Cape Town Lens: Hervey Bay. Giant old humback whale off Fraser island.

A Cape Town Sandy Bay tagged image from photographer – denisbin as published on Flickr.

Hervey Bay. Giant old humback whale off Fraser island.

Image by denisbin

The Spirit of Hervey Bay Cruise and Fraser Island.
This largest sand island in the world at 120 kms long was declared a world heritage site in 1992. Geographically it is exceptional as it has areas of rainforest, open eucalyptus forest, heathlands, peat bogs and more. Its fauna includes reptiles, frogs and sometimes salt water crocodiles as well as numerous bird species and a few mammals – native mice, wallabies, possums, echidnas and dingoes etc. The sand of Fraser Island have been carried by northerly currents along the Australia coast and has been dumped along a spit which led to the formation of the island over thousands of years. Rain has created at least one creek on the island and winds from the ocean have led to the formation of dunes. As dunes have piled up on each other the central range of his sand hills were formed. Where clays have washed through the sand dunes coloured sands have been formed. Fraser Island also has over 100 fresh water lakes.

Fraser Island was named after Eliza Fraser and her husband who were shipwrecked on the island in 1836 in a ship called the Stirling Castle. The passengers and crew then boarded lifeboats and set sails for Moreton Bay convict settlement to the south (Brisbane). Unfortunately the pregnant Eliza Fraser gave birth to a child in the life boat but the child did not survive. The life boat that the Frasers were in was taking water and was left behind by the other life boat. The occupants eventually landed on a great sandy island which is now known as Fraser Island. All the boat occupants died except for Eliza Fraser who was taken in by the local Aboriginal people. She was rescued six weeks later and taken back to Moreton Bay. Six months later she married again and returned to live in England. Here she told lurid tales of her adventure which by then included murder, torture and cannibalism. No one is quite certain of what really happened to Eliza Fraser on Fraser Island as she kept altering her story of the events. What is known is that the local Aboriginal people had lived on Fraser Island for about 5,000 years. They were removed from the island by the Queensland government in 1904 and relocated to several different Aboriginal mission stations. The Badtjala people were granted native title rights over the island in 2014. Today the island is a haven for tourists and up to half a million of them visit the island each year.

Wide Bay between Hervey Bay and Fraser Island is a favoured spot for humpback whales to play and rest and mate on their annual migration from the Artic areas. There are often 400 to 500 humpback whales in Wide Bay at any one time and around 5,000 humpback whales visit the bay each year between July and November. The Spirit of Hervey Bay is the largest of the whale watching operators in Wide Bay and along Fraser Island.