K’gari is the aboriginal name of the island more commonly known as Fraser Island. During our time on the island we learnt a lot about the history of the island and about the aboriginal people that had inhabited the island, the Butchulla people.

‘According to Aboriginal legend, when humans were created and needed a place to live, the mighty god Beiral sent his messenger Yendingie with the goddess K’gari down from heaven to create the land and mountains, rivers and sea. K’gari fell in love with the earth’s beauty and did not want to leave it. So Yendingie changed her into a heavenly island – Fraser Island.’

We both came away from our time on the island feeling quite embarrassed about the European and mainly British involvement in a lot of the history of the island. I will make an effort to include as much as I can remember in my post today. As a result of this, I will refer to the island as K’gari from now on, a change I hope you will understand later on.

We were collected early by the owner of the company Dropbear, Mark. Mark is a third generation descendant of the Butchulla people and spent his childhood visiting and growing up on the island. He got us very excited about the trip before handing us over to our tour guide Dave. After completing some unavoidable paperwork and safety briefings (primarily about dingos and driving safety – hilarious) we were ready to depart. I offered to drive one of the 4WD cars from Noosa to Rainbow Beach where we were to collect another 6 guests. We had opted for a ‘tag-along’ K’gari experience which gave all of the guests the opportunity to drive the 4WD (if they have a driving license) on the island whilst still experiencing the tour with a very knowledgeable guide.

Once we collected our other guests from Rainbow beach, refuelled the jeeps and bought some supplies we were on our way to the barge that was to carry us over to K’gari. There were a few issues at the beginning as the barge couldn’t lift it’s ramp for us to go, but eventually we were on our way. 5 short minutes later we were there!!! All I can say is endless beach… 75 miles of beach runs along the eastern side of the island. We are unable to drive on the western side, but I think 75 miles will be enough.

I drove our car load to our camp site where we had lunch, wraps and had a chance to sort ourselves out a bit. We were going to be camping, Simon and I in a 3 man tent, so plenty of room. As soon as our lunch was finished we were being told we would be on our way to our first stop, Lake Wabby.

Lake Wabby is a freshwater lake, surrounded by tea tree trees, created as a result of a sandblow. It is beautiful and the best part of it, is there are little fish in the lake that like to give you a pedicure, AND the water is full of tea tree oil so makes your skin feel super soft and pampered. We spent some time learning about the lake and it’s importance to the Butchulla people as an important ‘coming of age’ location for the men. Women were not allowed here and before the women in the group were allowed to visit we had to complete an acknowledgment ceremony confirming we would respect the site. We spent some time swimming, sunbathing and just enjoying the lake. After a 3km walk back through the bush we made it back to our jeeps, in time to get back to camp for dinner.

Dinner was an aussie BBQ with sausages and steaks. Yummy!!! We had bought a box of goon for our trip so enjoyed that with some of the amazing people we had met. We were told that we had come at an amazing time because  we would be able to see a moonrise both nights we were here. Apparently it’s quite rare to be able to see the moonrise like the sun, but wow it is stunning. On the first night there was quite a bit of cloud, but i’ll show you some pics of the second evening later on.

Sleeping in a tent means you get up early. The tent soon gets warm and the light starts to flood in. Not necessarily a bad thing as we had a very very busy day ahead of us. We had a lovely breakfast of toad in the hole (egg in toast – weird to call it that I know), cereals and tea. Yum! We had been told the night previously that if we happened to bump into some pilots who do scenic flights around the island then we would be able to go up for 20 mins for only $60 each – a massive saving. As we were driving out of the camp site, there they were. 3 pilots ready and eager to take some passengers up for an aerial view of K’gari. Most of our group was super eager and we got ready to go. The pilot told is that this was only the second place in the world where you are able to take off and land on sand. The other being Bara in Scotland. We somehow managed to end up in the smallest plane – 6 seats, including the pilot, and started our take off. The whole experience was magical and so unexpected. We never thought that we would have this opportunity, let alone be able to afford it. We saw all of the freshwater lakes and 75 mile beach from the sky, as well as the sandblow at Lake Wabby we had seen previous. We hoped to see some humpbacks but unfortunately they weren’t there, but Simon did see a ray from the sky.

Coming back to land we were all buzzing and we jumped back into the jeeps ready to head further north. We had quite a lot of stops to hit today, but the first was Eli Creek. Eli is a beautiful,  fast-flowing creek that you can laze down and enjoy. Most of our group stopped ‘playing’ after 1 or 2 goes down the creek, but our group stayed in for most of our 1.5 hour stop. Travelling down the creek, running up to the top, down, up, over and over again. We had some inflatables between us that we kept sharing and when we weren’t playing crocodile (anyone on an inflatable or stood up could be pulled into the water by a crocodile, someone under the water) it was super relaxing. On our way into Eli Creek, we had some tidal issues. The tide was a bit higher than expected so we had to leave the cars further back. Volunteers were asked to go back and drive the jeeps through the water and of course I volunteered. The water went over the bonnet!!! So much fun!!!

