Fraser Island

'Maheno Wreck'

We spent the morning packing the car in preparation for our three nights on Fraser Island - this was quite a job because we were leaving the vans at Rainbow Beach and just taking the tent. We also needed sleeping gear, BBQ, clothes, recovery gear, food and kitchen utensils etc. After fueling up and buying Vehicle Permits we caught the Barge from Inskip Point around 12.30pm. The trip across only took about 15 mins and before long we were driving north up the Seventy Five Mile Beach. The 120km long Island is the world's largest sand island. For many years the island was exploited for it's valuable timber and mineral sands. Sand mining ceased in 1975 and logging did not stop until 1991 when it became part of the Great Sandy National Park. In 1993 native title was recognized and the island was listed as a World Heritage area. It was very windy and the waves were crashing in. We stopped at the Maheno wreck, a passenger liner that was blown ashore by a cyclone in 1935 while being towed to a Japanese scrap yard. A little further on were the Pinnacles which is a section of colored sand cliffs. The next stop was our camp ground 'Frasers at Cathedral Beach'. There were lots of warnings about dingoes especially around small children so we had to be vigilant. We set up camp and then went for a walk to a nearby sand blow. We cooked our BBQ dinner by torch light and spotted our first dingo slinking around the campsite looking for an easy feed.