Sandy Cape (also known by the Indigenous name of Woakoh) is the most northern point on Fraser Island (also known as K'gari and Gari) off the coast of Queensland, Australia. [1] [2] The place was named Sandy Cape for its appearance by James Cook during his 1770 voyage up the eastern coast of Australia aboard the Endeavour . [1]
To the south the next two ocean headlands are Waddy Point and Indian Head (the latter was also named by Cook noting "...on which a number of Natives were assembled..." and is also known as Tukkee in the Badtjala language, meaning stone or stone knife). [3] [4] [5]
The cape is protected within the K'gari section of the Great Sandy National Park. BreakSea Spit extends about 30 kilometres (19 mi) north of Sandy Cape. [6] Nesting loggerhead and green turtles use the remote, sandy location as a rookery. [7] Nighttime driving along the beach at Sandy Cape is banned during the nesting season. The vegetation at the cape is stunted and windswept. [6] The foredunes are lightly covered by spinifex grass.
Matthew Flinders, travelling aboard the Investigator , landed at Sandy Cape in 1802 [8] and noted the desolate landscape. In August 1803, the ships Cato and Porpoise were both sunk off the cape in bad weather.
In late December 1842, HMS Fly anchored behind Sandy Cape where some crewmen and naturalists went ashore and commented on the poor sparse surroundings. The Fly returned in April 1845 and took water from an abundant supply behind the beach and about 7 miles within the Cape.
The Seabelle was wrecked in 1857, the American Bark "Panama" [9] in 1864, and the Chang Chow in 1884 in waters closer to the cape which may contain hidden sandbars. [6] Because of the number of shipwrecks in the vicinity the Sandy Cape Light was constructed in 1870. This marked the first permanent European settlement on Fraser Island. [10]
Sandy Cape Provisional School opened in September 1870, initially to provide schooling for the children of the four lighthouse keepers. [11] By 1878, there were "30 to 40" children in the area. [12] The school closed circa 1918. [13] [14]
The SS Marloo was wrecked in September 1914 on a shoal off Sandy Cape and was beached north of Waddy Point. [15]
Clement Lindley Wragge set up an extensive network of weather stations around Queensland, including one at Sandy Cape in 1891. [16] The cape is still used as a reference point for weather observations; [17] however from May 2015, it has been downgraded to a daily observation, [17] compared with the half-hourly observations at some other weather stations. [18]
Vehicle access to Sandy Cape is only available by the eastern beach at low tide. [6] Camping is permitted in the area and it is a popular location with anglers.
Great Sandy National Park is a coastal national park in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia.
K'gari, also known by its former name Fraser Island, is a World Heritage-listed sand island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland, Australia. The island lies approximately 250 km (160 mi) north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is within the Fraser Coast Region local council area. The world heritage listing includes the island, its surrounding waters and parts of the nearby mainland which make up the Great Sandy National Park. In the 2021 census, the island had a population of 152 people. Up to 500,000 people visit the island each year.
Moreton Island (Mulgumpin) is an island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay on the coast of South East Queensland, Australia. The Coral Sea lies on the east coast of the island. Moreton Island lies 58 kilometres (36 mi) northeast of the Queensland capital, Brisbane. 98% of the island is contained within a national park and a popular destination for day trippers, four wheel driving, camping, recreational angling and whale watching and a 75-minute ferry ride from Brisbane. It is the third largest sand island in the world. Together with K'gari, Moreton Island forms the largest sand structure in the world. It was the traditional country of the Ngugi before settlement.
Hervey Bay is a city on the coast of the Fraser Coast Region of Queensland, Australia. The city is situated approximately 290 kilometres (180 mi) or 3½ hours' highway drive north of the state capital, Brisbane. It is located on the bay of the same name open to the Coral Sea between the Queensland mainland and nearby K'gari. The local economy relies on tourism which is based primarily around whale watching in Platypus Bay to the north, ferry access to K'gari, accessible recreational fishing and boating and the natural north facing, calm beaches with wide undeveloped foreshore zones. In October 2019, Hervey Bay was named the First Whale Heritage Site in the world by the World Cetacean Alliance, for its commitment to and practices of sustainable whale and dolphin watching.
Inskip Point is a peninsula in the north of the locality of Inskip to the north of the town of Rainbow Beach in south-east Queensland, Australia. It is the vehicular gateway to Fraser Island, a popular recreational area.
