We think there is no better place for students to learn about the great outdoors than on the world's largest sand island - K'gari (formerly Fraser Island).
Bursting with natural and cultural history, geology and unique flora and fauna, Fraser is the perfect choice to take learning out of the classroom and into the outdoors.
Home to the Butchulla people who have lived on the island for over 5,500 years and called the island K'gari (meaning paradise), the island is filled with a rich cultural history, which is evident in its archaeological sites, middens and ceremonial bora rings.
European history credits its discovery to Captain James Cook who sailed by in May 1770.
The Butchulla people's traditional name for the island was K'gari which means paradise. According to Butchulla legend, island was named K'gari after the beautiful spirit who helped Yindingie, the messenger of the great god Beeral, create the land.
K'gari (Fraser Island) was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992 in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values including complex dune systems that are still evolving; perched dune lakes (the second highest concentration in Australia) and rainforests that grow in sand - the only place in the world where they do this at elevations of 200m.
K'gari (Fraser Island) has been two million years in the making and combines mangrove forests, wallum heath and peat swamps, eucalyptus woodland, sand dunes, coastal heaths and rainforests into an area just 1840km squared. Perched, barrage and window lakes are in abundance and silent running fresh-water creeks, fed from a natural aquifer that takes 100 years for the water to filer through. The two rocky outcrops, on island's eastern beach, were formed by volcanic activity 80 million years ago.
Whales, dugongs, dolphins, birds, dingoes, reptiles, amphibians and fish – the island is home to a diverse array of native terrestrial and water fauna. The island's flora is equally diverse from mangrove colonies to open woodland and dense subtropical rainforest growing completely in sand. K'gari (Fraser Island) famous Satinay trees were used to rebuild the London Docks (after the war) and the Suez Canal.
K'gari (Fraser Island) has it all.
