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Fraser Island - Inland - Sand Tracks
Fraser Island inland sand tracks
Perhaps the most stunning part of Fraser Island is to be found inland. Here huge patches of subtropical rainforest cover the ancient dunes. The most crystal clear creeks anyone has ever seen meander underneath a dense canopy of ferns and forest. (the water is so clear, sometimes you look down to see the bottom and you can't help but wonder if there really is water on top of it!). This is where Fraser Island stops being an island but takes you away to a pristine rainforest in a far away place somewhere on the equator. Central Station is the main hub for seeing this amazing feature of Fraser Island. In the old days when Fraser Island was logged, Central Station, then called Forest Station was a busy settlement. Now, besides being a place of historic interest of its own, it is the access place to Wanggoolba Creek and Pile Valley. Which is home to some of the biggest trees on Fraser Island. Majestic Satinay trees of up to 40 meters high are making it obvious why this was a sought after timber.

Another, way more remote area of stunning deep inside Fraser Island is the Valley of the Giants.
No regular tour operator goes there, and, as the name suggest giant trees are covering this area. The biggest trees on Fraser Island are here and one of them has a diameter of more then 4 meters. Growing on pure sand it is an unbelievable sight. As many other area's this one was also logged and the remains of this can still be seen on some ringbarked trees.

Further north, at Yidney Scrub, another patch of rainforest gives cause to marvel at the giant trees. 
Also to be found inland, is what is been called the most beautiful lake of all the lakes on Fraser Island, Lake McKenzie. This lake is one of the perched lakes on Fraser Island and features stunning clear blue water, dazzling white beaches and is fringed by green forest. Early in the morning, before the onslaught of tour buses, this comes closer to paradise then one would think possible. For a simular but more quiet experience, Basin Lake is a much smaller but equally beautiful lake, but less visited.

Some of the sand tracks inland climb the dunes very gradually, thanks to the fact that these tracks were originally been created for the railway tracks that covered part of Fraser Island during the logging year in the first part of the 20th century. When later powerful trucks replaced the trains these track were removed. (at the moment there are plans to restore parts of it to create a light rail system to replace the many tour coaches and 4WD's that cause damage to Fraser Island).

South of Lake McKenzie is an area covered with the biggest lakes on Fraser Island. Lake Birrabeen is simular to Lake McKenzie, but less visited. Then there is Lake Boomanjin, which is the largest perched lake in the world and covers nearly 200 hectares.

Just of the eastern coast of Fraser Island, a couple of hundred meters behind the foredunes, you'll find the gigantic sandblows, some more than 2 kilometers long. The slowly moving sand monsters steadily move further inland, covering the vegetation as the go and uncovering what the covered centuries before at their tail. The sandblows on Fraser Island are thought to be caused by aboriginal people living just behind the foredunes. Their presence damaging the fragile vegetation, laying bare the sand which in return was being swept into vast blows over the centuries.
 
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