Australia Part 3 : May 21 - June 12

Hervey Bay, QLD : Monday, May 29, 2006

We were back on the road again but with mom and dad in tow, we didn’t have to start in the dark. Yahoo!!! Our first destination was Noosa Heads, a small but lovely national park on the northern tip of the landmass referred to as the Sunshine Coast. The entrance to the park began at the end of the picturesque resort village of Noosa. It had many inviting cafes and boutiques but we passed them by to visit the park. We strolled down the well kept boardwalks with our heads tilted up to spot a wild koala. Unfortunately they were very shy today and we didn’t see any. However mom and dad saw many new species of birds which pleased them a lot. We did notice dozens of surfers in the many bays along our walk, as well as passing many more on the trail. One lady with a large surfboard had to be at least 60 years old and she looked like a die-hard hippie surfer. It was a long way to carry the board so I was really impressed. We didn’t walk far enough to reach the nudist beach; much to the dismay of some members of the family.

Back on the road again we headed north to Hervey Bay on the Fraser Coast. The eastern side of Australia dotted with hundreds of small resort towns, was divided into distinct and uniquely named regions. Hervey Bay was a popular destination because it had long expanses of beaches for swimming and fishing and was one of the larger centers offering access to World Heritage Fraser Island. Also from August to November, it is a favourite spot for humpback whale watching tours. The resident population is about 40,000 but it would swell significantly during the high season. We stayed at the fabulous 4 ½ star Whitecrest Apartments on the main beach street.

Even though the sun was getting low by this point, the pool still looked very inviting. So the kids, my dad and I had a great swim. All the local Aussies thought we were absolutely nuts because in their words, “It was too bloody cold. It’s winter!” I think the temperature was about 23C. Later as we indulged in a few beers (Just like true Australians), we watched several thousand fruit bats take off from their day of roosting in search of food. It was quite thrilling to see so many of them and all so close to us.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006: Hervey Bay, Australia

We booked a one day exclusive tour with the locally owned Fraser Island Company. There were also options of two or three day tours with overnight stays in “wilderness retreats”. We had decided earlier that if we were going to stay on the island then we wanted to be a bit more comfortable than cabins, so we passed on the overnight experience. In hindsight, the disadvantage of the one day tour was that it was very hurried and we didn’t cover 2/3 of the island. Also as most Australian animals were nocturnal, we didn’t see any wildlife. ( Fraser Island was home to the country’s purest strain of dingoes and it would have been great to see one here.) However saying all that, we still had a marvelous day and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Another option was to rent a 4WD vehicle and drive ourselves around on the island. This was just too expensive with the rental costs, extra insurance costs, fees and fines for damage, going in the salt water etc and then the very real possibility of a breakdown. A tow on the island was a minimum $700 charge! Driving in the sand was very tricky and it would be necessary to be familiar with off road driving techniques. The tour was a much better choice for us.

Our morning pickup was at 7:50 and when we showed up early by fifteen minutes, we shocked the tour guide, Henning. He was originally from Germany and we weren’t quite sure what to make of him when we appeared at the bus. He was so flustered by our early arrival that he was hard to understand. However he turned out to be a fascinating individual with a decidedly “tree hugger” nature and a unique sense of humour. He talked almost all day about everything from the history, plants and animals of the island to current events in Australia. I don’t know how he kept it up.

After a short trip to the harbour, we boarded a ferry and had a 60 minute ride to Fraser Island. En route we spotted dolphins and turtles before landing right on the beach. After the multi-day tour buses drove off the boat, the day tour passengers exited to our waiting bus. It was a high clearance, 4WD, fat tired model that was absolutely necessary to get us anywhere on the island. The roads were just sand tracks through the bush until we reached the hard packed beaches on the other side. It was definitely a rockin’ roller coaster type ride. In fact, one fellow suffering with ear problems got so sick that he had to leave the tour. He spent the day with his wife on the beach instead. However I am getting ahead of myself; a little bit about the island……

Fraser Island the world’s largest sand island, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. Measuring about 120 km long by 15 km wide, it had an incredibly diverse ecology from rainforests to deserts. It was hard to believe that its base is entirely sand because so many different types of vegetation grew on it. As well there were approximately 200 freshwater lakes dotting its landscapes; more water was contained in the sand and lakes here than eight times that of Sydney Harbour. I wondered why the water in the lakes didn’t drain out through the sand but was told that a thin layer of decomposing leaf litter on the bottom acted like a plug. Of course some water was still lost through evaporation and seepage but normally water levels were topped up during the wet season. Unfortunately with the recent severe droughts, the lakes have dropped at least a meter in the last couple of years.

