K'gari

USC21_0001
PAPERS RELATING TO CAPTAIN KENT AND FRASER ISLAND.
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Maryborough, 12th July, 1907.
Dear Sir,-We enclose a newspaper cutting referring to a suggested undertaking in connection with fish-canning and sisal culture at Fraser Island. We give you the information for what it is worth, but, should any proposals be made to the Department, we would ask that the interests of the timber industry be not overlooked. Some thousands of pounds have been spent on the island, and operations have been carried on from time to time on all parts of the island, and it is hoped that every protection will be given to those who are engaged in this enterprise, in preference to the granting or leasing of land for other purposes. The revenue from the timber is considerable, and there are probably on the island other bodies of timber besides the blocks now held.

We are, yours truly, J. GREEN, Manager]], For Wilson, Hart, and Co., Ltd.

[Enclosure with No.1.]

FRASER ISLAND ENTERPRISE.

Maryborough Chronicle, 4th July, 1907.

FISH-CANNING AND SISAL CULTURE-INTRODUCTION OF PEARL OYSTER. Captain H . C. Kent, R.N.R., who some time ago was locally well known as the superintendent of the Fraser Island Aboriginal Mission Settlement, has arrived in Maryborough again from the South, accompanied by his wife, and tbey intend to take up their residence in our midst again. Capt. Kent is now engaged upon an undertaking which shows that he paid close attention to his material surroundings when stationed on Fraser Island. 'l'he project now on foot, which Captain Kent informs us has a very substantial Southern backing, is to gather together all the district aboriginals and place them on Fraser Island, where they will be engaged in developing the resources of land and water. This will be entirely a commercial and not a missionary work, and all creeds will be at liberty to minister to the blacks as they please; there will be no church monopoly. It is proposed to go in extensively for fish preserving and canning, the production of oil from dugong and porpoise and also for sisal hemp cultivation on the island, in which industries the labour of the aboriginals will be utilised as far as possible. Application is being made to the State Government for a certain grant of country on the island. The various activities contemplated, while absorbing the aboriginal population, will give employment to a large body of white men in more responsible and expert positions. The pearl and edible oyster will also receive the attention of the company. Professor Sydney Jackson, who with some of the directors will shortly visit Fraser Island, has patented a method for the cultivation of the pearl and table oyster, which it is proposed to put in operation in Hervey's Bay and the straits. He appears to be sanguine that the pearl oyster can be brought down from Torres Straits and successfully introduced to our waters.

USC21_0002
Our bay waters abound with edible fish of all kinds, and are already famed for their oysters, while a vast area of Fraser Island should be ideal land for the growth of sisal hemp. The introduction of the pearl oyster is an experiment well worthy of a trial, and, seeing how well the common oyster does here, there seems no good reason why the pearl oyster should not thrive in the deeper waters of the bay. The career of the company will be watched with keen and sympathetic interest.
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TELEGRAM FROM MESSRS. HYNE AND SON to THE SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS.

Maryborough 10·50 am. 23 Sept. 1907 . We note from newspaper paragraph that application is being made to secure timber on Fraser Island for export Maryborough timber merchants trust you will safeguard their interests as whole of timber needed for local requirements

On behalf Maryborough millers HYNE AND SON
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CAPTAIN H. C. KENT to THE SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS.

"Menzies," Brisbane, 25th September, 1905 (sic). Sir,-I have the honour to request the favour of your kindly granting me, on behalf of a syndicate, to be known as the " Fraser Island Produce Company," two blocks of land on Fraser Island as timber leases.

USC21_0003
DIRECTOR OF FORESTS to CAPTAIN KENT 28th September, 1907.

Sir,-With reference to your letter of the 25th instant to the Hon. the Minister for Lands, applying for timber leases on Fraser lsland, 1 shall be glad if you will be good enough to call and see me at 3 p.m. on Wednesday next, the 2nd prox. I have, &c, PHILIP MAC MAHON, Director of Forests.
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In any case these blacks, if employed, would have been under the supervision of Mr. Howard, the Chief Protector: who is a thoroughly humane man, and probably the best friend the Queensland blacks have ever had. He has reported favourably of the scheme. Who can deny the right of the Fraser Island blacks to earn their own living on their own island? Great Sandy Island has been lying idle since it was created, excepting one company (Wilson, Hart, and Co.), who have invested enormous sums to work a portion of it for timber; and now, when an offer is made to develop it, all kinds of stumbling blocks are put in the way.
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EXTRACT FROM THE "SYDNEY MAIL."

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRASER ISLAND.

Captain Kent is now in Brisbane pressing on the Government a scheme for the development of Fraser Island and the establishment of several industries. Primarily, the proposal is to develop the timber industry, but along with this will be the establishment of the pearl and edible oyster business; the growth of sisal hemp and canning of fish. Captain Kent is acting -on behalf of a New South Wales syndicate, which is prepared to make a large expenditure carrying out their proposals. The application made to the Government is that a large portion of Fraser Island not otherwise taken up should be handed over by the Government, in return for which the syndicate will take all the aboriginals in the district, not only maintain them free of expense to the Government, but pay them well for all work done.
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In the Legislative Assembly yesterday, Mr. Mitchell gave notice of a series of questions with regard to an offer made by a Southern syndicate to develop portion of Fraser Island with the assistance of aboriginal labour. One of the series hinted at slavery, and expressed an opinion - the opinion that if anything was done in the direction indicated it should be done by the State.

USC21_0004
MINUTE BY THE UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS. MARYBOROUGH LAND AGENT'S DISTRICT. CAPTAIN KENT AND FRASER ISLAND.

Captain Kent called on me yesterday afternoon respecting his application for timber areas on Fraser Island, and complained that he had just been told by the Director of Forests that he could only procure timber rights by successfully competing for them at auction, and that this information was contrary to the Minister's assurance that he would be granted concessions without competition.
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These in Capt. Kent's letter to the Minister for Lands asked for timber leases of two parts of Fraser lsland, comprising in all 315 square miles, an area which I pointed out to be out of all reason, and that to arrive at any agreement as to a reasonable area it was necessary that he should confer with the Director of Forests.
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... I think it my duty, in common fairness to the Minister, Under Secretary, and Director of Forests, to say that Captain Kent called upon me on the 2nd October, and offered, for a consideration, to sell a timber concession on Fraser Island which he was just about to secure from the government.

USC21_0007
Captain Kent is now engaged upon an undertaking which shows that he paid close attention to his material sur- roundings when stationed on Fraser Is. The project now on foot, which Captain Kent informs us has a very substantial Southern backing, is to gather all the district Aborigines and place them on Fraser Is., where they will be engaged in developing the resources of land and water.
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It is proposed to go in extensively for fish preserving and canning, the production of oil from dugong and porpoise, and also for sisal hemp cultivation on the island in which industries the labour of the Aborigines will be utilised as far as possible. Application is being made to the State Government for a certain grant of country on the Island.

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Professor Sydney Jackson, who with some directors will shortly visit Fraser Is. has patented a method for the cultivation of the pearl and table oyster, which he proposed to put in operation in Hervey Bay and the straits.

USC21_0008
Our bay waters abound with edible fish of all kinds, and are already famed for their oysters, while a vast area of Fraser Is. should be ideal land for the growth of sisal hemp.
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Wilson and Hart and also Hyne & Son, timber merchants of Maryborough both with leases on Fraser ls. lobbied the Government for the protection of their interests.

USC21_0009
He has reported favourably of the scheme. " Who can deny the right of the Fraser Is. blacks to earn their own living on their own island? ''Great Sandy Is. has been lying idle since it was created, excepting one company ( Wilson Hart & Co.), who have invested enormous sums to work a portion of it for timber, and now, when an offer is made to develop it, all kinds of stumbling blocks are put in the way.
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While Capt. Kent was in Maryborough last month, numerous deputations of natives, many coming from the Far North, waited on him and begged him to use his influence with the Government to have them returned under him (Capt. Kent) to Fraser Is.

