Life in Retirement

5^th Nov 2012

We’ve just returned from a great week on Fraser Island. For those that don’t know of or where Fraser Island is I will give a brief description. As the crow flies Fraser Island is a couple of hundred kilometres north of Brisbane basically off Hervey Bay, it is 123 kilometres long by 22 kls at its widest point and at 184,000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world. Now heritage listed it is a place of exceptional natural beauty with its long white sandy beaches, fresh water lakes and magnificent forestation. I highly recommend Googling Fraser Island or type in your browser - fraserisland.net for better info and some pics.

We got there by driving north from Brisbane traveling just over two and a half hours to Gympie where we turn off Eastwards to the coast at Rainbow Beach all up about 3.5 hrs, 4hrs if you stop for fuel and coffee en-route. Usually we fill up with fuel at Gympie on the highway, which for some reason or other is cheaper than Brisbane prices and then top right up again at Rainbow Beach to ensure we go onto the island with full tanks. Fuel can be purchased on the island at a couple of places but as would be expected it is pretty exy.

Having left Brisbane at 4:30am to get to Fraser Island on a falling tide we had breakfast at Rainbow Beach and then drove up the peninsula for a few kls to Inskip Point where the barge picks you up from the beach. Ten to fifteen minutes crossing the Wide Bay channel and we are at Hook Point on Fraser then the run north up 75 mile beach to Indian Head (Headland), at this point the island starts to change to a more north westerly direction. We drive through the sand blow where some novice always seems to be digging themselves out of the soft sand, then on to an area called the Champagne Pools, this is as far as the Back Packers and tourist day trippers are allowed to go. We then head inland through the bush for a few kilometres on a very soft and rough sand bush track until we reach the Waddy Point, Orchid Beach area. Orchid Beach is a freehold settlement one of a few on Fraser and is situated about half a kilometre back from the beach on high dune country. In the last few years quite a few large holiday homes have been constructed all of them with the fisherman in mind and catering for large groups. Like us, families or friends come in groups to share costs and in most cases fishing is the main focus.

It is also home to a few permanent residents and these are usually the houses with a tractor and boat parked on their lot, the tractor being required for beach launching and retrieval. Most of the homes are built on sloping ground and the majority are of the pole house type of construction, in some instances to maximise views but it is also seems to be a practical way of construction on sloping ground. Keep in mind the nearest concrete plant is about 100 kls away at Hervey Bay. There is no reticulated power on Fraser so the majority of homes are established with large solar systems, automatic generators and gas appliances, all very efficient. Tank water and spears provide soft water at good pressure and there is always plenty of hot water for showers at the end of a hard days fishing. All rental houses have good refrigeration and freezers and in recent years Telstra has established mobile phone coverage at Orchid Beach, also most places have satellite TV so you don’t do it tough. A light aircraft landing strip runs alongside the Trading Post, Orchid Beaches one stop general store, bar and fuel servo. I didn’t hear or see any aircraft movements the week we were up there, but a few years ago a plane flew in every day and when a young boy got killed by a dingo the place was busier than Kingsford Smith Airport.

We only saw a few dingoes on this trip, apparently they can still be a problem even though they have obviously been culled to reduce numbers. I may be wrong but I don’t recall any problems with the dingoes when there were brumbies on the island, but in their wisdom the National Parks people have eliminated them altogether stating they weren’t native to the island and were damaging the environment ???? I guess they know best!!!

On the fishing front, we had a little difficulty getting fresh bait in the first few days, relying on the Eugerie (Pipis) we had the presence of mind to gather on the way up the beach on day one. Eventually we got onto the elusive sand worm and fortunately Merl acquired the knack of getting these tricky customers so between the two of us we got enough for all of us to fish for a couple of days, the next time we went looking for them they were even harder to find. The first days fishing was the most productive but after that it was pretty dismal and on a couple of days we hardly got a bite, don’t know if it was the changing wind direction or full moon that did it but we ended up with three good feeds and the weather was magnificent so we were all very happy.

We still haven’t had any decent rainfall in Brisbane the grass is looking like hay and plants are starting to look very tired. We have an underground rainwater tank but there hasn’t been enough rain to put anything into it since we have been in the house. I guess it will start soon and then we will soon be whinging about the humidity and if it rains for more than a few days we’ll whinge about that too.

7 weeks to Xmas Yikes !!!

I have spent the last couple of days sorting out our gear so we can start re-packing the caravan in preparation for our long awaited trip. I would like to get away around the end of January after all the holidays are over and a bit of sanity may have crept back into the travelling public again, but who knows a sudden wind change and we may be off sooner.

Surprise surprise, Nancy organised a picnic in the park for today with a few lady volunteers she worked with at Braille House and it’s raining and miserable. Months of dry and beautiful weather and Murphy has stepped in. Mustn’t complain though we badly need it.