Fraser Island a big toilet because of camping

Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people weren't bothering with the shovel.

So the fees from 90,000 beach camper and 350,000 plus visitors each gos where?

Has been renamed Faeces Island..!

Gees if they think Fraser is bad they should go to Cooloola. I don't want to take my kids there anymore.

CAMPING on Fraser Island adds up to 4.3kg of faeces and 18.3 litres of urine to every lineal metre of sand on the island's eastern beach wilderness camp zones.

Almost all nutrient and faecal levels tested in camping zone groundwater exceeded water quality standards and had the potential to spread diseases, reports the Courier Mail.

Tests have prompted Sustainability Minister Kate Jones to consider making portable chemical toilets mandatory as part of beach camping permits.

Wonder how long it will be before they close the iland to campers who are not adequately equipped !!!

Like another famous case..
It's the DINGOS that did it !!!!!!

After having contributed four or five years in the annual Fraser Island Clean Up run each year by 4WD Qld and sponsored heavily by Toyota, I can sympathise with this report. The amount of (obviously) used toilet paper leads me to believe that the majority of people don't know/understand/care about correct toilet procedures on the island, or anywhere "bush" for that matter. The chemical toilet idea??? It gets my vote, but I'm not sure how they would police it. Another fairly obvious answer would be to have designated camp area, each with a toilet block, much like Nth Stradbroke, then we'd at least see where some of the $$ spent on the island is going.

Just my opinion

Cheers

Brian

Yes I have to agree with Brian, and I feel a shift in mindset is needed so that everyone accepts that we should no longer feel its ok to simply dig a hole when "away" as visitor numbers have exploded everywhere. Even the once remote Birdsville Track (and others) are no longer able to sustain the volumes of visitors if we all continue to ignore the impact of bush toileting by this volume of travellers. Our family has changed our attitudes to bush toileting and now use a porta pottie if no toilet facility is available for this very reason as we accept our part in not wanting to contribute to the problem of our country's growing population of travellers. There will always be those that can't change their attitudes, but hopefully responsible folk like those that discus these issues on forums etc will lead the way and every little bit of effort will help reduce the load (so to speak!) LOL.

MM

G/Day All

Our family has been going to Fraser Island and Teewah / Rainbow Beach for nearly 30 years, we have seen the area when it was in Pristine Condition, we always took the long handle shovel for the Drop Pits / Toilets, and carried all our Rubbish back to the Mainland when we left, and I know a lot of people who have done the same thing and still do it, and the only thing that has changed is that most of us use the Chemical Toilets now, even when our Grand Kids were babies in Nappies my Daughter in Law would take Cloth Nappies up there and rinse them out in a bucket, and empty the bucket in the Long Drop, these SUB HUMANS that leave their Waste / Rubbish ect strewn around are worse than Animals, and I for one would like to see all visitors to these places have a Tick the Boxes Questionnaire or some thing similar before they set foot on the place or get a Camping Permit ect, more education is needed, and as mentioned previously the Authorities must spend more $$$$$ to protect the place, they can't rely on different groups doing Clean Ups and responible campers doing the right thing, while the Morons Stuff It Up for every one else.

Cheers

"the findings showed a marked difference between water quality in camping and non-camping zones."

The problem is that the restricted camping zones have been over used. The camping zones are actually quite small.Close them down and move them to other areas to give the system a chance to cope.

However, QPWS (and FIDO) have a long term goal to close the island to visitors unless they are in strictly controlled tour groups, run by a select couple of operators, so actually dealing with the problem is not on their agenda. They'd sooner let all the issue build up till the govt bans us "for our own good".

We bought a chemical toilet about 2 years ago and take it everywhere now. We find it more pleasant to use than overused pit tiolets and lining up in the morning is a thing of the past. When the pit toilets are quiet during the day, you can empty your holding tank in it providing you use the correct chemicals.
I think its the only way to go and as mentioned above, just digging holes in busy areas is becoming a thing of the past. Michael

How many chemical toilet dump points are there on Cooloola and Fraser ? If I bought chemical toilet, how far would I have to drive to empty it ? How would they empty those dump points - trucks with tanks driven off the beach/island ?

Just worndering how it all works/might work

If you are careful of what type of "chemical" you buy for your chem toilet you can actually "dig a hole" and dispose of the broken down slurry in an appropriate place - ie. not closer than 50m to a water way and more than 50cm deep. You only need to use a chemical dump if the chems you put into the porta pottie are the type that are non-enviro friendly. As far as I'm aware there are only 2 brands on the market that are eco friendly but sorry just as this moment the names escape me. Places like Ningaloo station that enforce the use of porta potties allow dumping your waste in a hole you've dug in the sand (behind the dunes) provided you use the appropriate chems.

MM

Gday,
Am I missing something here?
If the problem is, too much crap left behind because there are too many campers and not enough toilets........Why dont they just build a heap more toilets with a the money taken from camping fees??????

Confussed....Hairy