2 Best Sights in K'gari (Fraser Island), Queensland

Background Illustration for Sights

Highlights of a drive along the east coast, which is known as Seventy-Five Mile Beach for its sheer distance, include Eli Creek, a great freshwater swimming hole. North of this popular spot lies the rusting hulk of the Maheno, half buried in the sand, a roost for seagulls and a prime hunting ground for anglers when the tailor are running. Once a luxury passenger steamship that operated between Australia and New Zealand (and served as a hospital ship during World War I), it was wrecked during a cyclone in 1935 as it was being towed to Japan to be sold for scrap metal. North of the wreck are the Pinnacles—dramatic, deep-red cliff formations. About 20 km (12 miles) south of Eli Creek, and surrounded by massive sand-blow (or dune), is Lake Wabby, the deepest of the island's lakes.

Note that swimming in the ocean off the island is not recommended because of the rough conditions and sharks that hunt close to shore. Stick to the inland lakes.

K'gari (Fraser Island), Sandy Cape Conservation Park

This park covers the top third of K'gari. Beaches around Indian Head are known for their shell middens—shell heaps that were left behind after Buchamba feasting. The head's name is another kind of relic: Captain James Cook saw some Buchamba people standing on the headland as he sailed past, and he therefore named the area after inhabitants he believed to be "Indians." Farther north, past Waddy Point, is one of K'gari's most magnificent variations on sand: wind and time have created enormous dunes. Nearby at Orchid Beach are a series of bubbling craters known as the Champagne Pools.

Wanggoolba Creek

A boardwalk heads south from Central Station to Wanggoolba Creek, a favorite spot for photographers. The little stream snakes through a green palm forest, trickling over a bed of white sand between clumps of rare angiopteris fern. The 1 km (½-mile) circuit takes 30 minutes to an hour.

Fraser Island, QLD, Australia

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