Not A Dingo In Sight!

Friday 24 November

We decided to give the 06.30 bird walk with a ranger a miss this morning as there was so much else crammed into the day – and we would only have had about 15 minutes for breakfast – how many courses could you eat in that time? – definitely not ten, and probably not five, so we had an extra half hour in bed.

This island is 123 kms long and between 7kms and 23 kms wide. It was formed between 700 and 500 million years ago, when it was part of the large continent including Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and South America, which had mountains larger than the Himalayas. These were eroded and the debris was deposited off the coast of the continent, which became the base of the Continental Shelf, now off the east coast of Australia, and forming the bed of the Great Barrier Reef. Eventually Australia separated from the continent, floating north. 80,000 years ago there was a mini ice age, and the waters receded – sea level being about 35 metres below what is today. The base rock was exposed and sand deposited on the rocks, and when the ice age finished and the waters rose, the islands were left. Over the years, the vegetable debris on the ground has built up a layer of earth, which supports the roots of trees sufficiently for them to grow tall. The whole island is like a sponge – fresh water is always just below the surface at sea level - so no droughts here. It is estimated that there is four times the amount of water in these sands than in Sydney Harbour (there’s that measurement again!).

There are over 100 lakes on the island, which fit into three categories: a window lake – a depression in the sand that goes below the water table and fills up with water; a barge lake where sand has blocked a creek and a lake has formed behind the sand bar; and a perch lake where there is a depression in the sand, well above the water table, which fills with rainwater, into a lake.

We had to meet at the village store nearby, for the Island Day Tour – run by the resort, not APT. We were to travel in 4WD coaches! – like ten ton trucks with forty seats, so other visitors accompanied us on this trip – only three of our group did not go. We had been warned it could be a bumpy ride, As the island is all sand, the roads are like compacted sand trails, with humps and ditches, and we bounced along, up and down, side to side (we were even warned not to put our heads too close to the windows) similar to our journey on ‘Wavepiercer’! – but more frightening as I felt the vehicle could turn over at any moment – no self-righting gear here. Branches thwacked the windows, with loud bangs, making us jump.

Our first stop was at Lake Mackenzie - a perch lake – which is about 80 metres above sea level, covering a huge sunken area. The Ph level in this lake is the same as that of our skin, so swimming in this water is supposed to be very efficacious and keep you looking young! - as well as an excellent cleaner of jewellery. Well, we all had to get in and swim - couldn’t miss an opportunity to look younger. The water was not as cold as it had been at Whitehaven beach, and was very refreshing – even at 09.00 in the morning. Everywhere you walked or swum there was lovely soft sand to walk on – although not so good for Colin who hates sand. By the time we had finished swimming, our driver had set up teas and coffees, brownies and Anzac biscuits – a cross between an oatcake and a gingersnap as “elevenses” at ten o’clock.

We continued on our drive through temperate and rain forests to Central Station, an old logging station, where we would walk in the rain forest. The island was first settled around 1870, when Yankee Jack Piggott moved in with a logging team, looking for three types of pine trees – hoop, cypress and scotch spruce. During the 1900’s more and more mechanization was introduced and they began to log other trees, including the “satinee” tree, which is also known as Fraser Turpentine. At first it was used to make furniture, but they found it was resistant to marine elements and therefore an excellent material with which to build piers and bridges. This wood was used in the construction of the Suez Canal and the rebuilding of the London Docks after World War II, and the same wood is still there today.

In 1992 the island became a National Park after lobbying by conservationists to stop the logging – they had been battling for years, but were finally successful as ecology became an important focus around the world. A year later the island was proclaimed a World Heritage site, which means that it cannot be changed or developed in any way, and they are very strict about things that could possibly change the environment – such as you cannot put on sun screen less than 20 minutes before going in a lake or creek, as it may change the Ph factors in the water.

We walked through the rain forest under the canopy – a welcome cool stroll out of the hot sun. We saw kookaburras, kingfishers diving in the creek, eels and other birds. We searched holes for spiders, but although we saw lots of webs there were no creepy crawlies in the open. We did see an enormous butterfly, black and cream lace patterned with a couple of red spots at the bottom of the wings, but it flitted around and just wouldn’t settle so we couldn’t capture it on the cameras. There were one hundred and thirty three steps back up from the path to the meeting point – I must be getting fitter as they were no problem at all.

But when we got back to the coach – oh dear – we could hear hissing – and it wasn’t a snake. One of the rear tyres had a fast puncture and was visibly deflating as we watched. Everybody off! – most of the passengers had returned before us and were already seated on the coach. The driver, looking crestfallen, found the jack and some tools, released the new tyre from under the coach, and began to lever up the side of the vehicle. It was a hot day anyway, and he wasn’t a small man, so it was not long before he had to remove his spectacles as the perspiration was blurring his vision. The “deaf” man, Arnold was there, under the wheel with the driver, first giving his guidance on the best way to do the job, and then with his camera out filming the ‘workers’, as other male passengers gave a helping hand. The driver managed to get the offending wheel off, but fitting the new wheel was not quite so easy. Getting his spade out, he dug underneath the tyre until it could fit snugly on the hub, and the bolts could be screwed back into place. Half an hour later, we were on our way again.

Lunch was at another resort, Eurong – another enjoyable buffet – perhaps Australia should be famous for buffets instead of barbeques! It was then time to head for Seventy Five Mile Beach, running the whole length of the ocean side of the island. It is an amazing stretch of continuous white sand, almost straight, so you can see the waves rolling in to the beach for miles in either direction. The coach drove along the sand near the waterline, over creeks and large patches of surface water – this is where the freshwater comes to the surface and mixes with the salt water wavelets.

