USC281_0005

FRASER ISLAND
FERRY SERVICE and TOURS

AN EXCITING NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR ... FISHERMEN
NATURALISTS ... BUSHWALKERS ...BEACHCOMBERS
TIMBERMEN TO VISIT FABULOUS FRASER ISLAND

Now for the first time you have easy access to all parts of the Island
form the Southern End by the 40ft. Landing Barge "Fraser Dawn".
It is now possible for Brisbane people to be on Fraser Island in five
hours.

Proprietor GORDON ELMER offers you the opportunity to get
away from it all admist the changing beauties of this 90 miles long
island, either in your own vehicle or by chartering his four wheel
drive units.

Accommodation is available if required, and excellent campsites can
be found beside the many freshwater streams along the coastline.

Ferry Service and Tours:
Gordon Elmer Rainbow Beach
Dick Elmer Maryborough - Phone 4310

EARLES
HAPPY VALLEY
OCEAN BEACH
COTTAGES AND FLATS
ARE COMPLETELY SELF CONTAINED UNITS
AND AFFORD ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME

GEORGE EARLE ...PROPRIETOR
BOOKINGS
EARLES 274 ADELAIDE ST. MARYBOROUGH 21.3798

survivors reached the Clarence River, the longboard landed on Fraser Island. The de-
privations of the occupants of the long boat were related by Mrs. Eliza Fraser, the
wife of Captain James Fraser, from whom the Island takes its name. Mrs. Fraser
lived with the aboriginals and watched many of the survivors, including her husband
die.

However celebrated, Mrs. Fraser's ordeal may not have been as severe as that of
two survivors of the "Seabelle" which sank on Breaksea Spit in 1857. Although all
had reached shore the men were murdered and the two teenage girls were disfigured
by having their noses flattened and their mouths cut. They could hardly remember
the English language when rescued two years later. The stories of the early history,
the wrecks, and dramas of Fraser Island are legend.

In 1862, two years after Fraser Island was declared an aboriginal reserve Tom
Petrie, son of Andrew, together with Pettigrew explored Fraser Island. In 1863 the
first timber was cut from Fraser Island for milling at the Dundathu Mill, the timber
was harvested by a timber getter "Yankee Jack" Piggott, who one year later, met a
violent death at the hands of Fraser Island aboriginals. Yet the timber industry was
born. For the next 60 years, until the establishment of a tourist camp at Happy
Valley, which closed during the depression, it was around the timber industry and
the aboriginal mission that most of the history revolved. This era has been well re-
ported by Jules Tardent. Fraser Island sustains a regular annual harvest of 7,000,000
super feet of timber.

Looking across Fraser Island to Hervey Bay, in the south-west.