Download the full report, including stunning photographs Spiders From the Coolola Bioblitz 24-26 August 2018 © Robert Whyte 2018 Introduction Spiders (order Araneae) have proven to be highly rewarding organisms in biodiversity studies1, being an important component in terrestrial food webs, an indicator of insect diversity and abundance (their prey) and in Australia an understudied Continue reading
Educational
Educational Articles on Fraser Island
Summary Report of Cooloola Citizen Science BioBlitz
Weekend of 24thto 26thAugust 2018 Ninety seven people signed on for this first BioBlitz in Cooloola to document as much of the Cooloola area’s living natural resources — plants, animals, invertebrate, fungi and more, as possible. Seven target areas were defined for close scrutiny selected because they represented distinctive habitat types that were all easily Continue reading
Moonbi 136, World Heritage History and What is Wilderness
Moonbi 136 Since MOONBI 135 FIDO continues to run a busy program of engagement with the community, with traditional owners and other stakeholders in K’gari to protect its natural integrity. Some of these programs and projects are described in MOONBI including the 7th Biennial (T,T&T) Conference and the war against Jamella that FIDO has actively Continue reading
Volunteers Establish a New Nature Walk on Fraser Island
Media Release 28th February, 2016 Over the past week volunteers from the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation have worked to establish a new Nature Walk in the middle of Eurong to help people appreciate some of Fraser Island’s outstanding natural values. The 450 metre long walk that traces the path of a former sandblow was Continue reading
Badging Fraser Island (K’Gari)
During 2014-15 FIDO and Gympie Graphics developed a logo to describe Fraser Island (Kgari)’s natural values. It is hoped that this new logo will be taken up to ensure that Fraser Island (K’Gari) is as well badged as other iconic World Heritage sites in Australia. FIDO is claiming no copyright and no royalties for the Continue reading
Cultural Heritage
Aboriginal History Radio-carbon dating of cultural material has established that Aborigines were resident as long ago as 5,500 years BP (before present). It is possible that evidence of earlier occupation may still lay entombed in the sands of the Great Sandy Region. Age determination by radio carbon dating placed the time of formation of the Continue reading
Animals of the Dunes
Discovering Great Sandy Region Chapter 5 Animals of the Dunes The animals of Fraser Island and Cooloola are not readily apparent to the casual observer. The most obvious are birds and dingoes. Despite the obscurity of the fauna it presents an impressive range to those with the patience to explore and discover. This is because Continue reading
Fraser Island — A Personal Discovery
Reflections by John Sinclair, AO on his love of Fraser Island (K’Gari) There are the qualities of ocean-side wilderness – which Fraser Island does so particularly represent and the water, the lakes and the rain forest. They give a sense of awe, I think, of sensitivity towards the landscape and I feel that sense of Continue reading
Great Sandy Soils
Fraser Island and the adjoining Cooloola sandmass (covering a total of approximately 200,000 hectares) consist almost entirely of quartz sands that have accumulated during episodic periods of dune building in the Quaternary. At least eight dune systems have been identified at Cooloola and nine systems at Fraser Island marking separate episodes of deposition above sea Continue reading
Marine areas of Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Strait
Most of the marine areas of Tin Can Bay, Great Sandy Strait and Hervey Bay formed behind the large coastal dune fields of Fraser Island and Cooloola sand masses when the sea level rose to its present level about 7000 years ago. The waters of Great Sandy Region are protected from southerlies through to easterlies Continue reading