After almost 30 years Bel and I returned to Fraser Island. What a beautiful place! So many amazing spots to visit, and aside from all the dingo warnings, it really hasn’t changed in that time.
Last time it was a Suzuki Sierra and our tent, so taking the camper trailer across was a new challenge. We caught the barge from Rivers Heads to Wangoolba Creek, and then drove inland to Central station. The track was very sandy and quite round in places, but everything went smoothly and the trailer towed really well.
We set up camp for 5 nights at Central station, a beautiful rainforest camp ground. We found a site that was well away from other campers and it felt like we were on our own tropical island.
We even set up the throne room for my princess😜
Central station was where the timber industry used to operate out of before the island was saved and world heritage listed. It has been fully regenerated now and the old huts are used for tourism. It’s also very central funnily enough and was a great base from which we did day trips exploring the island.
First call was Lake Mackenzie. One of a series of fresh water perched lakes, and definitely the prettiest.
The sand is pure white and the water crystal clear – fresh water filtered through sand, reflecting the blue sky. Amazing.
We spent hours there swimming and watching the backpackers come and go. Tourism has certainly kicked off since we were here last, with 4wd buses everywhere ferrying predominantly back packers around the island.
The next day we headed to the Eastern Beach via Eurong. When we were here last time we had booked into the resort at Eurong to have a break from camping. By the late evening on the first night we had made great new friends – AM and T – and been kicked out of the resort!!! So we ended up camping anyway.
From Eurong it was beach driving time – 80kmh speed limit, and aeroplanes landing!
First stop was Happy Valley for another reminisce.
And then on to Eli Creek, another great swimming spot with fresh rainforest water constantly running across a sandy creek bed into the ocean.
The general thing to do is walk up the boardwalk (don’t think this was here last time) along the creek and then drift back down. Like Lake Mackenzie the water is very clean and soft – very refreshing and saves having a shower!
From there we visited the Maheno wreck,
And then the Pinnacles, colored sand formations hundreds of thousands years old.
Tide times meant that we had to turn back at that stage. We would have loved to see the champagne pools but with midday high tides there wasn’t enough time to make the return journey.
While driving back on the beach we saw a couple of Dingoes. The rules around the dingoes and general warning are everywhere as there have been a few attacks. There are even locked enclosures for preparing and eating your lunch. Unfortunately Lake Wabby was closed because of the high level of dingo activity in that area.
Back at camp we soon discovered that rain forests come alive at night. The first night we had a midnight wake up with a loud commotion in the annex – a possum had found its way in. Luckily all food was locked away but it still had knocked the pots and pans around. Other nights we had bush rats, and on the last night we had lots of banging and scratching on the tent and what sounded like stomping – we think it was a Goanna.
The next day we did the southern lakes track, a 23km 4wd track that takes you past two more of the perched lakes – firstly Lake Birrabeen which is similar to Mackenzie.
And then Lake Boomanjin, not as pretty as the others, but the largest perched lake in the world.
We came back out onto the beach at Dili Village (village is an overstatement) and headed back up to Eli creek for a bath😜 and then back to camp.
Day 4 was cold and overcast so we decided to visit Kingfisher resort. Our timing was pretty bad as we had endless buses coming from the resort on a single lane 2 way narrow 4wd track. A very tense drive but the reward was the first decent coffee in a week and Internet so that I could read the news! The resort was very pretty but not for us. Fraser is all about the camping.
We headed back to camp and stopped at the central station day area to do the rainforest creek walk there. Very pretty and a great guided boardwalk explains the flora and fauna as well as history of the island.
On the last day we had sunshine again so decide to spend the day at Lake Mackenzie and go for a paddle. It was brilliant, paddling around the lake looking for the mythical turtles. Lots of jealous looks from the backpackers too, maybe we can start a new business???
It was a fantastic way to end our time at Fraser and we will definitely be back again.