Why K’gari, the world’s largest sand island, should be top of your travel bucket list

K’gari (Fraser Island) is the world’s largest sand island, a place of shifting dunes, sparkling inland lakes and a subtropical rainforest where native birds sing and echidnas and wallabies roam. It’s an idyll that invites adventure, a place where rentable four-wheel-drives – the only type of vehicle allowed – bump along designated tracks toward crystalline creeks, colourful rock formations and natural bathing pools kissed by ocean foam. Where you get to cruise the 75 Mile Beach sand highway, car windows down, as waves tumble alongside you and a warm, gentle breeze caresses your face. Located off the coast of Queensland, 223 miles north of the capital Brisbane and 40 minutes by ferry from mainland Hervey Bay (from where you can also take a scenic flight), K'gari is a nature-lover’s dream. And one of Australia’s best-kept secrets.

A story from the Dreamtime, Aboriginal Australia’s understanding of the world and its creation, tells of a female ancestor spirit who so loved the earth that she decided to stay there, transforming into a great sand island of remarkable natural beauty. Her name? K’gari, which means ‘paradise’ in the language of the Butchulla people, the island's traditional owners. Eons later, K’gari has been World Heritage-listed for over three decades now, back from when it was called Fraser Island. K’gari’s ecological wonders continue to dazzle: there, in the white silica sand, are the petrified remains of ancient trees. Over there, in the blue surrounding sea, are turtles, dolphins and, from July to October, migrating humpback whales. Of the various marine tours that depart from Hervey Bay, K’gari Salty Safaris also visits the island's remote western side.

Here and there, crisscrossing the island’s interior (K’gari measures 75 miles by nine miles), are hiking trails which pass by lakes perched languorously above sea-level and colossal sand dunes, including Mt Bowarrady (at 240m, among the tallest of its kind on the planet). Try a self-guided three-night, five-lake hike with meals, luggage transfers and a pre-pitched campsite from K’gari Blue Lakes Eco Hike, or don your hiking boots to walk the length of the island in six to eight days on the K’gari Great Walk. Prefer to relax? Head to the swimming sanctuary Boorangoora (Lake McKenzie) to enjoy turquoise waters laced with healing tea-tree oil and velvet-soft sand between your toes. Or find your own freshwater lake – K’gari has 100 of them. 

Opportunities abound along the stretching 75 Mile Beach. Cast a line at coastal fishing hotspot Tukee (Indian Head). Immerse yourself in the Champagne Pools, calm at low tide, fizzing in high waves. Bring your own inflatable float and bob along to birdsong at the oh-so-peaceful Eli Creek (which pours four million litres of fresh water into the ocean every hour). Goggle at the multi-coloured grandeur of sand cliffs The Cathedrals (which the Butchulla people say were formed after a deity brushed against them) before exploring the dramatic shipwreck SS Maheno, a once famous trans-Tasman liner washed ashore by a cyclone in 1935. 

Or simply sit and watch the world go by Kingfisher Bay Eco Resort has a bar on its jetty, all the better to view the sun setting over the water (which is a rarity on Australia’s east coast) and the thousand-strong armies of tiny soldier crabs scampering along the shore. Or soak up the serenity in the lush, leafy middle of K’gari; camping site Central Station has picnic tables, flowing creeks and a boardwalk that weaves through its rainforest, inviting reflection, connection, the chance to breathe. To just be. 

You will want to stay, of course. This, after all, is the island of K’gari. Paradise then. Paradise now.