Lake Mckenzie, Maheno & Eli Creek

In day one of our 4WD adventure on Fraser Island, we took the inland sand track to Lake Mckenzie. It’s simply awe inspiring. A remote and pristine fresh water lake, turquoise water leading to deeper blue with immaculately white smooth sandy beaches and surrounded by rainforest. It’s the perfect combination and it must be one of the most amazing locations on this planet.

The backpackers had arrived in droves so we took Fraser Dingoe’s advice and followed a track to an exclusive secret beach adjacent to the main beach. We stayed for a while and once the tour groups headed off, aside from a few families, we had the place to ourselves. (See drone video).

Back on the track, we had 16km of sand to navigate to get to the main village, Eurong. This is the gateway to Fraser Island beach so we disengaged 4WD and headed up the coastal beach highway into what seemed like a never ending horizon of white beach, blue sky and rolling surf.

We followed a plane as it landed on the beach and continued up towards Maheno Ship wreck crossing Eli creek along the way. Our brief said slow down at creek crossings but I wasn’t paying attention to Eli Creek and we glided across like on a ride at Splash Mountain. Whoops.

SS Maheno was an ocean liner belonging to the Union Company of New Zealand that operated in the Tasman Sea, crossing between New Zealand and Australia, from 1905 until 1935.

She was washed ashore on Fraser Island by a cyclone in 1935 where the disintegrating wreck remains as a popular tourist attraction.

Back at Eli Creek, we passed a scrawny dingo and stopped for a dip in the fresh water creek.

A hard days work done... we head to our beach campsite before the tide turns and the sun sets.Read more