We then drove on to the Maheno shipwreck, which is only a short drive away. The Maheno has a very interesting history, starting its life off as a cruise liner, it then became a hospital ship during world war 2 and then was eventually bought by the Japanese. As the Japanese were towing it back up to Japan the rope broke and the Maheno ended up on the East coast of K’gari. There is a lot of conspiracy theories revolving around the Maheno, many thinking that the Japanese purposely ‘lost’ the ship so that they could survey the Australian coastline for intelligence. Regardless, it was quite stunning to see.

After the Maheno Shipwreck, we were ahead of the other tour groups so were able to snap up a great spot at Cathedral cove for lunch. We had wraps again, but with different fillings and were able to stop and buy an icecream. We had been told to try a Golden Gaytime, which was pretty tasty (all the Brits had a bit of a giggle about the name). We then moved onto the Champagne Pools. Beautiful pools that are filled by the tide and get frothy bubbles from the crashing waves. There were lots of fish caught out in the pools at low tide, including a bitey damsel fish that Simon took much joy in winding up. We had a play with the sea squirts, much to everyones amusement (don’t worry we recovered them in water afterwards) and a bit of a swim around.

The last stop of the day was up to Indian Heads. Indian heads is the most important spot on K’gari for the Butchulla people. Indian heads was named by Captain James Cook in 1770, as he passed by K’gari word had spread of his arrival and on the head of the cliff was a huge congregation of ‘Indian’ people (his own words). The Butchulla people used to use Indian Heads for a lot of their political matters, judging people on the standards that had been set for them. If they were deemed innocent they would be allowed to return to their family, if they were deemed guilty they would take a walk off the cliff down into the waters below. We enjoyed the panoramic views from the top of the headland and were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins, lots of manta rays and turtles. Such a beautiful place to end the day and to have a ‘storytime’ with our guide Dave telling us all about the history of the island.

We were told about the arrival of Eliza and Captain James Fraser. They were sailing along the East Coast when their ship struck the reef and they ended up stranded on K’gari. Unfortunately James Fraser died and Eliza named the island after him. Initially she told the world how kind and caring the Butchulla people were to her, her husband and their crew, but when that story didn’t sell and make her any money, she changed her story. She wrote a book and spoke publicly about how the Butchulla people had burnt her husband at the stake and acted cannibalistically. This eventually led to many Butchulla people being hunted and killed by Europeans. The name Fraser Island has stuck, but in my open does not deserve to be the name of this island. This is why I want to refer to the island as K’gari in my blog post and when I’ve shared our experiences with others.

We made it back to our campsite with plenty of time to enjoy the perfectly clear skies and see the Southern Cross (the first time we’d been able to during our trip) and to watch the moonrise. This night was perfectly clear and the whole experience was magical. The moon appears just like the sun does that sunrise, starting off a glowing orange colour, turning peachier in colour and then white. We had a lovely meal of stirfry, had some more goon and played cards against humanity (aussie version). A great night. Also, we saw 2 dingos on the way back to camp. YAY!!

 

Another early start lead us to Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is the number 1 visited site on K’gari so we wanted to get there before all the other groups. We succeeded! The over road tracks that we drove along there were great fun! We were getting thrown around everywhere!! The lake is a perched lake meaning it contains only rainwater, no groundwater, is not fed by rivers and is not connected to the ocean. The result, beautiful clear waters. The sand here is pure silica meaning it is very small grains, pure white and great for exfoliation. We all sat on the shores rubbing sand all over our bodies, including our hair (great for smoothing hair folicles) and felt like we’d been to a spa. We had a swim, took the traditional hair flick photos and jump shots, before heading off to our last stop.

I’m glad that Central station was our last stop because here we were able to appreciate how the island had been used as a site of logging for many years. We took a beautiful walk around Wanggoolba Creek, which is surrounded by Pine Trees on one side and Rainforest on the other. Wanggoolba was an important female site on the island, where women gave birth. If the baby was a female they were able to stay in the Creek as long as Mum and Baby required, if the baby was male, the ‘midwife’ would immediately run the baby out of the creek as men were not allowed in the area and it was classed as bad luck. The baby would then be passed through smoke to ‘cleanse them’ eventually being reunited with Mum when she was ready to come back up.

From here we started our departure from the island. Driving back along 75 mile beach, back to the barge, getting rid of a couple of people at Rainbow Beach and then drove all the way back to Noosa along the beach past Rainbow beach (apparently 21 different colours of sand), across Noosa river and then back to our hostel.

The whole 3 days was magical and I was so happy we chose to go with Dropbear as they made the whole trip even better. I loved hearing all of the stories about the Butchulla people and their history. It made the island not just a tourist site, but allowed us to see it in the eyes of the aboriginal people whose land it was far before the Europeans descended and claimed it for their own.