USC21_0010 — Fraser Is.
This brought a prompt response from Brown of Brown and Broad, timber merchants of Brisbane, stating that Kent had approached him with an offer to sell timber concessions on Fraser Is. which he was just about to secure from the Government.
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The Director of Forests, writing to the Under Secretary for Public Lands, revealed what Kent has asked for, which was no less than 315 square miles which was practically all the timber on the island and at ½ royalties being paid by Wilson Hart and Hyne and as a private sale without competition. Some cheek!

USC22_0002
DEAR SIR, - Attached is my report on Fraser Island, the past history, a brief description, and present economic resources. The report is written with a threefold purpose. The account of the past and the aboriginal place names are intended as permanent historc records, the history being new to the public, and the place names given for the first time to save them before they would be lost for ever.
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REPORT ON FRASER ISLAND: EARLY HISTORY AND ECONOMIC RESOURCES. TO THE HON. J. T. BELL, MINISTER FOR LANDS.

SIR, - A report on the economic resources of Fraser Island may be appropriately introduced by a brief physical outline and history of what will be shown herein to be one of the most interesting and remarkable islands in the world.

USC22_0003
"Fraser" Island, or "Great Sandy Island," begins at the south end opposite Inskip Point, and extends north in a straight line for 70 miles, the outer beach line being 74 miles, the west coast about 82, and the total area about 656 square miles.
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Fraser Island forms Hervey Bay (named by Cook on 21st May, 1770, after Captain Hervey) and "Great Sandy Strait," which is 28 miles in length from Inskip Point to the mouth of the Mary River.
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Fraser Island is named from Captain Fraser of the ship "Stirling Castle," wrecked on Elizabeth Reef, 300 miles to the south-east on 21st May, 1836. Fraser Island , Mrs. Fraser, the mate Brown, and some of the crew finaly landed on Fraser Island, were received in a friendly manner by the blacks, and passed on in canoes t the mainland at Inskip Point, to be forwarded to the white people at the Brisbane Convict Settlement, which no one reached except Mrs. Fraser, the others, according to her three different and very contradictory stories, beign killed by the blacks at or near the present Noosa River. The first mention of any part of Fraser Island in history appears in Captain Cook's log-book for 20th May, 1770.

USC22_0004 
The naturalist Brown, afterwards a world-famous botanist, collected a considerable number of plants Sandy Cape, probably the only botanist on Fraser Island from then to the present time. Geologically, Fraser Island is eccentric. In his Queensland geological map of 1892, R. L. Jack unfortunately placed the whole of Fraser Island in the lower Trias-Jura System of the Mesozoic, the same as he assigned to the Burrum coal beds, and yet there is no the slightest resemblance between the two localities. Geologically and botanically, Fraser's Island, incredible as it may appear, stands apart from the whole of the Australian continent!

USC22_0005 
The 3 tons readily collected on Fraser Island are conclusive proof that valuable gums for tanning and varnishes exist there in vast quantities, and the neglect of these so far shows that a very important State asset has been entirely overlooked. When protector of aboriginals two of my reports to the Minister called special attention to these Fraser Island gums. There were also at least two resins which gave a beautiful dye, and were regarded by the expert who tested them as specially valuable. The trees on Fraser Island give off their gums more freely than trees on the mainland.
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No white man has ever known more than a fraction of Fraser Island. It is doubtful if any aboriginal ever was personally acquainted with the whole of it. There were three dialects spoken, as proved by the three negatives. There were scrub tribes and coast tribes-south, north, east, and west-each tribe having its own assigned territory, and they only mingled in times of fights and corrobborees.

USC22_0006
The South Queenslander of the Moreton Bay district can obtain a fair idea of the size of Frazer Island by comparison with that of Moreton, Stradbroke, and Bribie Islands, which contain respectively 71, 118, and 59 square miles, a total of 248 miles in the three islands, compared with the 656 of Fraser Island alone.
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There is no sign of coal on any part of Fraser Island, but there are seams of lignite on the east coast, and a very pure white clay, which ought to be specially valuable for the finer qualities of pottery. Our potters would do well to have it freely tested. The clay was eaten in small quantities by the aboriginals, of whom only about a score are not left on the island.
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A brief reference to the aboriginals: Fifty years ago there were from 2000 to 3000 aboriginals on Fraser Island, an exceptionally fine race of people. To-day there are about twenty left on the Island! The food supply from the ocean and Straits was unlimited. The big scrub supplied most of the vegetable diet. There were three dialects spoken, the negatives being "wahr,", "wacca," and "cabbee," and the various tribes fought occassionally with each other and finished with a corrobboree. Cannibalism was common as it was, with very rare exceptions, over the whole of Australia.
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Their aboriginal names were "Mundi" and "Coyeen," and an old man, a brother of the girls, died only two years ago on Fraser Island.
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Rabbits would soon make it an exhaustles field for rabbit-shooting, but Australia's experience warns us that the result would likely be total destruction of all that beautiful vegetation which covers the surface of Fraser Island from end to end so I would strongly advise that no rabbits ever be introduced.

USC22_0007
CHIEF HILLS ON FRASER ISLAND.

Moa-mong-oor: 10 miles south of Sandy Cape
Thalang-oor: Moondoor
Boarradee: Bimjella
Waleen: Toowallalee
Yamarr: Cang-ooin
Woonbine: Tinbilling
Moorong: Geeoong
Wamballanoor: Coollah
Toowarr: Toongee
Billalla: Coomoolorr
Eenarrawa: Beeroon
Yairyairoor: Coong-ah
Andambaree: Marall
Boonggal: Coocoo
Nulwarr: Wahbee
Noorargan: Ganggan
Coolahthin: Coolooindoor
Yargami: Yoondoora
Tarindaring: Weenarnballin
Geelgann: (Near lighthouse)

USC60_0001 
Most places of interest which are not really well known suffer more or less from false reputations of various kinds and Fraser Island is no exception to this. Its lakes are not bottomless, they do not react to the tides, they do not teem with fish. "Yankee Jack" was not killed near the creek beside which he camped, the island is not entirely of pure sand, it is not one vast forest of gigantic trees, nor was it named an island by Cook or Flinders.
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Fraser Island lies between south latitudes 24 degs. 40' and 25 degs. 50' and longitude 152 degs. 55' and 153 degs. 20' and thus extends north and south.
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For about 40 miles north from Wide Bay Bar to Moon Point, Fraser Island is separated from the mainland by Wide Bay Harbour and Great Sandy Strait and shelters the Mary River Heads.

USC60_0006 
Sir Wm. McGregor is said to have paid a special visit to Fraser Island to see the partly exposed buried forests south of White Cliffs.
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USC60_0007
Maryborough marine beds outcrop at Mary River Heads and Woody Island and a trough or fold appears to account for the Straits and Tin Can Bay, so that it appears fairly certain these marine beds underlie much of Fraser Island , together with their associated Burrum Coal measures, geologists have much to verify of the island's true geological horizons, and they would dearly love to sink a few test bores which might even reveal "black gold" at no great depth.
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The only true rocks which occur on Fraser Island are the volcanic formations of Indian Head and Waddy Point, just three miles apart, plus the group of three much smaller features between the above headlands, appropriately named Middle Rocks.

USC60_0008
The shore near most of the large, flowing creeks of the western watershed of Fraser Island is mangrove garnished and these streams, most of which run strongly and perenially, seem to have played their part in arresting the silts borne seawards from the oft-turgid stream of the Mary.

