in Rainbow Beach. I bought a ticket which would allow us to get off Fraser Island on a Hervey Bay crossing (which go from half way up Fraser Island) as this would avoid having to recover old ground at the end of our trip – this meant that the ticket cost $105 instead of $80, but it would cut out around 100 KMs of driving…

You also need to get hold of a vehicle permit to drive on Fraser Island from the National Park Office in Rainbow Beach. Confusingly, this office is not signposted coming into Rainow Beach, and only has a sign for those going back the other way, so we missed this the first time also. It is here where you should buy your camping permits – we got one day initially, as we though we may stay at Frasers @ Cathedral Bay (another Big 4) the second night. We booked in for Central Station camp ground at a price of $4.50 each too.

After all of this pissing about, it was good when we eventually got onto the ferry and they took our solitary vehicle and us across to Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is a fantastic place, and it is good to travel around it at your own speed, using your own 4 wheels, as it is a huge place. Many of the shorter excursions simply cannot do it justice and are at best a whistle-stop affair. We ended up spending three nights and four days on Fraser Island, and saw only a fraction of what Fraser has to offer, despite covering 350 KMs of sand.

Speaking of sand, that is what you encounter on the island, there are no sealed roads whatsoever (except those in the resort town of Kingfisher Bay on the Western side of Fraser), and it didn’t take me long to look like a chump and get the Pajero stuck.

In my defence, the section of beach leading onto the tracks is where the sand is at its deepest, and these areas need to be taken on with sufficient momentum. The bottom of most vehicles will drag and without sufficient speed, you’ll simply get stuck fast – as we were speeding onto this track, a walker with a big backpack was at this moment walking up the track too. I slowed down. And stopped. The other walker helpfully took photos of us as we tried to dig out our diff and suspension from the soft sand.

Luckily for us, a helpful man and his wife came along and towed us out, and we decided to take a slightly different route to Central Station camp ground, through the resort of Eurong (which is about 40 minutes from where the Inskip Point ferry drops off).

Central Station – Fraser Island

A lesson learned I utilised the low range gear box and booted the car hard all the way along the 18 KM sandy rally track to Central Station camp ground, arriving just before dark, in time to put up our tent and visit the free barbecues to cook our dinner.

We had questioned whether the Central Station name had been a joke name that the nation parks office had given it as it was the busiest camp site. But no, it seems that this place actually was a train station in years gone by, when Fraser Island was used for logging. A track would take the logs from here down to where they could be loaded onto ships.

Nowadays, Central Station is a small collection of buildings, trees and ferns, some barbecues and a couple of camp sites. It is also the start (and finish) point of several walks. In the morning, we took one of these walks to Basin Lake.

Basin Lake

Fraser Island is perhaps most famous for its various lakes. Having over 200, Fraser Island’s visitors typically only see one or two (especially those on excursions) though each is distinct and different from the other, even down to the colour of the water. Fraser Island also features the highest “dune lake” in the world (Fraser Island is the largest sand dune island in the world, and the only upon which a rainforest grows).

Basin Lake is a great walk from Central Station, and for the geographically minded, provides a clear example of the different types of forest present at the highest points on Fraser Island.

Recalling my A-Level geography days, I had read some of the many signs on Fraser Island (at Central Station) regarding the progression of plants and trees with interest. Those ‘pioneer plants’ which I’d not thought about since revising for my exams, actually had started something on Fraser Island, as there is a clear progression to bushy shrubs, mixed forest and eventually a band of full rainforest at the top.

On the walk to Basin Lake, one experiences to latter two: rainforest and mixed sclerophyll forest and, whilst the boundaries are somewhat jumbled, it is easy to appreciate the changes which occur when going from one to the other. The walk itself is relatively easy, and takes around forty-five minutes of briskish walking; it does not feature many hills either.

The aborigines who originally inhabited Fraser Island considered Basin Lake to be a place of special importance, using it for ceremonies – upon arriving there and witnessing the stillness and clarity of the water, it is easy to see why.

Perhaps due to the fact that Basin Lake can only be accessed by foot, and that we had set off before 8am, we had the lake to ourselves the whole time we were there.

I saw a turtle pop its head out of the water, however, Linda and Anna we looking in the other direction at the time.

Basin Lake looked like a good place to go for a swim however, as it was still early in the day and quite cool we decided against it.

On the walk back from Basin Lake, we saw a colourful pigeon, which is far more magnificent looking than the feral creatures to be found in most cities. I believe this bird to be a Wompoo (and have written another post about the potential significance of this sighting).

After completing the walk back from Basin Lake (returning along the same path to Central Station) we decided to go on to explore the rest of Fraser Island…