Easy Things To Do without going inland.
The beach straight down in front of the house is lovely. While there are no patrolled beaches on Fraser, supervised playing in the shallows is safe. There are also some freshwater streams and rock pools in front of Happy Valley which are great to keep children entertained.
ELI CREEK
About 7km north of the Valley is Eli Creek. This is the biggest freshwater creek on the island. It is spring fed, and the water pours out at 1 million gallons an hour. The fast-flowing creek is a must to float down.
The volume of water also makes it a hazard to cars if you stop in the middle of the creek. The sand will be washed away from your tyres and make it very difficult to get out. So safely drive right through – DO NOT stop your car in the creek.
MAHENO
The Maheno lies beached on the Island, another 3km further north of Eli Creek.
The Maheno, while now a pile of rusted metal, has had a fascinating history. It was originally an old passenger ship that travelled between Australian and NZ. During WWI, it was converted to a hospital ship, and among its outstanding achievements, it did several retrieval missions to Gallipoli.
It had been decommissioned and was being towed to Japan for scrap metal in 1935 when it hit a cyclone, broke the tow line, and ended up beached on Fraser Island. It remained proud on the beach for many years, until it was used for bombing practice in WW11 when its back was broken. The Fraser Island Retreat at Happy Valley also has a good display of Maheno information and memorabilia.
For a ship that has spent the last 85 years being weathered by the ocean, it has lasted well.
CATHEDRAL COLOURED SANDS
Head further north along 75 Mile Beach and you will notice that many of the sand dunes are coloured orange and red.
The most impressive of these is the Cathedrals, so called because the formation looks like the spires of a cathedral.
INDIAN HEAD, MIDDLE ROCKS and WADDY POINT
About a 30 minute drive north of the Maheno (about 45 minutes from Dig’s in the Valley), will take you to the end of 75 Mile Beach and Indian Head.
This is the first of three basalt rock outcrops, behind which the Island was formed. Indian Head, Middle Rocks and Waddy point.
To go north from Indian Head, you need to drive on a sand track behind the headland (only about 400m long). This sand can be very soft, so make sure your tyre pressure is down.
It is worth driving to the other side of the headland, as there is often a lagoon on the northern side. It is also well protected when the southerly winds are blowing.
CHAMPAGNE POOLS
The champagne pools are formed by natural rock pools at Middle Rocks. From the car park there is a board walk of about 400m to the rock pools. At higher tides, the waves crash over into this pool, so it feels like you are swimming in champagne bubbles.
LAKE WABBY
The hike access trail is located 4.3km North of Eurong near One Tree Rocks camping area, or about 20 mins south of Happy Valley. It is a popular tourist spot so there are likely to be buses or tag-a-long vehicles parked near the dunes, making it easy to identify the entrance. Lake Wabby is 2.4km from the carpark and will take 40 minutes to walk in.
Lake Wabby is relatively close to the ocean side of Fraser Island and unlike the other lakes, it supports several varieties of fish. It is known as both a window lake and a barrage lake. Window lakes form when the ground level falls below the water table. Barrage lakes form when a sand blow blocks the waters of a natural spring. This phenomenon is easy to see at Lake Wabby.
On one side its deep green waters are bordered by a giant sand dune that is slowly moving into the lake. In a century or so, the sand dune’s inexorable march westward across Fraser Island will see it completely swallow the lake.
FISHING
Fishing attracts many visitors to Fraser Island. The fishing is regularly good and many visitors to the island are keen to throw a line in. Tailor are chased by keen fishing enthusiasts from August to September. Whiting, trevally, bream, flathead and mackerel are all caught in large numbers at various times of the year.
On the east coast, all tailor found north of Sydney are part of the stock that spawns at Fraser Island, Australia’s only confirmed tailor spawning ground. Each autumn and winter large schools of tailor migrate north along the New South Wales coast into Queensland waters where they congregate near Indian Head and Waddy Point on Fraser Island. The spawning migration begins once water temperatures start to drop in early autumn and gathers pace into winter, with the peak of the spawning period around September, a time when the spawning tailor are protected by a fishing closure in that area.