USC60_0010 
It is worthy of note that the Commandos who trained on Fraser Island considered that its extremely dense undergrowth -frequently entangled by air vines - and its precipitousslopes of sand that yield to the foothold, were tougher going and a greater endurance test thatn the worst jungles they encountered in New Quinea and Borneo.
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Satinay, Microzamia douglasii and Fraser Island Tulip, Siris or Bacon Wood are practically confined to Fraser Island, whilst Fraser...

USC60_0011 
In 1869, Kauri logs were cut on Fraser Island by Pat Seary and Brislow, near the present Forestry Station on Woongoolba Creek, hauled to the beach by bullocks, and rafted to Maryborough. Hyne and Son's huge mill and some others were also established in the very early days and drew on Fraser Island for part of their log supply.

USC60_0015 
Birds abound in great numbers on the island the the late Dr. Brook Nichols ( then lecturer in Zoology at Melbourne University) and Frank Dalby Davidson , joint authors of "Blue Coast Caravan", who spent an evening in my home after visiting Fraser Island and travelling the coast from Melbourne in 1934, were thrilled with the great variety and beauty of bird life. Brook Nichols said that a rare ground parrot had been observed on the island and at only one other place in West Australia. Cockatoos, brilliant Wrens; Honeyeaters, Kingfishers, Black Swans, wild Duck and scores of others abound on this island 77 miles long bird sanctuary where shooting is strictly forbidden.

Incidentally, in "Blue Coast Caravan" two whole chapters are devoted to Fraser Island.

USC91_0001 
Who will tear my timber down,
And leave my wildlife dying?
Is there no-one left to care for me
My name is Fraser Island.

In the dreamtime there were feasts on my beach,
My people all lived well
Taking from me, not taking too much,
A goanna and a few sea shells.

Now I live in fear of man and his dredge,
The axe, the wind and the tide,
And the promise of wealth that lies within me,
Will kill me, Fraser Island.

I knew they would not settle here
Because they built their houses of metal skin,
And when I had no more to give,
They moved those houses on again.

From the "Fraser Island" song by Toni and Royce Nicholas (1971).

USC91_0002
Appendices
A. Public Opinion Survey conducted on attitudes to Fraser Island logging ... ....

USC91_0003 
...This submission addresses matters of management of the Great Sandy Region. It is heavily biased to Fraser Island rather than Cooloola, firstly this is the main conflict which needs to be resolved and secondly because this organization in concentrating on Fraser Island has preferred to leave the various management issues of Cooloola to Dr A.G. Harrold of the Noosa Parks Association and Mr and Mrs W.G.S. Huxley, formerly of the Cooloola Committee, and others. FIDO supports their efforts.

This submission does not address the matters of management in the areas outside Fraser Island and Cooloola because the the [sic] matter of management is generally not a matter of serious contention except for the desire to make accelerate their dedication as National Parks or to see adequate National Park Management Plans in place for them. The main areas where new National Park status is sought are on Fraser Island and Cooloola, Platypus Bay, and at Kinkuna, Kauri Creek and Boonooroo Plains which have long been identified as areas needing National Park status.
John Sinclair
Sydney
7 August, 1990

USC91_0004
1.1.1 . Sandmasses of aeolian sand:
Fraser Island, Breaksea Spit and
Cooloola.
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1.2.1. Fraser Island should be considered to include all of that land above the low water mark of the island itself as well as the islands on the eastern side of Great Sandy Strait, notably Stewart and Dream Islands, and the marine environment immediately surrounding the islands extending to the mainland shore of Great Sandy Strait and Breaksea Spit.
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1. 4 . 1. Although Fraser Island and Cooloola are the key parts of the Great Sandy Region their management should not be considered in isolation from the management of the rest of the region.
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It is not proposed to deal with all aspects of management on the land within the boundaries defined by the Commission of Inquiry into the Conservation, Management and Use of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region, except in as much as the management of those areas may impinge on the natural values of the proposed World Heritage area.

USC91_0005 
2.0 AIM AND OBJECTIVES FOR MANAGEMENT OF FRASER ISLAND AND THE GREAT SANDY REGION
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2. 2 .1. The whole of the Great Sandy Region, including Fraser Island, should be recognized as a unique part of the World's cultural and natural heritage.
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The case outlining the natural values of the region are outlined in a separate submission prepared by Fraser Island Defenders Organisation and addressed to the Commonwealth Government.

2.2.2. Almost all of Fraser Islandand other terrestrial areas within the region, as well as critical and significant marine areas should be given National Park status as a matter of priority.
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More detailed submissions on what constitutes compatible and incompatible land uses are dealt with below as well as in the findings of the Fraser Island Environmental Inquiry and the environmental impact study on Fraser Island logging.
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Wilderness, where the natural environment is untrammelled by humans and where humans are only visitors, means that, on Fraser Island, visitors and residents would only be permitted recreational usage of the lowest environmental impact.

USC91_0015
6.0.2. The fact that commercial quantities of resources such as minerals and timber exist should not be considered as an edict to exploit these resources, any more than it would be if such resources were found under the Statue of Liberty or the Vatican. This particularly applies to two of Fraser Island's tangible economic resources - minerals and forests.

6.0.3. The mentality which sees resources as something for immediate exploitation is blind to the total social needs of mankind. Many resources are like inventions; they remain latent and lie undiscovered. Society accepts this. Similarly, society can accept that some natural resources on Fraser Island, can remain unused while the total welfare of the community is enhanced by preserving the natural character of Fraser Island.

6.1 Mining

6.1.1. Consistent with the recommendations of the Fraser Island Environmental Inquiry, and the decisions of the Queensland Government in 1970 with respect to Cooloola, no exploitation of the large mineral reserves above the high water mark should be allowed or contemplated within the Great Sandy Region.

6.1.2. The continuation of mining tenure over the area has been a major obstacle to the best management of Fraser Island. Although the establishment of the Fraser Island Recreation Authority in 1986 helped overcome some of the impasses resulting from the mining leases, it has not removed all of them.

6 .1. 3. All sandmining leases on Fraser Island should be terminated as soon as possible as they prevent National Park status being given to any areas covered by mining tenement Section 7 of this

USC91_0083 
F.I.D.O. will support the rezoning of an equivalent area of land in exchange at a more suitable and less environmentally sensitive part of Fraser Island such as the old mine site of D.M. Minerals.

F.I.D.O. will continue to pursue this line. We will even urge the Commonwealth Govern- ment to use, if it has to, the World Herit- age Properties (Conservation) Act to stop the degradaticn of the top end of Fraser Island which must surely follow if the land is rezoned.

USC91_0088
In 1971, the Fraser Island defence campaign was born when the sandmining group, Dillingham Constructions and Murphyores Incorporated, applied for additional mining leases on Fraser Island. Although Murphyores and another sandmining company, Queensland Titanium Mines, had obtained very extensive mining leases previously (about 1963) without opposition before the voluntary conservation movement had become organised, there was widespread public opposition to proposals for more extensive mining on Fraser Island.
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At the suggestion of Dr Len Webb, the name was almost immediately changed and the group became known as "FIDO, the Watchdog of Fraser Island". This name inspired leading cartoonist Stewart MacRae to present FIDO with its famous logo - the smiling/menacing bulldog standing astride the map of Fraser Island. As FIDO grew so did the recognition of Fraser Island's outstanding natural values.
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FIDO's aim then, (as it still is today), was "to ensure the wisest use of the natural resources of Fraser Island". That aim appears on every letter and envelope along with the map of Fraser Island with FIDO dominating it showing the scale. FIDO believes that Fraser Island is unique in the world, being not only the largest sand island in the world but also the world's greatest coastal sandmass.
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Although FIDO is best known for its successful campaign to stop sandmining with its devastating environmental impact, FIDO has been active in addressing all aspects of management of Fraser Island. FIDO prepared the very first management plan for Fraser Island in 1975.
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FIDO wants the establishment of a National Park over the bulk of the island, well managed and controlled tourism, education and scientific research for the island. This coincides with FIDO's aim of the BEST USE of the natural resources of Fraser Island.
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FIDO has run more than 100 safari tours to Fraser Island during the last two decades to monitor developments on the island, to raise campaign funds and to enable interested people to gain a greater appreciation of the Great Sandy Region's outstanding values and issues confronting it.
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FIDO has also been in the forefront of developing mechanisms for resolving environmental conflicts. This has seen it involved in numerous Mining Warden's hearings, (with successful challenges to rulings reaching the High Court of Australia) the first ever inquiry under the Environmental Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act, the Fraser Island Environmental Inquiry (1975), and various Local Government Court hearings and a number of other challenges to administrative law in the Supreme Court of Queensland.

