Fraser Australia. Island Fraser and Sand Dunes

When transferring from the language of local residents, Fraser is translated as Kgari-Paradise. And indeed, in the world there are not so many places with sandy beaches, transparent water with floral meadows and a blue sky above your head. What is not paradise?

Most recently, the island of Fraser recognized the largest sandy place in the world. The coastline extends to a distance of 110 kilometers. His sand dunes became the most important highlight of the island. Some of them reach a height of up to 250 meters. In combination with emerald forests, they are very similar to the snow.

The name of the island gave the family of Europeans, victims of a wreck at his shores. It is impossible not to say that at that time the relationship between the population of the island and civilized Europeans were hostile. And by itself, few people were pleased with such an increase. For a long time, Fraisers even were captured by local residents.

In 1992, the island brought to the World Heritage List and created the reserve on its territory. But regardless of such important events in the life of the Fraser, the island at all times has been popular with tourists.

Surprise causes the fact that, despite the ocean surrounding from all sides, the island is replete with fresh reservoirs. Scientists called them with "hanging", due to the fact that they seem to be hanging between salted ocean water. In general, there were 100 such reservoirs on the island. Mackenzie lake became the most famous. All guilt is his extraordinary beauty and fresh water. It feeds on the lake only moisture from precipitation, and the water in it is practically distilled, which affects its animal composition. It is completely devoid of organisms, even microbes and bacteria. But the most important thing is surrounded by his snow-white sandy beach.

The largest freshwater lake is called Boemingn, and it stretches for 200 hectares. Despite the tropical hot climate, the water here is always pleasant-cool. This lake and became famous among tourists. A special highlight is given numerous eucalyptus growing on the coast. Also nearby is a small rain forest.

In the history of the island, the number of the population has ever changed. Currently, a little more than 400 people live on Fraser, of which only 11 are descendants of the Aborigines who are captured by the Frazer family. After that crawl, there were a while and the island was poured to the island to establish settlements here. Naturally, local residents have opposed to this, and war began. Europeans were much larger, therefore the aborigines were almost completely exterminated. Nowadays, the island is a tourist destination with numerous parks, hotels, entertainment programs. You can get here on the plane, but the best option will be crushed on the barge with your car.

Fraser island is very different from the continent of Australia primarily by its comfortable warm climate. That is why it is such a rich Flora and Fauna. Due to the widest variety of vegetation, the island is rich in animals. In fresh reservoirs, you can meet the turtles, in the forest - bats, as well as endemics - kangaroo, opossums, etc. To get closer to animals, tourists are invited to make a tour of the canoe. Well, how can you do without birds. On the island is just a paradise for ornithologists. More than 350 species live here, including rare instances.

Since Fraser island is considered a completely tourist center, in addition to excursions and leisure on the beach, there is a wide selection of sports and extreme entertainment: surfing, boding riding and many others. Some arrive here even just ride around the territory of the island on the yacht and look at the marine inhabitants.

Well, by itself, if there is no desire to think over the route yourself, it is possible to take advantage of different excursion tours. At each of them, a visit to the happy valley, where the remains of the liner thrown ashore during the First World War are located.

Since tourists are a lot, the population is very worried about the ecological situation on the island. Therefore, in our time there is an active propaganda tourism in the open-air in tents or camping. It is assumed that in this way it will be possible to maintain the well-being of the environment.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island (Eng. Fraser Island or Great Sandy Island) itself is one of Australia's attractions. This is a major island, fully consisting of sand, not having analogues in the world. In 1992, he was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The island area is 1840 kilometers of square, it refers to the state of Queensland. Island Fraser stretched along the coast of the sea coast. Scientists argue that the island formed huge sand dunes that have developed more than four hundred years ago.

Local Aborigines had the name of the island initially sounded as Kagry, which means "paradise". He was renamed in the last century, today's name is consonant with the name of Captain Fraser, who crashed on his ship near the island.

Fraser photo

For several years, Captain Fraser and his wife lived in the territory of the island with the rest of the surviving team members. In 1840, European-colonizers came to the island and formed a new settlement. A war began between the Aboriginal and Europeans, during which almost all the local population was exterminated. Today, only 400 people live on the island, eleven of them are the surviving descendants of the Aborigines.

The whole nature of the island Fraser is unusual and attractive. For example, here you can see high sand dunes, towering almost 150 meters. One of the main natural attractions of the island is its sandy lakes, they are more than forty. Basically, these are small lakes from which the streams flowing into the coral sea flow.

There are some large lakes, for example, Lake Boeemingen. By area, this lake takes more than 200 hectares. The island also flows a small river, bearing the name of Eli Creek. Tourists visiting the island always wonder why lakes and rivers do not absorb in the sand? The fact is that at the bottom of these lakes there is a dense "litter" from the peat, which makes them remain on the surface. This is a truly unique phenomenon.

