Hervey Bay Gossip

When Kingfisher Bay first announced that they would be cutting out the fast catamaran services from Hervey Bay to Fraser Island there was some people left wondering how they would ever be able to negotiate the steep stairs that were then fitted to the barges.

At the time Kingfisher Bay management indicated that they would be modifying the barges to allow better access to the passenger deck and that now seems to have happed. Here’s one of the barges leaving River Heads and you can clearly see that it’s fitted with new stairs.

Kingfisher Bay’s plans to cease operating a fast Cat service to Fraser Island comes to a head today with the very last fast service departing from Urangan at 10pm tonight.

From tomorrow morning it’s the slow boat (barge) to Fraser Island and it will leave from River Heads. While the resort’s general manager for tours and marine … David Hay … is quoted as saying that operating from River Heads is “… very convenient” it may be less so for people from Hervey Bay who may wish to travel over to the resort just for the day.

The Queensland Premier announced a new eco-tourism plan today that could see new eco-tourism accommodation being built in seven different locations around the state.

One of the sites identified in the plan is Eurong over on Fraser Island and expressions of interest are being called from private investors to establish semi-permanent accommodation in either tents or huts for tourists who might want to stay in any of the seven locations. Whoever builds the accommodation will lease the land from the State and run the accommodation themselves.

According to government figures tourists who visit the state’s national parks provide around $4.43 billion every year and that accounts for around 28 percent of total tourist spending in Queensland.

What do you do with 25 tonnes of rotting flesh and it’s in an inaccessible area?

Well if you’re the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service you’re not going to want to do much about it at all because to move a dead whale of that size … oh and it’s about 13 metres long … is going to be very expensive.

The only problem is that 25 tonnes of dead rotting whale is really going to be on the nose and people can smell it up to 7km away and right now there are plenty of people on Fraser Island who are downwind of it.. Understandably the locals want it moved and just as understandably the QPWS want to leave it where it is because they don’t consider it to be a hazard worth moving.

There has been yet another 4wd rollover on Fraser Island this morning. Two people were killed and eight others injured when a 4wd vehicle carrying 11 tourists rolled on the eastern side of the island about 8am.

Accidents involving 4wd vehicles carrying tourists … usually backpackers who are on self-drive tours of the island are not uncommon. While drivers who have little or no experience of 4wd operation in the difficult conditions experienced on Fraser Island are allowed to drive vehicles filled to capacity with people and luggage these accidents will continue to happen.

Some of these drivers have difficulty driving the vehicles around the streets of Hervey Bay so it’s no wonder that they encounter difficulties on the beaches where they have no idea of what is hidden in the sand.

A very pleasant evening was had by all who attended the wine and cheese evening at Mary Ryan’s in Hervey Bay last Wednesday night. The featured author was Peter Meyer the well-known Fraser Island photographer.

50% of the proceeds of the evening were donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Peter Meyer signs copies of his latest book at Mary Ryan’s bookstore

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist … or have a degree in wildlife … to know that dingoes are smart animals. Just how smart they are has become obvious since the state government started building those wire fences around the villages over on Fraser Island.

Since the first fence went up we can now see that dingoes are smarter than your average Queensland state government because the fences aren’t keeping the dingoes out at all - the dingoes are simply walking over the cattle grids that have been put in place to allow vehicular access.

And if you want proof that dingoes are accessing the protected areas via the cattle grids you’ll find a photo right here.

It seems that it would have been just as effective and a hell of a lot cheaper … not to mention more environmentally friendly … if the Minister hadn’t gone round nailing up a few signs that said “Dingoes Keep Out”

I guess the government is just going to have to move to plan B to keep those pesky dingoes away from humans. Do we have a plan B? Or are we just going to start shooting dingoes that are smarter than your average state government.

If we do that there may not be any dingoes left pretty soon.

We’ve all seen the usual photos from Fraser Island, the dingos, the beach, Eli Creek, the coloured sands and the Maheno but follow this link and you’ll find a very different photo taken by a tourist. It’s easy to imagine some prehistoric creature popping out of the ferns at any moment.

It’s hard to believe but it looks like there’s going to be a marathon run on Fraser Island.

A four-year-old girl was attacked by a dingo near Eurong on Fraser Island yesterday. The girl suffered bites to the thighs, buttocks and lower back that required treatment by a paramedic. The bites were later described as being ‘minor’.

Rangers are now hunting the dingo.

Dingo numbers are reported as being at their lowest for some time but that doesn’t mean that visitors can be complacent about the risk of attack and visitors are warned not to feed them or leave scraps where they can be scavanged by the animals.