USC142_0001
The history of Fraser Island, like its shores, is strewn with wrecks the most notable and best preserved being the 6,000 ton liner "Maheno" thrown right up on shore 18 years' ago in a winter cyclone.
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Small animals and snakes are common on the Island, but emus and kangaroos were probably killed out for food long before white men came. The Island was an aboriginies' Paradise. Even in 1850 the natives numbe- ed 2 to 3 thousand and they waxed fat on fish, dugong, oysters, wahwongs, (or eugeri) and soaked Zamia nuts. Despite sympathetic missions, by 1887 only 300 natives remained on the Island. The noted boxer Eli Bennett of Fraser Island stock as was Billy Wundumma, the famed tracker, who, as a young man, was taken to Victoria to help round up the Kelly Gang. The whole Island is a bird sanctuary and carries a large and varied birdlife.
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And finally, if these notes have aroused your curiosity and you are tempted to explore, go well informed, well equipped, and well provided, for Fraser island is a very large and wearying place in which to get lost. There are no facilities for visitors, but parties can obtain permission to camp on Fraser Island.

USC179_0003 
The Owens family has been associated with Fraser Island for up to 75 years. My own father started punting timber from Fraser Island around about 1908 or 1910.
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He would take one trip to Harts and one trip to Hynes. These two sawmills used to take most of the timber off Fraser Island as far as I can remember.
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I used to travel with my father on the punt, but from 1918 or the latter part 1918, I started working on Fraser Island with bullocks, and I worked there for approximately 11 years. I only took my bullocks off Fraser Island in 1929, because they started to talk about trucks. I was always interested in cattle and horses, not trucks.
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My uncle drove the locomotive for Wilson Harts and Hynes and his son worked on [The loco for some time, then he bought bullock teams and he pulled timber on Fraser Island.

USC179_0006
It was a hard life working with the bullocks. We had to take two loads a day. We tried to get a couple of logs each day. We would stay over on the island for [handwritten: about a month and you] worked six days a week. We worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as a rule, if we could and it wasn't wet, then on Thursday we'd give the Bullocks a spell, then we'd yoke up 1st on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

USC184_0001 
[Interview transcript]
John Your family had a long association with Fraser Island?
S.J. Yes, a long association.
John And your father? Can you tell us, when he started hauling timber , or cutting timber?
S.J. Ahhh, he started, oh ...
John Before you were born?
S.J. Oh, no, wouldn't be before I was born. I was very young when they went to Bowarrady though. Yaran?....... not Bowarrady. Y........? ???? Y ..... well Wison Hart, no, oh dear, they went to Woolgoolver???? about 1912, I think.
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John So that it's always been these two sawmills that took timber off Fraser Island? As far as you can remember?
S.J. Sim got a bit.
John Sim?
S.J. Yes, only nothing compared with the other two.
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John So, that from the time you were a young lad you would have been going to Fraser Island with your father on the punts?
S.J. Yes, on the punt, the trip down and back.
John And when did you start to actually work on Fraser Island?
S.J. 1918.. the latter part.
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S.J. Gordon Peters - if you want to know anything about the horse business or anything like that, he'll .... do you know Gordon Peters down at the Bay?
John No.
S.J. Well he was on Fraser Island more than I.
John Yes, is he a blackfellow?
S.J. A half-caste lad, He's really a half caste. Very decent people too.
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John Yes, well I will try to track him down.
Your brother also worked on Fraser Island? How was he involved in it. The Jarvis' were xxxxx long associated with it.
S.J. Yes, well
my uncle drove the loco at, for, Wilson, Hart & Hyne, and his son worked on the loco for some time then he bought bullock temas, and he pulled timber at Woolgoolbver to a tramline too. He had 2 teams.
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John There is still a mark on Fraser Island. I think they call it "the 7-20" the 7 mile 20 chains of the tramline that was downhill all the way down to the Wharf.
S.J. Right to the Wharf. Well, I'll tell you then about this. Curly Cooper, and a bloke by the name of Singer Pearce..Singer Pearce had a shop here once..he went to work for McKenzies and the driver of the loco was Curly Cooper.. I think he came from the country somewhere..well, they brought out two tankloads of water out to the scrub to xxxxxxxxxxxx Wilschefskis. There was Henry Wilschefski, August Wilschefski, Albert Berthelsen and Tommy Berthelsen. They are all dead now. I'm the only one left that had bullocks on Fraser Island. I thought I was the only one a couple of months back, but I forgot about an old chap over Granville..Jack Dempster. He was on the Island all his life. I think he was pretty near born there.

USC184_0003 
[Interview transcript]
John: The old teamsters used to always regard some areas as being xxxxxxxxx of special beauty on the island. Like that area there, at the head of Woolgoolver Creek.
S.J: Yah, well it only got that name Pile Valley, it was just the head of Woolgoolvber Creek. Turpentine Patch, you see, we'd call it..Turpentine Patch. Blackbutt, it all seemed to have its patches of timber. Now, at the head, or pretty near the end of the Blackbutt scrub, before you went down the hill into the grass country, like, on the back beach, a fire went through there, and the young blackbutt, regerminated as thick as..the stuff, I don't know what it's like today, how much it's grown there.
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John: Yes, it is. The deepest lake on the Island.
S.J.: Yes, that's what they told me. The niggers say "devil-devil" there. They never went near Wabby Lake much.

USC184_0005
John Is there any area, that you would say, that you know, that was very, very pretty? On Fraser Island?
S.J. Oh, yes, Well, I don't know. I couldn't says that there was any- thing ugly about it really. The southern end was more grass country, you know, like that. I always liked all along Eurong and that there, and the back beach.
---
John Can you think of anything else that we should know, for the record, about Fraser Island. How many logs would you take in a day, when you were loading the drays? You had two loads a day, or you tried to.
S.J. A couple of good logs - two logs a day pretty well.

USC185_0001 
He said that prior to coming ashore on Fraser Island they had kept to sea because they feared attacks by blacks and in one place had been threatened.
---
Woman claims to have been slave of blacks Fraser Island. July 1836: Fraser Island Aborigines surrounded the remaining six exhausted, sunburnt mariners from the Stirling Castle and stripped them of their clothes and forced them into slavery.
---
##############################
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The committee would like
to acknowledge the use of
the Mitchell Library,
Brisbane.
Text is from "Discovering
Fraser Island and
Cooloola" by John Sinclair.
##############################

USC185_0002 
Graham said that he was told that Mrs. Fraser, "the She Ghost", was at the "Wa-Wa" (Place of Crows) corroboree ground at Elanda Point on the shores Lake Cootharaba, and that Lt Baxter was on "Tome" (Southern end of Fraser Island). After making a daring solo rescue of Baxter from Fraser Island in a commandeered and less-than- seaworthy canoe and against the tide Graham reached Lt. Otter at "Gullirae" (Double Island Point) and then set off to walk 30 miles down Teewah Beach across the dunes and wading through the swamps to the edges of Cootharaba Lake to reach Wa-Wa without rest.

USC189_0001 
For four years I have been trying to locate a Ph. D. thesis I have been informed was written by a Dr. McKenzie at Sydney University relating to his study of Fraser Island's aboriginal artifacts sometime in the early post war years.

