This pretty little bird is an Australian native called a Welcome Swallow. Like other members of their family the world over, they are acrobatic fliers, catching insects as the dart across ponds. I would liked to have gotten a nice shot of a welcome swallow in flight, displaying its familiar forked tail. But they’re just too fast for me. So I had to wait for one of them to take a short break on a reed along the banks of a pond on Fraser Island.
Fraser Island is a marvel unto itself, one I’d urge you to include on your Australian itinerary. It lies off the coast of Queensland near the city of Hervey Bay (which Australians pronounce as “Harvey Bay”). About 75 miles long and 15 miles wide at its widest point, it’s the world’s largest sand island, and the only place in the world where a rain forest grows on top of sand dunes.
Fraser Island and its sister islands were formed over hundreds of thousands of years as winds, waves and ocean currents have carried sands from the far south-east of Australia, and from as far away as Antarctica (but before Australian and Antarctica split from each other), out to the continental shelf, and in towards the land again in a zigzag pattern, to form a string of sand islands along the Queensland coast.
While most of the sand that makes up Fraser Island has come from the far south-east of Australia, some of it has traveled for thousands of miles and millions of years from Antarctica, starting its journey before Australia and Antarctica split from each other.
About 700 million years ago Antarctica had mountain ranges that rival the modern-day Himalayas. These mountain ranges were eroded with the resulting sands being accumulated on the continental shelf where Fraser Island now lies.
Periodic changes in the earth's temperature have created changes in sea levels which have helped to form the island.
There are two lodges on Fraser Island, and camping is permitted. If you’re not taking a guider tour of the island, you’ll need a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get around.