fraser island

Bub, havent been up there lately, but this time of year, expect it to be hot, expect storms/rain and expect march flies. most places you wont need to lower your tyre pressure too much except for places like Indian head etc. But use your own judgement depending on the conditions which can change all the time.

Beach conditions change on a dialy basis, while there has been some good rain, a hot dry windy day can quickly undo any track firming rain.

Drive to the conditions!

Where were you planning to camp?

No march flies on the beach .
Tyres between 23psi & 28psi.
Drove around hook point 3 hours after high tide and just made it around beach debris (trees) . That was with a 1.88 mtr tide . Pretty big hey .
Barge $70 return .

We left Fraser two weeks ago, after camping on the beach about two km south of Eli Creek. There are plenty of March Flies, so take a fly swatter with you! Seriously, they take off pretty quick if you try to slap them with a hand, but they don't see the fly swatter coming (buy a green one)!! My record for the trip was 16 before breakfast.

The weather was generally overcast, showers off and on, particularly at night. Warm days, good weather for getting burnt. Almost non-stop NE sea breeze on the beach keeps you cool, and also keeps the mozzies and sandflies away. Do not camp anywhere except the beach on the eastern side if these worry you. Also, if staying at Rainbow Beach stay at the park in town, not the one a few km west - same reason.

Most difficult sand section is getting onto the barge at Inskip Point and Indian Head. We have a 100series T/D and were towing a Jayco Hawk which would have weighed in at about 1200kg loaded. We let the tyres down to 20psi, including the van, and had no problems. When not towing I had the tyres at 30psi for the rest of the island except Indian Head - back to 20 psi just to be sure but probably didn't need to.

Fuel on the island was $1.75 at Happy Valley, a few c more at Orchid Beach, so take all you can carry. Don't underestimate how much you will use and leave room in your tank(s), just fill everything up. Gympie had diesel at $1.18 at the Caltex and Shell. ULP about the same I think.

I would recomend the spot we used for camping - close to Eli for plenty of fresh water, but get it early before the crowds start swimming in it! Spend at least half a day at Eli just to watch the backpackers - and if you have an Engel take spare beers and flog them for $5 a piece - I had quite a few takers!!

Enjoy>>>>

An interesting thing one of the rangers told us was that the water table is only 6ft below the surface in many places and if you camp behind the dunes you can push in a spear to tap into the bore water. That's how water was suppled at Dundabara and it was superb.

Has anyone tried this?

Hi Adrian, I haven't personally tried that, but I have friends who have and say that it works. You get the stuff to do this with from camping places (I think that's where they got it) and they said it cost about $250 - $400.