USC207_0001 
[Title page]
FIRE
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM

(Picture: Queensland Gov Symbol) Queensland Government

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service

Fraser Island
World Heritage Area

Prepared by: Anthony Thomas
GIS Mapping by: Rayelene Brown
Version: / 4 / 2001

Fraser Island World Heritage Area• Fire Management Strategy

USC207_0002
Please find attached a preliminary discussion draft of the Fraser Island Fire Strategy.

USC207_0003 
[Table of contents]
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Appendices

List of Maps
General Introduction
1.0 Introduction to Fraser Island
1.1 Location
1.2 Tenure and Management
1.3 Legislation .and Management Planning
2.0 Natural History
2.1 Geology
2.2 Dune Formation
2.3 Soils and Soil Profile Development
2.4 Geomorphology / Biogeography
2.5 Climate - General
2.5.1 Fraser Island
2.5.2 Rainfall
2.5.3 Temperature
2.5.4 Humidity
2.5.5 Wind
2.5.6 Cyclones

3.0 Fire Regimes -Past, Present and Future
3.1 The Fire Regime Concept
3.1.1 Fire Intensity
3.1.2 Fire Season
3.1.3 Fire Frequency
3.1.4 Fire Type
3.1.5 Fire Extent and Mosaic
3.2 Pre-Human (natural) fire regimes
3.2.1 General
3.3.2 Fraser Island
3.4 Historic (post-European colonisation) Fire Regimes
3.4.1 General
3.4.2 Wildfire History
3.4.3 Prescribed Burn History
3.5 Fire Management Planning
4.0 General Management Objectives and Guiding Ecological Principles
4.1 Objectives for Fire Management
4.2 Philosophical Approaches to Fire Management
4.3 Guiding Ecological Principles
5.0 Flora
5.1 Introduction to the Flora of Fraser Isand
5.2 Fraser Island Vegetation Classification System
5.3 General Response of Flora to Fire
5.3.1 Evolutionary Context
4
Fraser Island World Heritage Area• Fire Management Strategy

USC207_0004
Distribution and Floristics on Fraser Island

USC281_0001 
Island AIRWAYS * Aeromarine Island Services
ISLAND AIRWAYS PTY. LTD. offer flights to suit
every pocket from local Joy Flights to Day Trips to
Fraser Island and Half day trips to Lady Elliot Coral
Island the southern most part of the Great Barrier
Reef.
See the coloured sands and Orchid Beach Resort
on Fraser Island or see the wonders of the Barrier
Reef and walk on the coral reef or view the colourful
fish and coral from the glass bottom boat.

USC281_0002
ISLAND QUEEN
CRUISE TO THE ISLANDS ABOARD THIS 60 FEET OF COMFORT
FULLY LICENSED BY HARBOUR AND MARINE DEPARTMENT
CONNECTS WITH BUS TOURS OF FRASER ISLAND

USC281_0003
[Photo caption]
A large satinay log, from Fraser Island.

---
F.I.D.O is the watchdog of Fraser Island. Its two hundred members are con- cerned with the wisest use of the natural resources of Fraser Island.

This booklet has been published by F.I.D.O to portray Fraser Island as it is in 1971, and with particular reference to its tourist attractions, its timber industry and its scientific interest.

F.I.D.O is not opposed to sandmining but F.I.D.O has opposed the granting of further sandmining leases UNTIL a comprehensive survey has been carried out to determine the best possible uses, in the long term, of all of Fraser Island's natural resources.

F.I.D.O would like as many people as possilbe to individually see and understand the unique qualities of Fraser Island, so that they will have a greater appreciation of the need for a comprehensive survey - to make provision for the best land use taking into account the competing demands of forestry, tourism, national parks and sand-mining.

---
[Photo caption]
Freshwater lakes at the northern end of Fraser Island.

---
WHERE IS FRASER ISLAND?

Approximately one hundred miles due north of Brisbane, Fraser Island is separ- ated from the mainland by the relatively shallow Sandy Straits, which vary in width from three to five miles. Fraser Island forms the eastern side of Hervey Bay, shelter- ing the bay and the false delta of the Mary River from the prevailing strong south easterly trade winds and providing safe small boating under ideal conditions.

Fraser Island is the largest Island off the East Australian coast. It is 617 square miles in area and with the exception of Indian Head and Waddy Point is composed entirely of sand, with some hills reaching almost to 800 feet in height. Apart from being the largest sand island in the world it has Australia's most northern open ocean surfing beaches. All beaches further north are sheltered by the Great Barrier Reef.

Fraser Island is seventy-seven miles from Sandy Cape, its most northern feature, to Hooh Point in the south.

USC281_0004
Flinders was the next recorded white man to visit Fraser Island. In 1799 he sailed the "Norfolk" into Hervey Bay and named some of the western features including Triangle Cliffs, the coloured sands of Arch Cliffs and White Cliffs. In 1802 he re-turned along the eastern coast in the "Investigator". Flinders too commented on the fragility of Fraser Island's exposed coast and sandhills. He said, "our course at night was directed by the fires on the shore". Flinders proceeded, landed three parties at Sandy Cape near where Sandy Cape lighthouse stands. One party collected firewood, another party of six naturalists under botanist Brown studied the flora whilst Flinders befriended the aboriginals whom he considered extremely numerous and of good physique.

Although Flinders suspected Fraser Island to be an island he marked it on his maps as "The Great Sandy Peninsula". It was not until Andrew Petrie sailed his risky craft through Sandy Strait in 1842 to camp on Fraser Island, and to subsequently discover the Mary River, that it was realised that Fraser Island was in fact, an island.
---
The main attraction of Fraser Island is its unspoiled beauty.
---
Filtered by the sand and uncontaminated by clay, the crystal clear fresh water is one of the most treasured resources of Fraser Island, both for recreation and for drinking.
---
The most magnificent colours sands on Fraser Island, if not the world, are the Cathedrals north of the "Moheno" wreck.
---
Sand, surf and unspoilt charm have drawn tourists to Fraser Island in an increasing stream over the last decade.

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 from 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.
---
...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.
---
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.

USC281_0006 
During World War II a commando camp was established at Mackenzie's Jetty and the 5277 ton steamer "Maheno", which ran aground on Fraser Island in a cyclone of 1935 whilst under tow to Japan, was used as a bombing target by the R.A.A.F.

FRASER ISLAND DEVELOPMENT SYD MELKSHAM Prop. POSTAL ADDRESS: Eurong Beach - Fraser Island - 4650
---
FRASER ISLAND OCEAN BEACH TOURING AND FISHING SAFARIS

WEEKLY TRIPS FOR PARTIES OF UP TO 8 PERSONS FULL COST $150 per party

TRIP INCLUDES... Transport for Hervey Bay to Fraser Island (Yidney Rocks) and return.

USC281_0007 
THE DISTURBERS

Great Fraser - "our" Island, don't die!
Only death will take this scene
Not the blindness from our tears,
As we watch your wealth destroy
The calm of other hidden years.

The sleeping sand stirring slightly
Under her children's moving feet
Each day, now wakens in terror
At the marauder's looting churn
Tearing her very life away.

Dorothy Tracey.
---
[Photo caption]
Native flora on the ocean beach, Fraser Island.
---
The prolific bird life of Fraser Island and its wide variety of plant life are major attractions to the naturalists. Only the thunder of surf can obliterate the songs of almost 200 varieties of birds records on Fraser Island. Cockatoos, wrens, honey- eaters, kingfishers, whistlers, robins and flycatchers are just some of the birds which abound on this 77 mile long sanctuary where shooting is strictly forbidden.

USC281_0008
A track through Fraser Island's rain forest.

THE TIMBER OF FRASER ISLAND.

