Fraser Island Clean Up 2021 (Part 1)

Unfortunately, that’s a wrap for another 12 months. The result was just over 6 tons of rubbish collected from the beach all the way up to the light house at Sandy Cape – this year was a first for cleaning up north of Ngala Rocks and I believe that it is definitely something that should continue going forward. From our club we managed to collect close to 300kg of rubbish from our 6km stretch of beach which began 5km south of sandy cape and continued around the corner for another 1000 or so meters.

The weirdest and also largest things that our club picked up was a chest freezer and an entire iron bed frame – springs and all. No that was not a typo – trust me, I lifted it from Max’s roof rack. I know what I grabbed.

But that however is in the future. Let’s go back 3 days to the Thursday prior when Lucy / John and Barb / Graham Mac and yours truly headed off from Brisbane with the intention to meet up at the usual spot of the Caboolture twin servos at the Lucy amended time of 0700 – I wanted 0600, however I was given “the eyes” so I made an executive decision and moved our departure time right by an hour.

It was apparent that pretty much from the get-go that “a plan is a basis for change” was going to be almost the theme for this trip. There was a truck prang on the Port of Brisbane Motorway and so traffic was starting to play silly buggers pretty much back to the Old Cleveland Rd on ramp, however we managed to make it to the twin servos only a few minutes late where John and Barb were waiting for us.

Graham on the other hand managed to have a 20-minute blink after his alarm went off and so he was running about 30 minutes late. As John and Bard were camping up at Orchid Beach – we were staying at Dundaburra – and had to drive an extra 90 minutes up the beach they decided to go on ahead.

Eventually Graham / Lucy and I made it to Rainbow Beach and gave both the cruisers a top up – we found out later that diesel on the island was $2.30 – and we headed for the barge. We made a quick stop to deflate the tyres and with visions of the “I got bogged at Inskip Point” YouTube page in my mind we nudged it down onto the sand and headed to the barge pick up point.

There was absolutely nothing to be worried about. Inskip – and the entire Island including Ngala – could have been driven in 2wd due to the sand being that hard. We crossed the channel and for the first time in 18 months – 2 years for Lucy, I was back in my happy place. As I said before the beach was super hard and with the assistance of an outgoing tide, we made pretty good time to Eurong for a quick feed at the bakery. Well ok, it wasn’t exactly a quick feed. My pie had an internal temperature closer to that of a steel foundry so I may have held us up for a while before just deciding to sacrifice the roof of my mouth on the altar of expedience.
I may – or may not have sworn a bit…

Lucy grabbed the keys and decided to pilot the cruiser up the beach and with the tide getting further out, we made great time. There was a bit too much water to head around Poyungan Rocks so we headed up and over and back onto the beach. It was the same at Yidney Rocks, however Graham wasn’t towing and so he cruised around the front.

After a quick wash off in Eli Creek – it was running for ages along the bank this year before heading for the ocean – we made it past the Maheno and up to Dundaburra where we spent the rest of the afternoon getting ourselves set up and just chillaxing before having a feed and heading to bed.

Day 2 (Friday) kicked off way too early. I was up at 0400 to head back down the beach to Dili Village to pick up the rest of the club who had stayed at Rainbow Beach last night. I have to admit, driving down the beach by myself at that time of the morning with Metallica blaring, the spotties trying to cut a path through a ton of sea mist, knowing that I was probably the only person on 75 Mile beach at that time was a spooky experience.

Eventually, the sky started to brighten just as I was pulling up on the beach and I got a quick visit from a local to see if I had any scraps of food to offer. Once he realised that I was not an Uber Eats driver he quickly turned tail and faded into the gloom of the early morning.

Eventually, I heard some familiar voices on the UHF and within the next few minutes the rest of the club joined me. A quick snappy brief – and a breakfast pie thanks to Michelle and Andy – a collection of the registration forms and we headed up the beach. Another quick (ish) stop at Eurong where those who wanted took the chance to grab something to eat and a coffee while I stayed on the beach and handed our registration forms into Kathleen.

After regrouping we headed for a quick photo opp at the Maheno – for a few of our group this was their first time on Fraser Island – and we headed to Dundaburra where we split the group and I escorted the ones that were staying here into the camp, and I picked up the errant wife. A quick snappy wave to show everyone where we were camping, and it was back down to the beach to take the rest of the group up to Orchid Beach.

We made really good time up the beach. The tide was well on its way out so we were able to sit easily on 70 the entire way up to Indian Head. The rain over the past two weeks ensured that the bypass was super firm and there was zero issues getting everyone through in one go.

Actually, I don’t think anyone got bogged the entire time we were there.

Eventually we got to Orchid Beach and said g’day to the club members who were staying there before Lucy and I headed back down the beach to Dundaburra. Once we got back we had a bit of a social and then some lunch before I crashed and burned for a few hours. I have a vague memory of Lucy taking off in the cruiser – I think they went to Champagne Pools for a swim – however I stayed firmly in bed until close to about 4 when they got back. After dinner, we sat around the campfire and have a few quiet ales before everyone turned in fairly early on account of being up before daylight that morning.

(Lee AKA Mr Vice)