Fraser Island Attractions

Fraser Island, lying off the coast between Bundaberg and Brisbane, was formerly called Great Sandy (it is Australia's largest sand island). Over 120km long and between 7km and 25km across, it was formerly occupied by Aborigines of the Butchulla tribe. On the east side of the island there are numerous Aboriginal ceremonial sites.

In the interior of the island there are numbers of freshwater lakes, either 'window lakes' of clear ground water or 'perched lakes' of brownish water in depressions in the dunes over impermeable rock strata. There is a very varied flora and fauna (mangrove forests, subtropical rain forests and forests managed for timber; wild horses, dingoes and over 200 species of birds, including migratory birds in passage). The sand of which the island consists, apart from a few volcanic formations and layers of sedimentary rock, was formed over many millions of years from detritus eroded from the Great Dividing Range, carried down to the sea by rivers and deposited and piled up in dunes up to 250m high by the prevailing southeasterly trade winds.