Fraser island

The island Fraser (in English Fraser Island ) is largest island of Sable of the world with a surface of 1 630 km, a length of 123 kilometers, a width of approximately 25 kilometers and a culminating point reaching 260 meters of altitude. It was registered with the world heritage of UNESCO in 1992.

History

The first name of the island east K' gari which means Paradis in the language of the indigenous .

The British explorer James Cook discovered the island the May 29th 1770. He circumvented it by the east coast which he supposed to be only one headland. He gave names to the shores which he skirted. Indian Head is a rock in the North-East of the island. It gave him this name because the aboriginals gathered there on his arrival. Sandy Wraps form the point of the island. One finds there today a Phare which moved away from many dangerous water ships.

In the night of the May 22nd 1836, the boat Stirling Castle was failed on the Grande barrier of coral a few hundred kilometers the north of the Fraser island. On its board eighteen people were of which the captain James Fraser and his Elizabeth wife. One put a lifeboat at the sea. The captain and his wife travelled by another boat of help, towed by the crew.

According to the accounts of Elizabeth Fraser, the shipwrecked men unloaded near Waddy Point where they are reflected in search of Fresh water. They all would have been captured by the aboriginals which would have kept them in captivity during several weeks. The aboriginals would have also forced them to work for them. The Fraser captain being sick and in the incapacity to carry wood, it would have been transpierced by a lance. He succumbed to his wounds eight or nine days later. But another survivor would have spoken about a natural death. It is also said that the aboriginals would have helped the crew.

Elizabeth Fraser survived and, with the other survivors, was helped by a patrol of help coming from Brisbane. It could turn over in England in 1837 and thanks to its talent of narrator, her account was sold in all the bookstores of London. The sufferings of the Fraser captain and his Elizabeth wife became legendary and one gave their name to the island. Their stories inspired also the novel of the famous writer Australia N Patrick White: a belt of sheets . On the other hand, these stories of course met a great hostility among aboriginals of all Australia. Elizabeth Fraser died later in Melbourne, reversed by a Carrosse.

The inhabitants of the surroundings started to visit the island as of the Années 1870. But the attraction of the tourists for the Fraser island did not develop before the Années 1930 with the organization of the first commercial tourist tours and the construction of the first lodgings. Tourism developed throughout the 20th century. In the Years 1970, the island became destinations famous of the coast of the Queensland. That corresponded to the development of the sand mines. Since 1976, the forests were issued state-owned property. In 1992, the island became part of the National park Great Sandy.

In the Years 1950, the authorities Australia do not have as a project to transfer the population from Nauru, island over-populated and devastated by the exploitation of the Phosphate, initially on the Fraser island then on the island Curtis. This project fails and is definitively rejected in 1964 because it Australian refusal to grant the Indépendance to Nauruans which would have to be satisfied with a autonomy within the the Commonwealth of Australia.

Today, to develop tourism while preserving the charm and the Biodiversité of the island became the challenge of the authorities. On the island, the tourists are sensitized on the brittleness of a single ecosystem. Maintains of this tourist attraction depends above all on their respect on elementary rules such as for example prohibition to nourish the Dingo S. the cohabitation of the men and of the nutcases is indeed prone to sharp controversies. April 30th, 2001, a nine year old child had been killed on the Fraser island by nutcases. It was the first case of attack mortal of human of more than one year by nutcases in Australia. 31 nutcases accustomed to attend very visited zones had been killed then. Some spoke to cut down them all, even if the nutcases are on the list of the species threatened of extinction. The nutcases are thus in deferment on the island. The message given to the tourists is thus the suivant : if they want that the Fraser island remains open to the public, they must become aware that their presence must be the least visible and the least harmful possible.

Geography

The Fraser island is located at broad east coast of the Australia close to Maryborough, with 200 kilometers in the north of Brisbane in the Queensland. The island belongs to the National park Great Sandy.

She can be reached by cross and the cross-country vehicles are the only able ones to move on the sand tracks and the beaches of the island. There is a multitude of grounds of Camping available with sight on the Pacific Ocean and the Baleine S migrating. One also finds on the island of the protected areas.

The tourist shuttles make the turn of the island.

The island concentrates half of the dune lakes of Fresh water perched of the world, 40. These lakes are formed when the vegetation, developing in a depression of the dune, creates a rainwater reserve. There exist other types of lakes on the island. The lakes of the type stopping are formed when a moving dune blocks the passage of a river. The lakes of the type window appear when a depression in the dune lets emerge the ground water.

The most popular lake is certainly the lake McKenzie which is close to the town of Eurong, in the South of the island. It is there that the tourists spend one moment for to swim. The beach is of a white bursting and the water of a perfect limpidity. The lake Wabby also is very snuffed but as it is deeper, the temperature of water is there much more fraiche. Lake Allom, bordered of Melaleuca S and Snap ring S, is surrounded by a Tropical forest and one can see fresh water tortoises even there.

