Fraser Island From Wikipedia
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View from Indian Head, Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world at 1630 km². It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992.
Fraser Island is located off the east coast of Australia approximately 200 km north of Brisbane, Queensland. With Cooloola, the island forms the Great Sandy Region, stretching 175 km north to south, varying in width up to 25 km, with the highest elevation of 260 m. The Fraser Island area is protected in the name of Great Sandy National Park.
The island is reached by ferry and a four-wheel drive vehicle is a requirement. There are plenty of available campsites with views of the ocean and migrating whales. There are also restricted areas where the land is left to rehabilitate.
Tour buses do travel the island but the true fun is renting a four-wheeler and driving on the beach and on the sand roads.
The freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. The most popular is Lake McKenzie which is inland from the small town of Eurong. It is where many a tourist stops for a restful swim. It is a "perched" lake sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter. The beach sand is nearly pure silica and is good for washing hair, teeth, jewelry, and exfoliating the skin. The lakes have very few nutrients and are slightly acidic. Sunscreen and soaps are a form of pollution. Also urine will change the color of the water thus embarrassing anyone who did not use the convenient restrooms.
Eli Creek is a popular place to swim on the east coast of the island, as the water is fresh and cool year round. There is a boardwalk that is good for a short walk through the bush. Some cell phones will work south of Eli creek.
The beach at Lake McKenzieDingoes are common on the island. These animals are some of the last remaining pure dingoes; so dogs are not allowed on the island. Tourists are warned not to feed the dingoes on the basis that they are wild dogs. There is no history of dingoes attacking humans on Fraser Island up until 1995 or so. In 2001, a boy wandered away from his family and was discovered dead, with indications of a dingo attack. The true circumstances of his death may never be known. It is also wise to secure your shoes as the Dingos sometimes take a shoe and chew it to an unusable condition.
A major landmark of Fraser Island is a shipwreck called The Maheno. On June 25th, 1935 she was being towed from Melbourne to Japan when she was caught in a strong cyclone. A few days later, on July 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on Fraser Island. She has since severely rusted and it is not allowed to climb on the ship.
The original name of the island is 'K'gari' in the Butchulla people's language. It means paradise. The arrival of European settlers in the area was an overwhelming disaster for the Butchulla people. There are currently no aboriginal tribes living on Fraser Island.
The name Fraser Island comes from Eliza Fraser. Captain James Fraser and his wife, Eliza Fraser, were shipwrecked on the island. The name of the ship was the Stirling Castle. Captain Fraser died but Eliza did make it off the island. After that Eliza made money travelling around England and Australia telling her story of the events that had occurred while the Stirling Castle’s officers were on the island. She is known to have told several versions of the story; it is unknown which version is the most accurate.
In the 1950s, Fraser Island was proposed by Australia as a location for the resettlement of the entire population of the Republic of Nauru. Experiencing racial discrimination, Nauru rejected the offer of moving the entire population to Fraser Island, and new prospects for the movement of the entire Nauruan population to an Australian location still seem fraught with difficulties.
Talk:Fraser Island
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There should be something about the 2001 incident where a boy wandered away from his family and was killed by dingoes. (Coincidentally this happened on the day my tour party arrived there. Our guide told us about it, but the island staff apparently weren't allowed to mention it.) There was talk at the time of culling the dingo population but I don't know what came of it. Lee M 01:10, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)
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This article has come a long way.
When I first started editing this page about Fraser Island it was nothing but a stub. Now it is getting better all the time. I should add some more pictures some time. It is good to see the Eli creek is open again. When I went there last time it was closed due to a cyclone.
The only problem is I think the dingo attack was over hyped in real life as deaths due to dingo attacks are rare for the whole continent let alone Fraser Island. I think even mentioning it detracts from the article as the article is about Fraser Island and not about dingo attacks. If this article was as long as the Yellowstone article then it would be appropriate to include this information. However it is just a minor concern of mine and so I will let it rest. Dan :Mtbrocket 23:45, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Maybe so, but Azaria_Chamberlain_disappearance says that "Crucial to this change of public opinion was a string of attacks by dingoes on Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast, which is the last refuge in Australia for pure-breed wild dingoes. In the wake of these attacks, most of which took place in the late 1990s, it emerged that there have been at least 400 documented dingo attacks on Fraser Island alone. Most of these attacks were against children, but at least two were attacks on adults." The article itself states that "There is no history of dingoes attacking humans on Fraser Island". Obviously these can't both be correct. This article may not be about dingo attacks, but it should not lie. I do not know what the truth is so I left it as it is, though. Would saying nothing at all about dingoes do? Anonymous, 15:30, 22 Jun 2005 UTC)
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Shipwreck
I added a small section about the shipwreck. There was no information on the island (ie: plaque, sign, etc.) so I found this information on the internet. It seems to be accurate as it can be found on many different sources. Also, I have some pictures; I will add one of the shipwreck on Fraser Island soon.