Tourists attract Fraser to Island, first of all, his magnificent sandy beaches. They are surrounded by exotic vegetation, which can also be considered a local attraction.

Next to the beach has small palm trees and eucalyptus, and if you go deep into the island, you can find an intact rainforest with thickets of Lian and Eucalyptus. The eucalyptte recordsman grows in this forest, its height is 70 meters. This eucalyptus gave reason to declare the forest on the island of the security zone. In this reserve, you can observe more than eighth types of tropical plants, as well as animals inhabiting these places.

Wild dogs dingo live on the island, however, the number of them decreases year after year. It happens from the fact that they are crossing up with homemade dogs, and the purity of the species disappears. In this regard, on the island of local residents banned dogs.

As for other representatives of the animal world, here you can meet such exotic animals, like opossums, echidnes, krylovnov, or volatile foxes. The horses were left on the territory of the island, which Europeans were once brought here, however, they are all the wicking.

Of the reptiles on the territory of the island, graze crocodiles are found, many different lizards and snakes. One of the rare animals here is the Summer Beast Wallaby. This is a kind of kangaroo, which is characterized by smaller sizes.

In the coastal waters of the island, tiger sharks, humpback whales, dugoni, dolphins and many rare types of jellyfish and fish are found. Of the rare species of birds, it is worth noting an earthen parrot, honeycomb, winterwinds, gulls, kakada.

Fraser. (Eng. Fraser Island or Great Sandy Island) - Sand island at the east coast of Australia.

History opening

In 1770, the English traveler James Cook opened the eastern coast of Australia. Approximately 150 kilometers north of the modern city of Brisbane, he passed a large island with a sandy coast, which today is visited by 300,000 tourists a year. But then Cook did not pay any attention to him. He and his companions counted that it was not an island, but the peninsula. Finally, a few years later, a researcher stepped on this sandy bank Matthew Flinders. He recorded: "Nothing [can not be] more fruitless than this peninsula".

If Cook and Flinders were drunk to overcome several kilometers of golden beaches and dunes, their opinion about the island would be completely changed. They would discovery the world of virgin wedgeotropic forests and transparent lakes, sandy cliffs of a wide variety of shades and hundreds of animal species. In 1992, this world's largest sandy island, known as Fraser, was brought to the World Heritage List.

Island geography

Fraser island extended 120 kilometers long, its width is 25 kilometers, and the area is 160,000 hectares. Sandy hills rise by almost 240 methows above sea level, which makes it the highest in the world is an island of sand. As suggests, huge masses of sand, of which the island was formed, were washed out of a large waterproof ridge - a mountain system that stretched along the entire east coast of Australia. For a long time, strong shoes washed the particles of the rocks from these mountains and carried them in the river, and then to the sea. Ocean flows turned stones in the sand and gradually attributed it to the north. The sands accumulated on the stony areas of the seabed, and over time, the island of Fraser appeared in the sea. Since then, the Pacific Ocean continues to wash the new sand ashore. Winds carry it deep into the island, forming dunes. Dunes, in turn, "crawl" further, on the meter per year, falling asleep everything in its path.

Freshwater lakes island

It is surprising that 40 freshwater lakes are located on the island in the depressions of the sand dunes. Some of these water clusters are called "suspended lakes", because they are in large deepening at the top of high dunes.

Why does water seep through the sand? It is detained organic sediments, or peat - the remnants of overloading leaves, bark and branches. On the island there is also a "lake window", which are formed when the wpadina in the sand turns out to be lower than the level of groundwater. Seeking through the loose rocks, water, from the filtered sand, accumulates in the transparent lakes. Lakes on the island are replenished due to rain rainfall, which drops to 1,500 millimeters per year. Water, emerging from the lake or leaking through the sand, forms streams that rushed into the sea. One of these rivers bears in the Pacific Ocean more than 5 million liters of water per hour.

The woods

Thanks to the abundance of moisture on the island Fraser a lot of greenery. Wet tropical forests usually do not grow on fruitless sand. But the island of Fraser is one of the few places on the ground, where magnificent forests rummaged among the sand. Indeed, once the forest was so thick that for 100 years there could be loggeries. Eucalyptus, Agathius and Salah tree were a special pride of the forester.

In 1929, one of them said: "There is a live wall of huge trees up to 45 meters in height. The trunks of these forest giants reach 2-3 MET in thickness ". Some trees, such as Sinkarpius, were cut down on the construction of a Suez Canal. But in our days of logging on the island Fraser stopped.

