The aboriginals called Fraser Island by the name of K’gari, a beautiful spirit. The Europeans called the island Great Sandy Island. However in 1836, the Stirling Castle stranded North of Fraser Island and the crew and passengers took the lifeboats to try to get back to Brisbane. The wife of Captain James Fraser, Eliza Fraser, was among them. One part of the group continued to Brisbane to gather a search and rescue party for the other group that stayed on Fraser Island, captured or rescued by the aboriginals (which of the two remains unclear till the present day).

The story of hardship that Eliza Fraser told after her rescue, led to the new name of Fraser Island.