Map - Fraser Island (Fraser Island)

Fraser Island (Fraser Island)
Fraser Island is a World Heritage-listed island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region, Queensland, Australia. The island is approximately 250 km north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is within the Fraser Coast Region local government area. The world heritage listing includes the island, its surrounding waters and parts of the nearby mainland.

Fraser Island, and some satellite islands off the southern west coast and thus in the Great Sandy Strait, previously formed the County of Fraser, which was subdivided into six parishes. Among the islands were Slain Island, Tooth Island, Roundbush Island, Moonboom Island, Gardner Island, Dream Island, Stewart Island, and the Reef Islands, all part of the southernmost parish of Talboor.

The island is about 123 km long and 22 km wide. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992. The island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1840 km2. It is also Queensland's largest island, Australia's sixth largest island and the largest island on the east coast of Australia.

Fraser Island has rainforests, eucalyptus woodland, mangrove forests, wallum and peat swamps, sand dunes and coastal heaths. It is made up of sand that has been accumulating for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock that provides a natural catchment for the sediment carried on a strong offshore current northwards along the coast. Unlike on many sand dunes, plant life is abundant due to the naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi present in the sand, which release nutrients in a form that can be absorbed by the plants. The island is home to a small number of mammal species, as well as a diverse range of birds, reptiles and amphibians, including the occasional saltwater crocodile. The island is protected as part of the Great Sandy National Park, and is a popular tourism destination.

The island has been inhabited for as long as 5,000 years. Explorer James Cook sailed by the island in May 1770. Matthew Flinders landed near the most northern point of the island in 1802. The traditional Butchulla name is K'gari or Gari. For a short period the island was known as Great Sandy Island before becoming Fraser Island, named after James Fraser who died there after become shipwrecked on a nearby reef.

In 1992, Fraser Island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2021, the listing was updated to add the traditional Butchulla Aboriginal name of K'gari as well as the island's official name of Fraser Island. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Fraser Island was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction".

The earliest known name of the island is "K'gari" in the Butchulla (Badjala) language (pronounced "gurri"). It comes from a creation story- according to the Butchulla Dreaming story, the creator being Beiral sent his messenger Yendingie to create land and sea for the people. His helper, a "beautiful white spirit called Princess K’gari", worked hard to create the shores and the land, but afterwards persuaded Yedingie to let her stay on their beautiful creation. In order to stay, she had to be changed into an island, so Yedingie created lakes, vegetation, animals and people to keep her company. She remains today, happy "in, and as a 'paradise'".

After European colonisation, it was called Great Sandy Island and then Fraser Island from 1842, after James Fraser who was shipwrecked nearby and who died on the island in early August 1836, after being speared by an Aboriginal person.

The island has also been referred to as Thoorgine, or Thoorgine Island.

In 2011, the Indigenous names of K'gari and Gari were entered as alternative names for the island in the Queensland Place Names register. 
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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