Although supplying 7,000,000 super feet of timber annually, the timber areas of Fraser Island are limited to 30,000 acres of eucalytpus (8% of the island) 22,000 acres of satinay and brush base (5% of the island), and 6,000 acres of hoop pine and rain forest and 6,000 acres of cypress forest, (each 3% of Fraser Island). Yet in 1948 Fraser Island contributed 5% of all timber cut from Crown lands of the state. All the commercial timber is logged south of Bowarrady which is in the northern limit of commercial timber.
---
The rainforests of Fraser Island have been logged of their most valuable species notably Hoop Pine, Kauri Pine, Satin Oak, Bennetts Ash, Bumpy Ash and Quandong.
---
THE ABORIGINES

Fraser Island is believe to have supported between 2,000 and 3,000 aborigines in 1850. They were all members of the Kabi nation whose territory extended over the whole of the Mary, Burrum, Noosa, Maroochy and Mooloolah River basins. The Kabi nation was divided into 19 sub tribes or clans, each with its own tribal lands with clearly defined boudaries. The Butchulla tribe is reported to have occupied Fraser Island.
---
The aborigines of the island were generally well-built with good muscle. Their hair was usually jet black and the men grew bushy curly whiskers and moustaches. They ranged in height from 5 feet to 6 feet but averaged 5 ft. 6 ins. The woman averaged 5 feet. Both sexes were extremely agile and very strong, and all went naked except for pubic aprons which were sometimes worn.
---
The natives of Fraser Island possessed the same type of weapons and implements as their mainland neighbours, except for the woomerah. Their canoes were made from the bark of the iron-bark tree and were used for trips for fishing and hunting dugong and turtle.

USC281_0009 
Gone are the exciting days of the log crafts, the bullock teams, Mackenzie's Sawmill, the tram- lines with their steam locos, and timber getters' skirmishes with the aboriginals. Yet the timber industry has sustained an interest in Fraser Island throughout its history.

USC281_0010
NATIONAL PARKS

For a long time now people have been agitating for a national park on Fraser Island. The first recommendation for a National Park was made in 1959 for extensive park on the northern end of Fraser Island.

So far there have been no National Parks gazetted on Fraser Island but there are a number of Beauty Spots, totally 6,053 acres (out of a state total of 11,840 acres).
---
Many people believe that there should be an extensive National Park on the northern end of Fraser Island for the following reasons:- (1) EXTENT - Fraser Island can accommodate a 1,000,000 acre national park in the Parishes of Caree, Bowarrady and Wathumba without intruding on any areas which are being logged by the Forestry Department. Although most of the island, almost 400,000 acres, is a state forest only one sixth (or 65,000 acres) carries commercial forest. With Queensland having less than 0.7% of its area preserved as National Parks, extensive national parks of this size are needed urgently.

Waddy Point, one of several basalt outcrops on Fraser Island.
---
(3) NATURALNESS - Large areas at the northern end of Fraser Island have not been exploited by white man. Once disturbed, the naturalness here is irreplaceable.
---
(5) FRAGILITY - The island sand is vulnerable to disturbance. The ecosystems are not robust and if shattered, stability may be lost. (6) REPRESENTATIVENESS - Plant communities vary in type and location. The number of systems included in the proposed national park are representative of the remaining 75% of Fraser Island.
---
(9) RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL VALUE - Dynamics of sand movements are not yet well understood, but more knowledge is vital for the proper use and management or our coastal resources. Fraser Island provides an opportunity for this research. (10) RECORDED HISTORY - White history of Fraser Island is brief and impressive but already the treasures of stored history in the aboriginal middens have been the subject of an important doctorate thesis.
---
No doubt a comprehensive survey of all the natural resources of Fraser Island is need to determine the validity and relevance of these criteria to the proposed national park thus defining the best possible land use for the long term benefit of man.

USC295_0001 
[Title page]
Reminiscences
of
Fraser Island
by Rollo Petrie

Presented in appreciation
by John Sinclair
on behalf of the
Fraser Islander Defenders Organisation
on the occassion of the launching of the
Eliza Fraser Sesqui-Century

22nd May 1986

USC295_0002 
MOONBI 41, Page 1
THE PETRIES AND FRASER ISLAND
The pioneering Petrie family headed by Andrew Petrie first came to Queensland during the early days of the penal settlement, where Andrew was superintendent of Works. During the time the Petrie family played a prominent part in pioneering Queensland, leaving the Petrie names in several parts of Brisbane and suburbs and Queensland.

In 1842 when the penal settlement closed and Queensland was being opened up for free settlement, Andrew Petrie led a party to explore and discover the Moonaboola River (The Mary) which they had heard aborigines talk about in Brisbane. They wanted to see if it was suitable for free settlement, particularly grazing. They picked up WANDI (escaped convict Bracefell) at Noosa, and he showed them the way across the Wide Bay Bar into Great Sandy Strait. They camped one night at Stewart Island (adjacent to Fraser Island) where they made their way up to North White Cliffs where WANDI, who had lived for years with the blacks and visited Fraser Island, found a local aborigine to guide them up the MOONABOOLA RIVER on 10th May 1842.
---
ROLLO PETRIE'S REMINISCENCES History shows blacks who had been herded on Fraser Island first by Protector of Aborigines, Archibald Meston, and his son Harrold and later by several missionaries, were rounded up with help of Native Police and shipped to the mainland to various settlements.

USC295_0003
Not long after this in 1917, this chap was moved from the island because he threatened white women. He became very aggressive. All missionary trained blacks were unreliable from my experience, in the west and north. Maybe they are better now. I think he eventually moved to Palm Island but his wife and four children remained behind on Fraser Island and in the district. While this chap lived on the Island. Jerry Jerome came to live there. He was an aboriginal boxer who went to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They pensioned him off and he settled on Fraser Island.
---
MOONBI -
A JOURNAL OF
FRASER ISLAND
Subscription $5.00 p.a.
Available from FIDO
Ltd P.O.Box 420
Maryborough 4650
(Picture: Man starting a camp fire)

USC295_0004 
Much exploration was done but although much heavy mineral was located on the Eastern side of the Island, the western side in the Krambruk Dune lands was so lacking in any heavy minerals or other impurities that two separate Mining Companies, Thiess Brothers and later Dillingham Constructions, sought leases of up to 2000 hectares to mine and extract silica sand for industrial purposes.
---
However despite the increasing number of visitors, the Top End still enjoys more wilderness than any other part of Fraser Island or South East Queensland.
---
ANOTHER MARYBOROUGH
The MARYBOROUGH CHRONICLE needs little excuse for editorials on the subject of resuming Fraser Island sandmining.

USC295_0005 
One of the exploits of Z Force related by Mr Allen Russell, former manager of Dillingham Mining Company, who had trained on Fraser Island, was that a unit had to leave the camp, sneak into Maryborough by canoe and mark the shipping in the Mary River with a cross where they could have planted and detonated explosive charges.
---
Following the war the Z Force Installation was offered to the Queensland Government as a going concern, complete with lighting plants, etc. to be used as a Forestry Headquarters for Fraser Island.
---
There is no evidence to recall the riotous mutiny of the late 1920's, reported in MOONBI 36. There is no evidence to recall the aboriginal occupation. There is no evidence of tragedy and trauma and the happiness experienced here. Yet the McKenzie area has figured more prominently in the history of Fraser Island than any other part.
---
SID JARVIS'S FRASER ISLAND

MOONBI 40 continues the series of reminiscences of Fraser Island's veterans. In this paper Sidney Granville Jarvis ex bullocky of Maryborough recalls his memories of the bullocky days.

I was born at Granville, a suburb of Maryborough, on the 13th March 1898. I attended the Granville State School, together with two of the Owens.