Tragic History of the Paradise Island Fraser

The island received its name in connection with the tragedy there. In 1836, captain James Fraser. And his wife Eliza failed shipwreck at Brig "Sterling Castle" And landed on the island. Obviously, James was killed by the aborigines, but Eliz was allocated to escape. In memory of this event, the island has renamed from Big Sandy To Fraser Island.

Heavy fate also suffered also indigenous inhabitants of the island. Previously, more than 2,000 Aborigines lived here. These were strong, strong people. They called their island Kiekers, or Paradise. As the legend is about the building of this island, he was the most red place on Earth. Unfortunately, many islanders died from diseases delivered by Europeans. In addition, at the beginning of the 20th century, most of the remaining aborigines were sent to the mainland reservation.

Fauna Islands

Today the island is a wildlife reserve. His most famous inhabitant is Dingo, a wild Australian dog. Dingo from the island Fraser is considered the most purebred in the east of Australia, as they do not cross with homemade dogs living on the mainland. Dingo looks like domestic dogs, but they are not manual at all, and therefore they need to be careful with them.

On the island you can see more than 300 species of birds. Braminy crucifies and whites of Orlans are filled over the beaches, and rainbow-blue forest rimsflowers are swirling over lakes. Frequent guests have such migratory birds as Mongolian Asians, who remove chicks in Siberia, and they fly to the south to winter. They stop on the island of Fraser, before you continue your journey. Over 30,000 serogol volatile foxes are so called the volatile mice from the crow - fly to the island during the flowering of eucalyptus to enjoy the flower nectar.

Water around the island is also replete with life. Here you can meet humpback whales, sailing from the Antarctician student to a large barrier reef for mating and the birth of a young. Before you go on the way back, whales arrange an amazing spectacle: they jump out of the water and falling with noise, raising splashes pillars, which are visible for a few kilos meters, as if they give the farewell salute to the beautiful island.

Fraser is a sandy island at the East Coast of Australia, separated from the mainland by extensive swampy territories. The aborigines who inhabited this island before the arrival of Europeans called him KGARI, which means "paradise". And they can be understood - the place is really paradise: snow-white sands, mangrove thickets, lakes and exotic flora and fauna.

The modern name is the island received by the last name Captain Fraser, who failed to crash from these shores and, together with his wife, was forced to settle there.

Fraser is the world's largest sandy island. It is a UNESCO World Heritage List as a unique natural object.

How to get

The international airport closest to Fraser island is located in Brisbane. There are no direct flights from Russia, flight to both ends with one transplant costs from 1017 USD per person. Next, from Brisbane - in the small town of Harvey Bay on the coast. There are many ways: plane, several trains, buses or rented cars.

The fastest way is the plane. The road will take just over 2 hours, ticket price - from 110 USD per person in one direction. Approximately the same you spend a ticket for a train, which goes 4.5 hours. A slower train (6.5 hours in one direction) will be twice as cheaper. The most fiscal option is a bus, one end ticket costs from 30 USD per person.

In Harvi Bay, there are pier, from which barges are sent several times a day (approximately from 6:00 to 18:45). The ticket costs about 60 USD per person, you can buy them on the pier.

Only one point on the barge is not enough to get to the island of Fraser. A special resolution is also necessary - "PermT". It is drawn up by default, if you rent a jeep at the Harvey Bay resort, or if there is armor in any of the hotels on the island.

Search flights to Freser Island

Hotels

There are several hotels and guest houses on the island for tourists. The average cost of the night in Gusotinice is about 100 USD per day per room for two. Hotels are usually located in a picturesque location, there is a swimming pool, garden, gazebos and other amenities. Guest houses are slightly cheaper: from 70 USD per day for the room for two, the location is also beautiful, but the pool and territory with the garden may not be.

Beaches of Islands Fraser.

The coast of the Fraser is more than 100 km of sandy beaches. Most of them are wild, but even there are practically no tourist infrastructure on popular beaches. It is not recommended to swim in completely deserted places, since the deserted they are not by chance: there may be sand dunes, dangerous trends, jellyfish, Dingo dogs and another not very pleasant neighborhood. The most popular beaches among tourists are Orchidoy, the head of the Indian (it is so called for the bizarrely rugged coastline), the cathedral, the beach with quartz sand and the beaches of a happy valley.

It is much safer to relax on the shores of freshwater lakes. They are on the island more than 40, the most famous of them is the bright blue lake McKenzie. Nobody lives in it - water in Lake distilled. There are always a lot of people here (a lot on local standards - on any European beach resort the beaches are not a crowded example), and if you want to enjoy the absolute silence, it is worth come to 16:00, when buses with tourists are already sent back.

