Fraser island

I reckon a standard Jayco Finch would struggle on the Island at anytime unless it was being towed (dragged) by a D9 Caterpillar!

I dunno Brizmatt, it's bucketing down in the area at the moment, it might pay you to ring the rangers or ferries to see if it's worth your while. We are supposedly in for a few more days of similar weather.Check out mirror/bom.
Ozesheila.

Hi Matt,
We spent the period from 24th December through to 3rd January on Fraser Island and had a great time. It reminded me of being there 20 years ago off season where you would only see a few wheel tracks on the beach and it could be hours sometimes between seeing another vehicle. About the only thing the weather prevented us from doing was going up to Sandy Cape lighthouse but I still had fun snatching a couple of newcomers through Ngkala Rocks bypass track.

As you intend on staying at Dilli Village then you will be able to stay on the inland track all the way from the Inskip Barge to your camp so beach conditions for towing will not affect you. Inland track conditions get easier in the wet but some of the main tracks just get a bit bumpy and might have a waterhole or 2 but won't cause you any problems. Just take it slow.

We had a drama with the ABS on my brothers new Ford Ranger causing it to get towed off the island. This meant that we had to condense the passengers and belongings from 3 vehicles down to 2 for the trip home. As a result both my Landcruiser and trailer were loaded to the hilt for the low tide run down the beach from Orchid Beach. I would say my trailer weighed about 1000kg. We had no problems with not having enough beach to drive on and the low tide was about the highest for the year. All we had to watch out for were the tidal surges every half an hour or so some of which were going over the top of the sand dune but they weren't as common as they had been a few days earlier. We did however have to push off as early as we could on the runout tide as the window was much smaller than usual and only just made it down to the Dilli track with enough beach left to drive on. At this point I left the other vehicle who went down to the Inskip Barge and we went back to Central Station for the day and then travelled via the Wangoolba Ck barge as we live North of Fraser.

One thing I did notice was the media playing the conditions up bit as we would watch the news each night with video footage of cars driving through deep salt water but what we were seeing out of the window of our house was very different. I think there was only a day or 2 that were that bad and they kept showing the video footage from those days. On the 29th and 30th we were swimming in sunshine at Wathumba Ck and returned to Orchid to find 10 knot winds and glassy surf conditions that I would have flown halfway around the world to surf 20 years ago. Left and right hand 8ft barrels that would run for more than 1km. Unreal!

Anyway I like camping on Fraser in the rain especially in summer and I think you will have a great time enjoying the features of the island without the crowds. I would say go for it but keep a close eye on the next couple of low pressure systems that are building and be prepared to bail early or to set up camp in Central Station if neccessary. There is an inland track from Dilli through to near Central Station so if the weather blows up and they close the Inskip Barges you can still get through to a barge on the western side to get off the island.

Good luck with your plans and let us know how you go.

Regards,
Brett

We just got back from fraser on monday after a week spent on the Island. To be honest apart from a lot of washed up rubbish on the beach from the storms, the beach is fine to drive (could have just about done it in the family falcon). We went from Rainbow, and were able to drive around hook point no problem - was about 2 hours before low tide. We towed our camper trailer and had no issues.

Whilst it is wet, as soon as it stops raining for a few hours things dry pretty quick - the sand is great for that.

The rain has actually helped pack down the sand on the inland tracks, and we toured all over the island without even looking like getting stuck. If it rains, you get a lot of water on the inland tracks, but because its sand, base is very firm (not like driving through mud).

Your camper should be fine if you are going straight up the beach and camping - but i wouldn't town it inland at all, as it will get thrown around a lot.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Jason