Vale Dr John Sinclair

Fraser Island was a very different place then. I won't go back now, preferring to remember it as it was. We once camped north of Happy Valley in about 1978ish and saw only one vehicle in two days.

Yeah it has certainly changed - we went back there for the first time a few years ago. The beach side was loaded with backpackers in 80series hooning about. But we went inland again and spent some nice time at Central Station, Lake MacKenzie etc, so was still a nice trip. Glad we went back.

.
A sad day indeed. John Sinclair "saved" Fraser Island... for a time.

When logging ceased in 1991 John's son Keith praised him and said that he had won.
John said "No, now we need to stop it from being loved to death."

And I am afraid that is what happened. It is steadily being ruined by excessive tourism.... nearly half-a-million visitors per year. The inland tracks are scoured out and defecation has befouled the beach camping zones to the point of health hazard. Free-camping areas should be moved off the foredunes to the back-shore and provided with permanent latrines.

Being at our 'doorstep' we have visited a number of times but Roz refuses to return now. Our earliest visit together was in 1984 but Roz first visited in 1968 with a bushwalking group, the year before the vehicle barge facility commenced. They were transported over by fishing boat and did not see another soul in the 14 days. Can you imagine what it was like then? There would have been logging activity but they did not see it.
There needs to be restriction on visitor numbers as there is on Lord Howe Island. Left uncontrolled and the world-class attraction will not be worth visiting.

Vale John Sinclair indeed. But before long it will be "Vale Fraser Island".

I am like a few of you who have sworn to love Fraser from a distance now.
My dad grew up on Fraser, the son of one of those timber cutters. He was about 7 months older than John Sinclair so I've very much grown up with John's story.
From memory (I no longer have dad to remind me of facts) Dad lived at Central Station from 1938-44. They had a school house (that's now the Ranger Station) but no teacher (yep-the Dept Education strikes again!) so my grandmother had to move with dad to live in Maryborough to allow him to go to school.
Dad never returned until 1979. Apparently it was pretty untamed still.
I visited in 1983 with my parents and camped at Central Station, learning about the untamed life there 4 decades before, and watching the dingoes slink around at a safe distance.
I took my (future) husband there in 1989 as a day trip and began to see tiny differences.
When we returned in 2000 we stayed at Kingfisher Bay for 5 days and were educated by the rangers re staying safe with the dingoes, what to do when you encountered one etc etc.
The changes re the dingoes shocked me and I decided to stay away. I wish they would limit the visitors and slow the decline that you've described.
I will go and dig out John's book one more time and love Fraser from afar.

Thank you for posting this news.

Pick your time of the year to visit the island and crowds aren't necessarily an issue....we were there in July 2 years ago, the island was pretty dead then, I think the no campfires thing keeps many away at that time of year. Granted the place will still be busier then it was in the 70's and early 80's, but 40 - 50 years later the population of our country and ease of access to many places like Fraser has changed dramatically also, so you've gotta expect changes to occur. Some things have changed for the better... there's no camping at Lake Makenzie anymore, which keeps that surrounding lake area cleaner then the mess I witnessed there back in the early 90's.... and some for the worse IMO......you no longer camp at the old Central Station camp area, now it's a dark damp camp area under the trees a kilometre down the track, instead of the nice open green grass camp area it used to be. We loved camping at the old Central Station camp area, would go to Lake Birrabean and our small group be the only ones there, yet Lake Mackenzie was packed in like a refugee camp and the place a mess. There's been heaps of other changes occur there over time, but if you know where to go and when you can still avoid the crowds and especially the drunken backpackers that are getting worse there IMO.