Entertainment and excursions

Fraser is moving primarily for rest on snow-white beaches and observation of wildlife. In the West - Mangrove thickets and swamps, in the east - sand, and in the north - unreserved equatorial forests (there is also a Great Sandy National Park National Park).

Not only vegetation is different, but also an animal world. Sea turtles live in local freshwater lakes, and the wild dog dingo dog lives in large quantities. Wild it is not in the full sense of the word: once it was already domesticated, but after that she was wild again. Dingo can be found almost anywhere on the island, they live peacefully with their flocks and are never the first to attack people. But it is better not to disturb them: they will certainly defend their territory. In local forests there are about 350 species of birds, many of which are under protection, for example, an earthen parrot and a challenium owl.

Right and nightly excursions can be ordered directly at the hotel to get acquainted with the nature of the island. Another option is to go on a sea walk and see close to Shark, Dolphins, humpback whales and other marine inhabitants. At night, you can see volatile mice, foxes and many multi-colored frogs.

From August to October on the island of Fraser you can see the migration of humpback whales.

There are no cultural and historical attractions on the island, but tourists usually impressive huge pyramids of household waste, which are mainly from fishing gear and boat fragments. In a happy valley, you can still see the fragments of the ship "Mahino", sunken off the island from the coast during the First World War, and visit the abandoned Pier McKenzi, where the storm detachment "Zed" was based during the Second World War. A sacred place has been preserved on the lunar cape where women tribal Aboriginal gave birth to children.

Most of the entertainment offered on the island are active. You can ride on the jeeps along the sandy cathedral rocks or fly over them on the mini-plane, to melt along the River Alh-Creek and go into an open ocean, ride a yacht and go fishing. The worms are likely to have to dig yourself, but it is very easy: after the bet they lie directly on the shore.

Travel on the island Fraser

The largest sandy island around the world is the Australian Fraser. It stretches along the east coast of the country, and covers an area of \u200b\u200babout 1840 square kilometers. Translated from the language of Aboriginal "Fraser" means "paradise" and in proof of this is the island, over 40 freshwater lakes, dunes and other natural monuments will meet, many of which are under the protection of UNESCO.

The western part of the Fraser island in Australia is engaged in mangrove forests and swamps. The east is a huge sandy beach, the length of which is about 100 km. The distinctive sign of the northern coast of the Fraser became untouched equatorial forests.

It is not surprising that in such various natural conditions a variety of animals live. Shallow lakes inhabit the turtles, and the land plots chose a wild dog Dingo. Going for a walk on a canoeing, you can see the electric rods, and in the surrounding forests about 350 species of birds, some of which are under guard (earthen parrot, oslonogaya owl and others). Sea journey along the shores of the island Fraser will allow you to look at Digo, Turtles, Dolphins, sharks, humpback whales. If you decide to study the territory of the island at night, you can watch the life of bats and foxes, sugar posses, frogs. In addition, on Fraser there are Kangaroo, Wallaby, Echidnas.

Travelers who were on the island of Fraser, will hardly be bored, because it is literally littered with interesting and commemorative places. The study of the island is best to start with observation of herbs and flowers, which will help track the evolutionary path of plants in length in 700 years. The sand dunes of the Fraser will tell about the centuries-old climatic features of the region, the giant hills of household waste, fishing nets and tackles, trees on trees, temporary dwellings indicate their stay in these places.

The best place that tells about the life of the first settlers is arched rocks, here tourists will see the platform on which men gathered and played the ancient tool Diderid to attract good luck on the upcoming hunt. In the depths of the colored cliffs, the lunar patch is hidden - a sacred place in which new members of the tribe appeared on the light. And the lovers of history expects a happy valley that keeps the fragments of the ship "Mahino", sunken off the island during the First World War. No less interesting to walk to the abandoned Pier "McCenzi", which served as a supporting point of the storming squad "Zed" during the Second World War.

After long walks and interesting discoveries, it is worth a little pamper yourself. An unforgettable stay expects an environmentally friendly pension, in which you can visit a relaxing massage session, try cool cocktails and delicious and useful food. In addition to him, on the territory of the island, Fraser works quite a few hotels, individual guest houses, which are located in the picturesque places, but obstruct unity with nature can only beware, who decided to spend their vacation in a tent camp. Kingfisher Bay Resort, Cathedrals on Fraser and Orchid House are considered the best hotels on the island.

You can try the real dishes in Seabelle Restaurant Kingfisher Bay Resort, Fraser Island Retreat and Maheno Restaurant.

To visit this wonderful corner of the planet, tourists will have to overcome a difficult path. First you need to get to the international airport and buy a ticket to Hervi Bay - Town. Once in the latter, it is enough to find a marine marina with which ferries are sent to the island of Fraser. Flights are carried out daily, with a small time interval.