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| Fraser Island - Australia |
Short Report
Fraser Island is located near the east coast of Australia. On 122 km long, it is the largest sand island in the world. Majestic remains of high rainforest grow on sand and half of the elevated dune lakes are located inland from the beach. The combination of sand-dunes, tropical forests and lakes makes it a special place.
Wonderful Universal Importance
Brief synthesis
Fraser Island, also known by its Aboriginal name of K'gari, is located along the east coast of Australia. The property occupies 181,851 hectares and includes all the Fraser Island and a number of small islands off the coast the island of the west coast. It is the world's largest sand island and offers an excellent example of current biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes. The development of the rainforest vegetation on the coast dune systems on the scale found on Fraser Island is unique, plus the island has the world's largest unconfined aquifer on a sand island. The property is equipped with an exceptional natural beauty with more than 250 kilometers of clear sandy beaches with long, uninterrupted sweeps of ocean beach, striking colored sand cliffs and spectacular blowouts. Inland from the beach are majestic remains of high rainforest grow on sandy dunes and half of the population in the elevated dune lakes.
Wide Report
Fraser Island is located near the east coast of Australia. Stretching over 120 km along the southern coast of Queensland Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. It is a place of exceptional beauty, with long uninterrupted white sandy beaches flanked by striking colored sand cliffs, majestic high rainforests and many freshwater lakes of crystal clear water. The massive sand deposits which the island are a continuous record of climate and sea level changes in the last 700,000 years. Fraser Island has complex dune systems which are still in development, and an array of dune lakes that is exceptional in its number, diversity and age.
The highest dune in the island of up to 260 m above sea level. 40 Dune altitude lakes can be found on the island. These lakes are formed when organic material such as leaves, bark and dead plants, progressively building and harden in depressions formed by the wind. The island also has a number of barrage lakes, formed when moving dunes block a watercourse, and 'window' lakes, formed as a depression exposed part of the regional groundwater.
A surprising variety of vegetation grow on the island, ranging from coastal heaths to subtropical rainforests. This is the only place in the world where high rainforests, up to 50 m high, are still on sand dunes at heights of more than 200 m. Birds are the most comprehensive form of animal life on the island with more than 230 species are recorded. This is a very important site for migratory wading birds which make use of the space as a resting place during their long flights between southern Australia and their breeding grounds in Siberia. A kind of particular interest is the endangered earth parrot, which is found in the wallum heaths.
Some mammalian species are present on the island. The most common are bats, in particular flying foxes. The dingo population on the island is considered to be the most pure strain of dingoes remaining in eastern Australia. The lakes on Fraser Island are poor habitats for fish and other aquatic species because of the purity, acidity and low levels of nutrients in the water. Some frog species are adapted to survive in these difficult circumstances. Adequate called 'acid frogs', they tolerate the acid condition characteristic of the Fraser Island lakes and marshes.
The earliest date for the appeal of Fraser Island is currently 1,500-2,000 years. Visible remains of Aboriginal settlement include centers, canoe and gunyah trees, and a few other marks such as scars where bees nests are removed. The Badtjala and Kabi Kabi aboriginal groups have cultural and other traditional ties with the region. European contacts, initiated by Matthew Flinders Street in 1802, was sporadic and limited to explorers, escaped prisoners and survivors shipwreck.
Historical Data
In 1860 Fraser Island was set veterinary surveillance zones as an Aboriginal reserve. The reserve was largely withdrawn after two years after the discovery of valuable stands of timber. The remaining Aboriginal reserve was revoked in 1906 after the aboriginal people were removed from Fraser Island. In 1908 the central part of Fraser Island was declared a forest reserve and by 1925 most of the island was reserved as forest. Fraser Island (Great Sandy National Park) (74,900ha), is set veterinary surveillance zones in 1971.
The rest of Fraser Island consists mostly of vacant Crown land of 78,404ha in the hands of the government, which is proposed as a National Park extension depending on resolution of Aboriginal interests. Parts of this are effectively managed for the conservation, and prior to the commission of inquiry had been proposed for 'conservation areas' (DASET, 1991; A. Turner, pers.comm., 1992). The Fraser Island (Great Sandy Region) was accepted as a natural World Heritage Site in 1992, on the basis of criteria (ii) and (iii). Legislation is proposed for the whole of the area designated as regional park (DASET, 1991).
Source:whc/unesco
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