The Owens were an aboriginal family, and Henry, who later became known as Jo, or Banjo, was one of the brothers, and Maidie was his sister. She was Mrs. Ross. The Owens family has been associated with Fraser Island for up to 75 years.

My own father started punting timber from Fraser Island around about 1908 or 1910. He used to punt timber for Edward Armitage.
---Sometimes they did five trips a month. He would take one trip to Harts and one trip to Hynes. These two sawmills used to take most of the timber off Fraser Island as far as I can remember. Although, at one stage Sims did get a bit, but nothing compared with the other two.

I used to travel with my father on the punt, but from 1916 or the later part of 1918, I started working on Fraser Island with bullocks, and I worked there for approximately 11 years. I only took my bullocks off Fraser Island in 1929 because they started to talk about trucks. I was always interested in cattle and horses, not trucks.
---
My brother also worked in the timber on Fraser Island. As young men we used to camp at a place known as Louisa's Camp. It was a couple of miles further out from where the water was.

USC295_0006 
I can remember one area of Blackbutt scrub which was burnt when a young fire got through there, and the young blackbutt regenerated as thick as anywhere on the island.
---
I can recall too, some of the early history regarding the demise of the McKenzies sawmill on Fraser Island. Of course there was a yarn that these mills [print missing] Maryborough didn't help the operation survive, but I would [??] know about that yarn. The trouble arose with the [wh???] labourers who had to go down to load the timber, and I think that's what broke it, because they'd all require houses and other facilities and amenities.
---
It was a hard life working with the bullocks. We had to take [t??] loads a day. We tried to get a couple of logs each day. We would stay over on the Island for about a month and your worked [??] days a week.

USC295_0007
Continuing the remminiscences of Rollo Petrie whose family has had a 130 year association with Fraser Island from MOONBI 41.
---
We moved to live on Fraser Island in 1914.
---
Mum was one of only two white women on Fraser Island at that time. The other woman was Mrs. Pat Seery. Pat and Mrs. Seery were at the telephone station near the mouth of Bogimbah Creek to the mainland underwater and to the Sandy Cape Lighthouse. The lived over five miles from us.

USC295_0008
Patric Seery took bullocks to the island in 1868, and O'Hara sometime later took over a horseteam.
---
A small camp of blacks was at Bogimbah at that time. The blacks were moved from Fraser Island in 1905.
---
[Photograph] PHOTO CAPTIONS
TENT TOWN. Above: A typical forestry camp of tents. Below: "Bark Gunyahs" were still in vogue on Fraser Island in 1940. Both photos by courtesy of Blue Austin.

USC295_0009 
In this Third Part of Rollo Petrie's memories of his young days on Fraser Island from 1913 to 1922 he recalls days in 1916 near the mouth of Woongoolbver Creek where the stand of Hoop Pines records the site of the Petrie's second Forestry Camp.

USC295_0010
The football match was one [??] the biggest events on Fraser Island in a decade was attended by almost every island resident and lots of people from Hervey Bay who brought a [??] of liquor.

USC295_0011
SKIPPER ARMITAGE - AN ISLAND LEGEND

In this first part of a two part feature on Edward E. Armitage MOONBI endeavours to provide the background to one of the more articulate Fraser Island pioneers - a man with almost fifty years of association with Fraser Island.
---
"The Wild Scotsman" and a duel with a tribal aborigine at Graham's Creek (near Maryborough). He survived the latter with a narrow escape from death and was subsequently honoured by being accepted as a "Bunda", white member of the Wide Bay Tribe. It was this status as a "Bunda" which enabled Armitage to establish such a close bond with and understanding of aboriginal culture in the Maryborough-Fraser Island area.
---
The success of Armitage's engineering was acknowledged in 1928 when he wrote of the locomotive steam engine he constructed:

"It is still running, though it is 43 years since it was built. It has for many years past been working as a winding engine in Hyne and Son's sawmills in Maryborough, and does all the hauling up and down between the mill and shipping wharf. (hauling in the logs punted from Fraser Island)."

Having left the sawmill he went into contracting business whish led him to build a telephone line from Bogimbah to Sandy Cape Lighthouse 1885. He comments on this chapter of his life which brought him into contact with Fraser Island as follows:...

USC295_0012
Skipper was helping or conducting, I am not sure which, a survey of part of the Island. The usual set up of those days was - camp, men, camp cook, e[??] [??] no going home each night).
---
[Photograph] LOADING TIMBER in Woongoolbver Creek 1934 into the "Archos". The log ramp and loading ramp are well downstream of Orange Tree Camp. It was here that the tramline which operated on Fraser Island from 1915 - 1923 terminated and it was from this point that Skipper Armitage loaded most of the timber punted from Fraser Island during that period. The logging dump is still used today.
---
Skipper Armitage was a remarkable man with a fiery Irish temper and a lovable Irish way. He was well known to Rollo Petrie who had placed on record a number of the myriad of anecdotes relating to this remarkable old Fraser Island pioneer.
---
In MOONBI 43 we have endeavoured to sketch some of the background of this colourful character and in MOONBI 44 we will publish his more detailed recollections of Fraser Island and its aborigines.

USC295_0016
The Woongoolbver-Eurong road across the Island would be the best grade wise crossing of the Island, I think. I was chain and peg boy for Dad when he surveyed the cutting and would spend much of the days with the gang of workers putting the cutting in. I did a lot of chain work for Dad too when he was measuring up blocks for clearing etc.

In 1922 I think, just after we had gone from the Island, Dad went back for an inspection trip. I went with him. We stayed or camped in the house which was vacant at the time.

USC295_0020
MEMORIES OF FRASER ISLAND Depuying Camp - 1913

Fred (Bill) Epps came galloping up the bank and over to the tent where Dad was getting a feed ready, jumped off his horse and said, "I've been bitten by a snake." "How, and where?" I got off and squatted down where we always have a drink. By this time he had lowered his strides and sure enough two punctures showed on his posterior. Dad to action - procured his razor (cut-throat) and getting Bill in position, made the necessary incision rubbed Condy's into it and at this juncture Buck Geoghan turned up and got the story. He showed concern. "You must not go to sleep. You have to keep moving all night." Poor Bill mooched round the fire. The other two after a while went off to bed leaving instructions to keep awake.

USC295_0021
DINGOES ON FRASER ISLAND A comment by Rollo Petrie

Up to 1920's to my knowledge there were very many dingoes on theIsland. Large packs would serenade when winter started prior to their breeding season. No matter where one happened to be at night there would be always a corroboree of the dingoes. Last year's pups' voices were distinguishable among the older talent.
---
On the Island there was no worry about water, but in those days food was not plentiful. It would not be pleniful now if there was an equivalent number of dogs on Fraser Island as there was in the early 1900's. The few dingoes now on the Island could live comfortably on scraps and garbage scavenged from campers and fishermen but in the early days they would have to work hard to survive.
---
A considerable source of food for dingoes on Fraser Island was Wongs (Eugorie). This was readily apparent by observing the dingoes' dung. The wongs were chewed up shell and all. The shell fragments in quantity passed on through the bowel in some cases with the shell almost completely intact.

USC618_0001
The three small selections of 1880 were taken when the Quarantine Station and Telegraph Office were at the White Cliffs (" Balargan").

Mr. Harry Aldridge had a large number of cattle and horses on the island for many years, but it cannot be said that either were a complete success. Cattle frequently fattened fairly well, but the birthrate was low, and vitality decreased, while the hoofs of the horses were large and soft. Goats only thrive for a short time. All classes of domestic animals get the sand in their stomachs with the herbage, and it affects them more or less seriously. The island would be an ideal place for rabbits, but there are none there.
About twenty-six years ago they were placed on Big Woody lsland, by the late H. B. Sheridan, and there are still a few there, but the island is too hard and rocky for burrows, and there is not much other shelter.

