FRASER ISLAND AUSTRALIA


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FRASER ISLAND AUSTRALIA - INTRODUCTION

Fraser Island, Australia is the largest sand island in the world being 124Km long and covering an area of 163,000 hectares.

This Australian island encompasses an amazing variety of landscapes, long surf beaches, cliffs and gorges in shades of orange, red, yellow and pure white sand, dense rainforests, vast, desert-like sandblows, freshwater lakes perched high up in its dunes, winding streams, great basalt headlands and salt pans with eerie mangrove forests.

Scientists believe Fraser Island has developed over a period of approximately 800,000 years. Its sand comes from the tablelands of northern New South Wales, washed into the sea by the big rivers of that area, and strong sea currents carry it north to Queensland, Australia.

Sand is the Fraser Island's foundation, but water is its life force, giving rise to the island's vast tracts of forest. Fraser Island has an abundance of freshwater in its many lakes and crystal clear creeks and streams. Pristine clear mirror lakes and the peat- coloured perched lakes, are some of the largest of their kind in the world. Across the broad stretches of the ocean beach and running through the cool shady havens of the rainforest, comes the flow of the island's many creeks and streams.

Water has allowed the creation of exceptional rainforests, growing in sand and surviving on nutrients from the breakdown of other plants. Towering satinay and brush box are among the forest giants, some over a thousand years old. The variety of vegetation on Fraser Island is exceptional, ranging from mangroves to kauri forests and wallum heathlands that fill with wildflowers in the early Spring.

The beaches and forests are the habitat of more than 230 species of birds - one of the largest and most varied bird communities in Australia. Isolation from the mainland has also ensured the purity of the Fraser Island's dingo population.

Now listed as an Australian World Heritage site, Fraser Island joins the ranks of the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and Kakadu National Parks as being of universal significance as the largest coastal dune system and sand island in the world and for its special environments. As a precious part of Australia's natural and cultural heritage, it is protected for all to appreciate, enjoy and respect.