The most important river is Eli Creek , on the east coast of the island. It is another site of very popular bathe and one finds a walk there of wood which is inserted in the tropical forest of the island.

The island counts many other natural sites of a remarkable beauty. Lake Boomanjin, Lake Birrabeen, are other splendid lakes. One finds also other rivers, like Wanggolba Creek, whose water is so clear that one sees the white sand bottom perfectly. Other appreciated places of baignages tourists are these swimming pools , dug in the rock, whose Champagne pools is most known. Coloured Sands, Indian Head, 75-miles beach, or the wreck of the Maheno are as many sites which strew the coast for the greatest pleasure with the tourists.

Fauna and flora

230 species of Bird X and 25 species of Mammifère S cohabit on the island. The Dingo S are common there. It is among the last nutcases of pure race of Australia and this is why, in order to avoid any crossing, the Chien S are not authorized on the island. It is in addition requested from the tourists not to nourish the nutcases in order to preserve their reflexes of wild species and not to accustom them to approach the man. A heavy fine punishes the faulty ones.

The island lodges also a single Flore. The majority of the grounds is covered with grass, bushes, Eucalyptus and of Acacia S. One finds there also palm trees, immense kauri and prehistoric ferns which form the characteristic of the vegetation. The tropical forest of the island is also in the world to be only pushed on sand.

Some of the trees of the Fraser island make excellent structural timber because very rich in minerals and Silice. Some were even used for the construction of the Suez Canal. An extensive exploitation was practiced in the middle of the Années 1900. railways were installed at the time to facilitate transport but were removed later. The station of railroad remains however a tourist destination appraisal. This one is the center of a network of ways of walk which make it possible to appreciate the botanical diversity of the island. One of the rarest species of fern pushes in edge of rain Forêt near old the Gare.

Because of a wind prevailing south-eastern, of large Dune S of sands are formed on the island, moving at one to two meters per annum and recovering all that is on their passage. That returns the sand of the island particularly rich in nutrients. Wind erosion involves the sand of the dunes far with broad, sometimes until the State of News-Wales-of-South.

First inhabitants

For the indigenous , the arrival of European colonists represented a true catastrophe. One finds of it any more none on the island today. The first inhabitants of the Fraser island were the people Butchulla. Archaeological research showed that they had lived there for more than 5.000 years but thorough research could make still go up the occupation of the island at older times. Today, to the fish traps, to the traces of campfires, the prints left on the tree trunks or to waste (mainly of the shells) testify to the presence of these first inhabitants.

On arrival of the European , these people lived especially on the close continent, an small group from 400 to 600 individuals living on the island in a permanent way. In winter, the aboriginals gathered on the Fraser island to celebrate and benefit from the abundance of food that the ocean in this season delivered to them. The population of the island passed then to 2.000 or 3.000 individuals. The aboriginals used Canoë S, manufactured starting from a long part of bark, closed hermetically at each end with beeswax.

The canoes were also used to fish. A fire was arranged inside the canoes and the fish could be cooked immediately after being fished. The aboriginals fished by means of lances out of wooden or had recourse to stone traps which insulated fish with low tide. Thus, from the ocean, the aboriginals drew a varied food: Shell S, Dugong S, tortoises, Eel S, water birds, egg S,…

The aboriginals also drove out on the island. Not knowing metal, they cut their knives in the stone. They had also hâches to drive out the few animals present on the island, in particular of the Opossum S. These axes were made of a rock firmly attached to a handle using wax of local bees stingless . These bees held a dominating place in the culture of the Butchulla people. Not only for wax but also for the Honey which was the primary source of sugar.

The aboriginals nourished also wild potatos and other roots which the women collected. The Fatty Tree or Xanthorrhoea, represented the base of the food of Butchulla. They used the inferior part of the sheets which are connected with that of the cabbages. The sheets were eaten raw or cooked and the roasted fruit. The aboriginals knew the local flora perfectly. The fruits of the Pandanuses, nonedible, were placed in a bag which the aboriginals soaked in the rivers in order to remove them from toxic substances. They used of them also the sheets to make baskets. In the forest, they found also bays, drew soft nectar from the Banskia. The women manufactured flour by hammering the roots of the ferns of Bungwall.

The Cannibalisme was also practiced but no man was killed deliberately to be eaten. It acted men died in the combat or the dead children in low age. The bones of deaths were dried and placed in a bag with the hollow of a tree called funerary tree .

The aboriginals lived in shelters whose roof was formed long bands of bark from approximately two to three meters. In winter, skins of opossums and a fire lit at the entry heated the refuge.

A man could not marry with a woman of the same clan and their children belonged to the clan of the mother.

Indigenous decline of the population amorça brutally in the Years 1860 with the arrival of loggers and crews of the merchant navy which brought with them of the Maladie S, of the alcohol and of the Opium. In 1904, the island counted nothing any more but 150 inhabitants who were off-set in reserves on the continent.

External bond

Seen satellite of the sand dunes of the island of Fraser on WikiMapia

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