Known to the local Butchulla Aborigines as K’gari ( Paradise), the island got its European name from James and Eliza Fraser. He was the captain of the Stirling Castle which shipwrecked on the northwest coast in 1836. He died shortly after landing but the fate of his wife differs. According to Lonely Planet Guide, she would have died without the help of the Aborigines. The story told by Henning was that she was enslaved and beaten by her Butchulla master who won her in a game of chance. Later she escaped to the mainland and eventually made her way back to Europe. There she told her sensational tale with it becoming more lurid with each retelling and she made her fortune. Unluckily for her, she returned to Australia and was run over by a horse and buggy, twice. Not long after this, the value of the timber on the island became a strong draw for the European settlers. Tracts of rainforest were cleared in order to harvest turpentine wood (or satinay) which was coveted by shipbuilders for its waterproof properties. Mineral sand was also mined for many years. These industries continued until 1975 for the mining and 1991 for the logging.

The tour wasn’t all about driving through huge piles of sand. We made several stops including two greatly appreciated ones for a morning tea and a buffet BBQ lunch. At the latter, there was an esky (cooler) filled with beer (for the Aussies), wine and pop. There weren’t even locals however because we left too much beer. Before lunch we enjoyed a wade through Eli Creek, a fast moving crystal clear waterway. It moved water at a rate of 5000L/hour. This water washed across the hard packed beach sand and created large washboard ripples that caused the bus to jolt. A lot of private vehicles have overturned on these washouts. For us driving on the beach with the waves crashing nearby was a highlight. We were told that when the tide was out during high season, the beach had 16 lanes of traffic on it. In fact police officers with speed cameras patrolled the beach to catch reckless drivers. It certainly would be easy to get going too fast because the beach was 70 km long and flat.

As beautiful as the sandy beach looked, the water beyond it was deadly. Not far from shore was the cold, deep Continental shelf and when the water from this area mixed with the warm shallow stuff near shore, incredibly strong under tows and rip currents were formed. As well as the certainty of being sucked out to sea, a person could be stung by jellyfish or eaten by Great White sharks. Even on the hottest summer day, beachgoers did not go in the water.

It wasn’t easy for ships either with at least 80 wrecks scattered around the island. One of them has been half buried on the edge of the beach for over 70 years. The Maheno was a luxury passenger liner before it was purchased by a Japanese salvage company. It was being taken to Japan when a cyclone blew it ashore in 1935. Some skeptics believe it was done on purpose because the Japanese sailors lived on the beach for over six months and at the beginning of WWII, the Japanese had better maps of Australia’s coastline than they did. Many of the older buildings in the area have fixtures and furniture taken from the wreck in its early days on the beach. The remains on the beach were fascinating but we couldn’t get too close. A large sign stated that we needed to stay 3m away from the edge of the hulk.

Another stop along the beach was the Pinnacles, a section of coloured sand cliffs. Aboriginal legend described the creation of the cliffs this way. Wuru, a young girl was promised to an old man named Winyer whom she didn’t want to marry. She had fallen in love with Wiberigan (Rainbow), who she met at the beach every day. Winyer who was an excellent hunter, threatened revenge on Wuru. One day he chased her onto the beach and threw his boomerang at her. She screamed for help and Wiberigan jumped in front of her to protect her. He shattered into many pieces that fell to give colour to the cliffs.

After lunch we stopped at a huge sand blow appropriately called Knife Edge. It was a massive expanse of sand dunes with a sharp edge. What a great view. There was more sand on this island than in Saudi Arabia. We also visited one of the freshwater lakes on the island and walked around it. Its periphery was lined with reeds and the water had cute little long necked black turtles. All the decaying matter in the lake created silky smooth water that supposedly was a fountain of youth and took years off a person’s appearance. I considered jumping in just for its therapeutic effect but I ran out of time after circling the lake.

Returning to the beach we heard some more stories about the island. An amusing one was about the Americans during WWII. They planned to build an airport on a flat stretch of the island even though they were told that it was essentially a swamp filled with quick sand. No problem for the gung ho Americans who brought in pumping equipment to drain the area. They continued pumping until the end of the war and never did drain it. In fact there was more water in the swamp at the end of the war then when the Americans started. They built their airport in Townsville instead.

The ferry departure was delayed because it was waiting for the second day tour bus that had two flat tires during the day. The man who had motion sickness earlier in the day had transferred to that bus after the beach. He didn’t have much luck today. Our trip home on the ferry was during sunset. It was spectacular with a wide band of orange along the horizon. It was fabulous end to a terrific day.  ( NEXT PAGE )