There is no sign of coal on any part of Fraser Island, but there are seams of lignite on the east coast, and a very pure white clay, which ought to be specially valuable for the finer qualities of pottery. Our potters would do well to have it freely tested. This clay was eaten in small quantities by the aboriginals, of whom only about a score are now left on the island.
---
A brief reference to the aboriginals: Fifty years ago there were from 2,000 to 3,000 aboriginals on Fraser Island, an exceptionally fine race of people. To-day there are about twenty left on the Island!

USC680_0002
This being the case, what is the official name of the sandblow between Orchid Beach and Ocean Lake which I had previously called Bird's Blow? There is no name listed on either the Sunmap nor the map accompanying the gazettal. It appears that there could be a major omission of an official or recognized place name for a very significant landmark/ locality on Fraser Island.

USC697_0001
Fraser Island Interpretive Centre

The Centre will address a gap in knowledge and understanding of the global values of the world's largest sand island and encourage exploration and awareness. It is designed to complement other current and planned interpretation on the island and wider region.
---
K'gari is one of nature's great masterpieces. Crafted by wind and water, its ancient sands are constantly moving. Its creatures plants are always adapting, evolving. The island offer an almost spiritual experience. Its beauty is mind blowing. And its unique ecology and geology like to defy nature's conventions.

USC697_0002 
PANEL 2 CONTENT: Paradise for more than 60,000 years, the Butchulla People followed three lores to live in harmony with K'gari's animals and plants, with its abundant fresh water lakes providing a source of life for all. Life changed forever with the arrival of Europeans in the 1850's. For about 130 years K'gari was logged for timber and for 25 years it's sand was mined for minerals.
---
PANEL 3 CONTENT In 1992, K'gari gained a place on one of the world's most sought-after lists- UNESCO's World Heritage Register. Joining locations such as the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, Galapagos Islands and the Amazon, it was officially recognised as one of earth's most outstanding natural wonders.
To gain World Heritage status, an area must meet at least one of ten selection criteria. Fraser Island fulfilled three:
1. Exceptional natural beauty
2. Outstanding example of the earth's history, including on-going geological processes
3. Outstanding evolutionary processes of ecology and biology
---
What does it mean? World Heritage-lisitng by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recognises K'gari's exceptional universal value and ensures its protection and conservation.

USC697_0003 
INTRO PANEL CONTENT: Ever evolving and constantly moving, K'gari's immense sand dunes, sand blows and cliffs of coloured sands have been fashioned by wind and water since ancient times. The Island is a sequence of at least eight overlapping dune systems from ages dating back almost 750,000 years-the worlds's oldest recorded sequence.
---
PANEL 2 CONTENT: K'gari is home to more than 40 exceptional and diverse sandblows that move up to 1 metre across the island each year.
---
The largest blowout on the Island is Knifeblade Sandblow. At 150m above sea level, it stretches more than 3.5km inland.

USC926_0001
MOONBI is the name given by the Butchulla Aborigines to the central part of their homeland, Fraser Island or "K'gari" MOONBI is the newsletter of Fraser Island Defenders Organization Limited FIDO, "The Watchdog of Fraser Island", aims to ensure the wisest use of Fraser Island's natural resources
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Likewise there are no plans being advanced for addressing the most serious degradation of Indian Head and many other very obvious sites of degradation on Fraser Island.
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This, combined with the lack of any form of reporting including removal of reports on Fraser Island in the Departmental Annual Reports, and unanswered or very cursorily answered queries show an alarming lack of transparency.
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In this issue is an essay on why places of Inspiration, and Fraser Island is certainly one outstanding example, are worthy of preservation. It is not just the landscape but the trees that inspire and it is FIDO’s contention that the indifference over looking after even the special trees on Fraser Island is indicative of a lack of appreciation to preserve those things about Fraser Island that inspire.

two weeding operations since April and a weekend inspection in August as well as other visits by FIDO members to monitor progress on Fraser Island plus working with the NPAQ to advance the George Haddock Track on Fraser Island to the approvals stage.
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FIDO backgrounders analyze issues or attempt to summarize some very significant aspects of Fraser Island that need to be considered as part of the total Fraser Island picture. So far FIDO has published 45 Backgrounders. All can be downloaded from our web site: www.fido.org.au. Saving Fraser’s Wild Dingoes puts FIDO’s case for strongly opposing any artificial feeding of dingoes.

The First People of Kgari provides a background history of the Butchulla people from the Dreamtime to 1905. Preserving the Natural Integrity of Fraser Island outlines the three main threats to integrity FIDO has identified.

USC935_0001 
MOONBI 131 MOONBI is the name given by the Butchalla Aborigines to the central part of their homeland, Fraser Island or “Kgari” MOONBI is the newsletter of Fraser Island Defenders Organization Limited FIDO, “The Watchdog of Fraser Island", aims to ensure the wisest use of Fraser Island’s natural resources
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That explained why a change of government in Queensland was in the interests of the Queensland and Fraser Island environment. FIDO plans more of these newsletters but they only reach our members or subscribers who have nominated their Email addresses. The Impact of Native Title: The determination that the Butchulla have Native Title for more than 95% of K’Gari on 24 October was a most joyous occasion. It is however a game changer as far as future K’Gari’s management is concerned. It also adds a new layer of responsibility in decision-making.
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IUCN’s World Heritage report Card for K’Gari: During the World Parks Congress, the IUCN released a report on each of the 197 natural, and 31 mixed World Heritage properties. Despite Australia’s bravado Australian sites could have been better. Fraser Island was marked better than Kakadu, Queensland’s Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef, but there is no room for complacency.
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Call for Volunteers: Last year volunteers made an amazing contribution to Fraser Island coordinating contributing 10 volunteer weeks.
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FIDO is now seeking volunteers
for this work, so vital if the natural integrity of K’Gari is to
be preserved.
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The second backgrounder deals with the issue of Marine Debris that is waste from other places washing up on the K’Gari’s shores. Fraser Island felt little impact from Cyclone Marcia.

USC1032_0001 
Fraser Island Defenders Organization

PO Box 71, GLADESVILLE, NSW 1675
Telephone (02) 9817 4660 - Fax (02) 9816 1642
FIDO - The Watchdog of Fraser Island
Aims to ensure the wisest use of Fraser Island's natural resources

Web Site: www.ido.org.au - E-mail: john@fido.org.au

21 April, 2002
Senior Conservation Officer
Natural Resource Management
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
PO Box 101
MARYBOROUGH QLD 4650
Dear Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service,

Re: Fraser Island Fire Strategy Summary
I wish to respond to the Draft Fraser Island Fire Strategy Summary on behalf of this organization.
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We believe that this should be the first principle stated. It is also very germane to this organization's main criticism of the present fire regime on Fraser Island which relates to the very vexed issue of "Banksia Serial Killing" which has been an issue of contention for more than a decade. Roads not to be widened to act as firebreaks: While we applaud the principles stated we do not see that this plan will address the issue of road sides being deliberately stripped of trees, particularly of banksias so that they can act more effectively as firebreaks. Currently we are seeing every road on Fraser Island open for public use as well as several management roads being progressively and aggressively stripped of all tall vegetation, most notably banksias.

USC1032_0002 — Fraser Island
...clear as anyone drives around Fraser Island that banksias have been singled out for
special treatment by tractor drivers.
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The greatest single obstacle to implementing a Fire Management Strategy on Fraser Island has been the lack of public understanding of the most significant role of fire in the ecology of the island. The public hysteria at seeing smoke rising over Fraser Island could be considerably abated if there was more explanation of the objectives of the fire management plan and how it will benefit Fraser Island's biodiversity.

USC1032_0003 — island
...We also believe that this kind of information should also be published as a brochure which would be available separately as well as being included in the information package given to every group of island visitors. This could also play a role in public safety and also explain why measures to prevent unplanned wildfires are enforced.