Fraser Island is an island located along the southern coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Brisbane. Its length is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) and its width is approximately 24 kilometres (15 mi). It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992. The island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km². It is also Queensland's largest island, Australia's sixth largest island and the largest island on the East Coast of Australia.
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. Unlike many sand dunes, plant life is abundant due to the
naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi present in the sand, which release nutrients in a form that can be absorbed by the plants. Fraser Island is home to a small number of mammal species,
as well as a diverse range of birds, reptiles and amphibians, including
the occasional saltwater crocodile. The island is part of the Fraser Coast Region and protected in the Great Sandy National Park.
Fraser Island has been inhabited by humans for as much as 5,000 years. Explorer James Cook sailed by the island in May 1770. Matthew Flinders landed near the most northern point of the island in 1802. For a short period the island was known as Great Sandy Island. The island became known as Fraser due to the stories of a shipwreck survivor named Eliza Fraser. Today the island is a popular tourism destination. Its resident human population was 360 at the census of 2006
Fraser Island is separated from the mainland by Great Sandy Strait. The southern tip, near Tin Can Bay, is situated to the north of Inskip Peninsula. The most northern point of the island is Sandy Cape where the Sandy Cape Light operated from 1870 to 1994. The establishment of the lighthouse was the first permanent European settlement on the island.
The bay on the north east coast is called Marloo Bay and on the north
west coast is Platypus Bay. The most westerly place on the island is
Moon Point.
Eli Creek is the largest creek on the east coast of the island with a flow of 80 million litres per day.
Eli Creek has its own unique and varied wild life. Coongul Creek on the
west coast has a flow rate of four to five million litres per hour. Some of the swamps on the island are fens, particularly near Moon Point. This was only discovered in 1996 when a group of experts who had attended a Ramsar conference in Brisbane flew over the island and conducted an aerial survey.
From above they noticed the distinct patterns of potholed peat which
are devoid of trees. This was the first instance of fens found in
Australia and in a sub-tropical region, although more were subsequently
found on the adjacent Cooloola coast.
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