11-November 2011

The Fraser Island dingoes are reputedly some of the last remaining pure dingoes in Eastern Australia and to prevent cross-breeding, dogs are not allowed on the island. As of January 2008, the number of dingoes on the island was estimated to be 120 to 150.

Up until 1995, there were no official records of dingoes attacking humans on Fraser Island. In April 2001, a boy wandered away from his family and was discovered dead, with indications of a dingo mauling. Over 120 dingoes were killed by rangers as a result of the incident, though locals believe the number was much greater. In April of this year a 3 year old girl was attacked by two dingoes. She was sitting on the beach away from her parents and two dingoes ran out of the bush and grabbed her. She had several bites on her legs. This seems like very unusual behaviour for wild animals. Perhaps too many tourists on such a small island is not working out so well. Dingoes around camp sites have learnt to scavenge for food, expecting hand-outs from visitors or stealing from picnic tables and tents. Everywhere there are signs telling people not to feed the dingoes and there are penalties for doing so but still people continue to do it. This leads to dingoes associating people's presence with food and if they get hungry they will demand it and become aggresssive. Please people, do not feed the dingoes and let's hope that the Fraser Island dingoes can co-exist with humans for a little longer.

I was constantly on the look out for these dingoes, however we never saw any. Not even one.

4x4 Maniacs - Fraser Island ***One of our top 10***

Fraser Island was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992.The island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world. The island has rainforests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests, wallum and peat swamps, sand dunes and coastal heaths. It is made up of sand that has been accumulating for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock that provides a natural catchment for the sediment which is carried on a strong offshore current northwards along the coast.

We picked up our land cruiser early in the morning ready to roll. We really had no idea what we were getting into as I happily put in the two cappuchinos into the front seat thinking I was going to be able to sip it contently while I looked out the window at the great landscape. Not. The minute we turned the corner we were into deep sand, going uphill with huge ruts, bumps, tree roots and uneven surfaces. This is going to take some getting used to.

Our first stop was Lake Wabby. We walked to a lookout and it was spectaluar. Lake Wabby is surrounded by tall hills, covered in gum trees. Lake Wabby is an example of a barrage lake. A barrage lake occurs when a sand blow damns off the waters naural spint. Lake Wabby is Fraser Islands only barrage lake and is also the only lake to support several varieties of fish. The sand blow that meets Lake Wabby is moving westward of about one metre a year, thus slowly engulfing the lake.

After we left Lake Wabby, it was back on the road, or you really can't call it that, to head out to the ocean. Chris insisted that he get a manual transmission because it would be funner and he could control the vehicle better but he forgot that he had to shift with his left hand which sometimes shifted us instead of third gear but into first gear! Not good when trying to accelerate through a mini sand dune. Just as we were coming up to the beach, we got stuck. Luckily in no time at all, an experienced Aussie came to our rescue and hauled us onto the beach. He told us that our tires were too full of air, so we took some air out and the tires were better. It was almost surreal, as it felt like we were barreling through snow but it was hot so it must be sand.

We were then on the beach road. How kewl is this? There was surprisingly alot of traffic - locals with fishing rods hanging from the roofs, huge tour buses of every kind, planes landing, other rental cars like ours, and campers.

We made a stop in Eurong, Central Station then Lake Mackenzie. The freshwater lakes on Fraser Island are some of the cleanest lakes in the world. Lake Mckenzie has beautiful white sand and clear water. Lake McKenzie is one of the islands perched lakes. This type of lake is very rare, it was formed by the wind channelling out large hollows in amongst the dunes. Decaying vegetation was blown onto these depressions by the wind, the rain reacted with sand and over a huge period of time, the sand was compacted into a tight sandstone base capable of holding a large body of water.