Our first stop was at The Pinnacles, an accumulation of sandy peaks which vary in colour due iron elements in the sand – there are supposed to be 72 different hues from pale cream to deep gold – a paint chart in the sand. I haven’t visited Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight since I was a child, but I remember collecting different coloured sands in bands in a glass lighthouse – and they were all colours from white through yellows, reds, blues and browns to black. This is what I had expected here when they told us we were visiting the ‘Coloured Sands”. Not quite so spectacular as at home.

There are no rocks on the island, but we did see some craggy points on the beach – that looked exactly like lava rock – low dark brown clumps rising out of the sand. These are areas of sand and vegetation compacted together and when touched break very easily in your hand.

Our next stop on the beach was at the shipwreck of the SS Maheno, built in Dunbarton, Scotland to sail between Sydney and Auckland. Its turbine engines could reach 25 knots - although it mostly cruised at 11 knots - and the ship held the record for 25 years for the fastest crossing from Sydney to Auckland, at 2hours, 13 minutes and 26 seconds. During World War I it was commissioned as a hospital ship to transport wounded soldiers from Europe to England, but soon after resumed its cruising duties in Australasia. By 1935 it had become uneconomic and it was sold to a Japanese company, for scrap steel. Whilst being towed to Japan, it was caught in a freak cyclone off the coast of this island and the towrope broke, and the ship floundered here on this beach. There were attempts to refloat the vessel, but by the time these arrangements were made, it was stuck firm in the sand. The Japanese took what they could for salvage and the people of Hervey Bay took a lot more, and the rest was auctioned. What remains of this liner has lain here ever since, rusting away, as each tide pours in and covers the wreck. It has been used as target practice for both the American and Australian Air Forces, who, between them dropped 225 bombs and only hit the target twice! We wandered around the rusting lumps of metal, amazed that the rudder was several metres away down the beach – showing the true length of the ship. But the tide was coming in fast, and the off side, nearest the sea, went from ankle deep to thigh deep in the matter of a couple of minutes. Time to move on.

The next stop was just further down the beach at Eli Creek. This is a freshwater stream rushing towards the sea at the rate of 4.2 million litres of water per hour – it didn’t seem that fast, but as we walked up the winding course, the current was quite strong. Several younger visitors were “floating” downstream in the shallow waters.

It was then time to make our way back to the resort, as some people on the trip had to catch the 17.00 ferry – last chance to return to the mainland today. The route again was over a different rough sandy track, and I was surprised that it took us over 1 ¼ hours – although our arms and bums being bumped about, definitely knew they had been riding for that long. Once back at the resort, we had only a little time to prepare for the evening activities, but from the balcony we spied a kingfisher across the lake, diving into the water to feed. We only was him dive a couple of times, but then he moved to a branch at the side of the lake and preened himself for over half an hour. So we were still rushing to be ready for our lecture on Bush Tucker.

This took place on the Barbeque Deck, next to the pool, and one of the lady rangers had set out plates with samples of herbs and spices, berries and nuts for us to sample. They were ingredients that the indigenous tribes would have used for hundreds, if not thousands of years to flavour their foods. Some were extremely sour, such as small berry type lemons that tasted a little like pickled lemons, then there were peppercorn type berries, that first tasted sweet, but when you chewed on the crunchy inside, they we hot like chillies. Other were sweet like honey or aniseed. Some were leaves, crushed to fine powder, some tasting familiar like ginger, and others strange to our taste buds. We even got to taste ‘pig grass’, a plant the aborigines eat when there is a drought to freshen their mouths. Some also had medicinal attributes – the lemony ones could be rubbed on the skin to keep away flies and mosquitoes, others could be eaten to avoid ailing stomachs. It was very interesting, although we hoped the chef, busy behind us cooking our supper, was not using too many of the ingredients.

Another barbeque, another buffet – again very delicious – this time including kangaroo, crocodile, steak, chicken and prawns with lots of interesting salads and – jacket potatoes. We haven’t had many potatoes on the menus on this tour, only potato salad (Colin really missed his roast potatoes with the roast lamb he ate last night), so we were positively drooling at the prospect tonight – could I eat two? Pavlova was again on the dessert menu – I know it is supposed to be an Australian dish, but they must have some other puddings in their repertoire. But there was a good choice of Australian cheese and biscuits.

To help our dinner settle, we joined a night safari with a ranger, who took us on a stroll along tracks around the resort, looking for insects, reptiles and mammals. We found loads of cane toads (introduced to the cane fields to keep the vermin down, but they have ended up eating most of the native Australian mammals, while they themselves are full of toxins, so anything eating one, will almost certainly die from poisoning. We also saw minute green and brown varieties of sedge frogs – both smaller than my little finger nail, but make a creaking croaking noise. They cling to the strands of tall spiky reeds, around the edges of the lakes and the noise is like having the radio on loudly. We didn’t see any bandicoot, or other mammals, but did spot a very venomous brown spider – a funnelweb spider - making his was along a log – he had long fangs protruding from his mouth, and looked very evil. Animals would probably only get a bit sick if he bit them, but in humans his venom would produce anaphylactic shock and almost certainly death within about 14 hours. We were assured that there hadn’t been any deaths from a spider bite for twenty years!

We made our way to the jetty, where in the strong torch beam we could see stingrays, some large mackerel type fish, and lots of smaller fish jumping to the surface to catch the night bugs. Not the most successful safari ever, but we did spy a few things, and the ranger had a few interesting stories to tell.

By the time we returned to our room if was after 22.00 and time to get our cases ready for tomorrow’s journey back to the mainland. Fraser Island is very interesting and it would be good to spend more time wandering in the forests and woodlands to see more wildlife. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see a dingo – this is supposed to be the only place in Australia that the original pure dingos can now be found as they have all been crossbred with other dogs on the mainland. Perhaps that will be another reason for returning to Australia.