Beach Report - northern Fraser Island
After going to the Club meeting last night, and doing my three night circuits afterwards, the old Frigatebird indicated she wanted a longer run, so it was off before dawn again to check out where we hadn't been for a while. No pictures as the camera wasn't taken, so will have to make do with words.
Going north past Moon Point on the west coast there weren't many boats to see as it got lighter. At Platypus Bay, at a quarter to 6, the sun came up out of the sea past Waddy Point like a molten ball of fire. Just a little haze, and scattered clouds to the east were tinged with gold and scarlet. Looking that way reminded me that it would be nearly 8 a.m. in Fiji. Wonder what sort of sunrise they'd had? Continuing round the curve and past the northern lakes, there were two large yachts anchored just offshore south of Rooney Point. On was a big motor catamaran and the other a sailing cat. No one stirred as we went past.
About a mile south-west of the Sandy Cape lighthouse there were two big Humpbacks playing and travelling north. They were about 300 metres off the beach, and the biggest one on the beach side with the most white on his belly was putting on the best display. Broaching, and rolling,and splashing the water with his fins - what an agile big fellow he was. The other was more demure, but still managed a roll or two as they swam side by side.
Past the Light on the hill, then saw a big turtle in the water just off the beach. The tide was fairly well in and there wasn't much beach, but above the high mark the dry sand was humped a little and that section was not as smooth as I remember it from when we used to land there with the supplies for the Keepers when the Light was manned. At the last big Blow where it came onto the northern beach at Sandy Cape there was a camp tucked in the trees, and on the beach 3 men were walking back to it from the Cape. One carried a bucket, didn't see any rods though.
On the east side of the Cape, where we would land if the west side was unsuitable, the beach was also humped a little, so would have been an undulating roll-out had I wanted to re-create old times. Needs the wind to veer more south-easterly so the swell can start moving sand northward again, and the trowelling action of the waves striking the beach at an angle will smooth the beach surface again.
Only saw one camp set back in the dunes heading south again until a few miles north of Orchid Beach. Not too many up this end.
Plenty of people camped along the shore dunes just north west of Orchid Beach. In front of the strip there were 20 four wheel drives parked facing the sea, and 20 (or more) fishers holding rods spaced out in thigh deep water in front of them.
At Waddy Point there were another 2 dozen vehicles and anglers similarly deployed, with campsites almost continuous along the coastline behind them.
South of Indian Head there weren't too many campsites in the dunes, or people in the surf.
At the Cathedrals, past the wreck of the Maheno, and Eli Creek there were many more campsites again, and anglers in the surf. The beach was undulating there, with humps and bumps, and probably gutters that would have been good for fishing. Not good for a landing though when the tide went out.
At Happy Vally and Yidney Rocks, there weren't too many coffe rocks showing, so there is plenty of sand on the beach. Just that it is humped up due to the wind action opposing the northward sand movement.
Then back home past Lake MacKenzie. Frigatebird drew my attention to a skinny dipper having a early morning swim there. We look for things like that too. (Nah - I just made that bit up)
If you want a good read about Fraser Island, get "Last Of The Barefoot Tycoons" about Sid Melksham of Eurong, written by his partner Angela Burger, a onetime Chronicle reporter before she met Sid. I have a copy out from the local library at the moment. Have known Sid for over 40 years, did some flying off the beach for him when he got his first Cessna 182, then later endorsed him onto the 337 when he got his first twin. The Duke was kept in the hangar at the Woongoolba strip that he sealed, but the Jetranger was kept in an airconditioned hangar at Eurong. He did over a thousand hours on the Jetranger over a ten year period.
p.s. Checking the dates, seems she used some of the old 'Journalistic Licence' for the sake of the tale. When Sid was supposed to have been strapping himself spreadeagled on the roofing iron of a new building in a cyclone in Jan '71 and thinking of his 182 exposed on the beach - even the fellow he eventually bought it off in '73 hadn't yet acquired it himself... Distinctly remember doing a charter onto the beach, then waiting before flying off so I could watch the repeated filming of the 'longboat coming ashore' scenes for the filming of 'Eliza'. But it didn't happen in '74, as I have no record of landing at Eurong in '74. Towards the end of the book covering the sale in 2002, typo dates of January 1992 and April 1992 crept in too. Would have preferred the stories to be chronological as the events happened, instead of going back and forth..
Last edited by frigatebird; 13th Sep 2011 at 02:26.
Reason: p.s.