Double Island Point is a coastal headland in Queensland, Australia. It is the next headland north of Noosa and is within the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, at the southern end of Wide Bay. It is approximately 12 km south along the beach from the tourist township of Rainbow Beach.
Indian Head is a coastal headland on the eastern (ocean) side of Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia.
K'gari is a locality on the island of the same name in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. The island of K'gari is divided into two localities: this K'gari locality consisting of most of the land, and the locality of Eurong on the east coast of the island.
The Fraser Coast Region is a local government area in the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland, Australia, about 250 kilometres (160 mi) north of Brisbane, the state capital. It is centred on the twin cities of Hervey Bay and Maryborough and also contains K'gari. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Cities of Maryborough and Hervey Bay and the Shires of Woocoo and most of Tiaro. The resident population at the 2021 census was 111,032 and the estimated population in 2023 was 117,940.
Sandy Cape Light is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Sandy Cape, the most northern point on K'gari, Queensland, Australia. It stands about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the northeastern tip of the island. It is the tallest lighthouse in Queensland. Built in 1870, it is the second major lighthouse to be built in Queensland after its formation in 1859. It is one of the first lighthouses in Australia to be constructed using bolted prefabricated segments of cast iron, and one of only two such lighthouses in Queensland, the other being its sibling, Bustard Head Light.
Urangan is a coastal suburb of the city of Hervey Bay in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Urangan had a population of 10,988 people.
Wide Bay–Burnett is a region of the Australian state of Queensland, located between 170–400 km (110–250 mi) north of the state capital, Brisbane. The area's population growth has exceeded the state average over the past 20 years, and it is forecast to grow to more than 430,000 by 2031. It is the subject of the Draft Wide Bay–Burnett Regional Plan, which aims to facilitate this growth while protecting over 90% of the region from urban development.
SS Marloo is a shipwreck at Great Sandy National Park, Fraser Island, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 October 2002 but delisted in 2015.
The Woody Island Lighthouses are a pair of heritage-listed lighthouses at Big Woody Island in the Great Sandy Strait, Hervey Bay, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. They were built from 1866 to 1870. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 30 March 2001.
The Butchulla, also written Butchella, Badjala, Badjula, Badjela, Bajellah, Badtjala and Budjilla, are an Aboriginal Australian people of K'gari, Queensland, and a small area of the nearby mainland of southern Queensland.
Happy Valley is a coastal town in the locality of K'gari in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia.
Eurong is an island town and a locality on K'gari in the Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Eurong had a population of 11 people.
Inskip is a coastal locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. Inskip Point at the north of the locality is a vehicular gateway to Fraser Island. In the 2021 census, Inskip had a population of 22 people.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Dinah was an intense tropical cyclone that impacted the southern coasts of Queensland and New South Wales, causing floods and landslides in 1967. It was regarded by an official in the Bureau of Meteorology's Brisbane Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre as the strongest storm to approach the southern coasts of Queensland since reliable records began. Forming on January 22 in the South Pacific basin, nearly 620 kilometers to the southeast of Honiara in the Solomon Islands, the disturbance that would eventually be Dinah remained disorganized until the next day when the system started to organize under the warm waters of the Coral Sea. On January 24, the disturbance was upgraded to a tropical cyclone by the BoM and was named Dinah, being the fifth storm in the records of the meteorology center of Australia in the 1966–67 Australian region cyclone season. Environmental conditions favoured Dinah to further intensify, becoming a severe tropical cyclone on January 27 while recurving south-southwestwards. On the next day, it passed through the Great Barrier Reef as a Category 4 severe tropical cyclone before passing through Fraser Island on January 29, where the Sandy Cape Lighthouse recorded a minimum barometric pressure of 944.8 hPa on Dinah, being the lowest known pressure of the system. It then battered the whole island before turning south-southeastwards, away from the coast of Queensland. Weakening took place while slowing down, passing near Lord Howe Island as a Category 2 tropical cyclone before undergoing extratropical transition on January 31. Dinah became extratropical on the night of that day before accelerating eastward, approaching New Zealand. The system then turned southeastward for the final time before passing through the North Island. It reemerged on the Southern Pacific Ocean on February 3, where it dissipated.
Lake Boomanjin is a large perched lake in the Fraser Coast Region of Queensland, Australia. The lake is located on Fraser Island in the Great Sandy National Park.
