Australian idyll

DISCOVER the many surprises FRASER ISLAND has to OFFER.

I’M SUPPOSED TO BE ENJOYING THE SCENERY. Instead I’m cupping my hands greedily and considering that this is possibly the purest water I’ve ever tasted. In the dappled shade of spiky pandanus palms and melaleucas with flaking bark, Eli Creek seems to have a slight blue tinge. But I know that’s just an illusion. Forget triple filtered – this water has spent 70 years filtering through sand so fine it looks like talc before reaching the water table and re-emerging on Fraser Island’s east coast.

As I float downstream, the sound of flowing water combines with the canopy overhead to completely shut out the rest of the world. And yet just 100 metres away, the knee-deep creek emerges onto a pounding surf beach where 4WDs and sunbathers are spread out across Australia’s most picturesque highway. Fraser Island’s 75 Mile Beach disappears completely at high tide, but when the water recedes it morphs into a surprisingly busy road with speed limits and even booze buses during the summer holidays.

The world’s largest sand island is known to the traditional Butchulla owners as K’gari (pronounced ‘gurry’) and named after a white princess spirit who was called down from the sky by the Rainbow Serpent. After helping to create the world, she lay down to rest and the Rainbow Serpent covered her in trees to keep her warm, added lakes as her eyes and then made people and animals so she’d never be lonely. The word K’gari also has another meaning: ‘Paradise.’

Compared to Eli, Wanggoolba Creek is a mere trickle and the water is so clear it’s almost invisible over the sandy bottom. Tall trees block out the sun and ancient king ferns with fronds up to five metres across stretch over the shallow waterway. Wayne, an easygoing larrikin who doubles as driver and guide with Fraser Explorer Tours, calls them “dinosaur food” because they’re largely unchanged since they first appeared on Gondwana 300 million years ago. Vines looping down from the canopy confirm we’re in the rainforest of the island’s interior and when we stop there’s barely a sound. Yet this spot was once the epicentre of the region’s logging industry.

Nearby Central Station was home to more than 200 people at its peak and the site is strewn with giant fungus-covered trunks. Each tree once stretched about 50 metres into the air, but early Europeans saw only a resource to be harvested. Kauri pines made excellent ships’ masts and oily, silica-rich satinay trees were in such demand for their resistance to marine borers that they were used in the Suez Canal and rebuilding of London’s Royal Docks after the Second World War.

Getting there

Fraser Island is 250 kilometres north of Brisbane and ferries leave from River Heads or Inskip Point.The nearest airport is at Hervey Bay, 20 minutes’ drive from River Heads. Once there, travel is only possible via 4WD so you’ll need your own vehicle and experience driving on sand, or you can sign up for a tour.

Staying there

HAVE AN ECO-FRIENDLY TRIP TO ROTTO

Jump on a ferry from Fremantle or Perth to explore this pristine island playground – while treading very lightly. Rottnest Island has long been Western Australia’s holiday destination of choice and, while you can still enjoy its timeless slow-paced, laid-back charm, in recent years the island has been busy becoming a super-sustainable destination. It is recognised as one of Australia’s best-managed ecotourism environments and has established a strong renewable-energy scheme along with a host of sustainability initiatives (from a green waste system to an on-island glass crusher that turns bottles into building materials). Plus, the island and all its plants and critters – including its quokkas – are protected by law.

At 19 kilometres square, and with no cars, Rottnest Island is an ideal place to explore by bike. There are 45 kilometres of walking trails, too, which take in sand dunes, beaches and salt lakes. Alternatively – take an eco-friendly Segway tour to hard-to-reach corners of the island.

Stay overnight to soak up the serenity and people-free beaches after the daytime crowds have gone home: the first low-impact glamping experience on Rottnest opened at Discovery Rottnest Island on Pinky Beach last year. And keep your eye on Hotel Rottnest, which is being reimagined with an extra 80 rooms and a strong focus on sustainability.

Located in the Indian Ocean 2600 kilometres north-west of Perth and closer to Asia than to mainland Australia, Christmas Island is unlike anywhere you’ve ever visited before – and might just be one of the country’s best-kept secrets. It’s a true island paradise of tropical jungle fringed by turquoise waters that has so much more to offer than the headlines would lead you to believe – even beyond the staggering number of endemic wildlife species that gave rise to the nickname ‘Galápagos of the Indian Ocean’. Come for the crabs made famous by Sir David Attenborough and stay for the luxury eco retreat Swell Lodge (below), secret swimming spots, snorkelling and an intriguing melting pot of cultures.

Like Christmas Island, the Cocos Keeling Islands is another external Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, and together they’re known collectively – and rather romantically – as Australia’s Indian Ocean Islands. About halfway between Perth and Sri Lanka, this is a tranquil and unspoilt atoll of 27 islands where days are spent lazing on long stretches of white-sand beaches, visiting uninhabited islands by canoe (only two are inhabited), kite surfing, fishing and snorkelling. You can also catch a ferry to Home Island to learn about the culture and traditions of the Coco Malay people.

Course across the water from Darwin to soak in the rainbow of landscapes and culture that is the Tiwi Islands: with

TIWI ISLANDS

its tropical rainforests, clay-like cliffs and white-sand beaches matched in colour by its residents’ artistic flair and passion for sports. This strong pulse can be felt across the Tiwis’ two main islands, Bathurst and Melville, and culminates each year in the Tiwi Islands Football Grand Final and Art Sale (the one time when you can visit without a permit). But you can experience this pulse year round: join a cultural tour to witness the distinctive fabric prints, pottery and sculptures the Tiwi people are renowned for and get to know a lifestyle that’s at once ancient and modern. Be sure to stay at a beachside fishing lodge to see sunsets like no other.

Resting between New Zealand and New Caledonia, Norfolk Island (top right) is – geographically speaking – closer to Auckland than Sydney (600 kilometres in fact), yet it is officially part of NSW. A sub-tropical South Pacific island of rolling plains and dense pine forests – the iconic Norfolk Pine – with a craggy coastline that gives way to sparkling bays and world-class dive sites, it’s full of surprises. Chief among them is the local tongue. Norfolk’s islanders are descendants of the mutineers from the who once upon a time outgrew their home on Pitcairn Island and moved here, and the language, as a result, is a beguiling mix of 18th-century seafarer’s English and Tahitian. Then there’s its growing reputation as a food-lover’s destination. Harnessing the abundance of homegrown produce, from fresh fish and beef to honey and cheese, Norfolk Island excels in the paddock-to-plate philosophy, and visitors can experience everything from progressive dinners at locals’ homes to simple but superfresh sunset fish fries.

NORFOLK ISLAND Bounty

Like its ‘neighbour’ Norfolk Island (900 kilometres to the north-east), Lord Howe Island (top left) is World Heritage listed and the remnant of a volcano that was active two to three million years ago. A tiny island in the Tasman Sea, east of Port Macquarie, it is characterised by sandy beaches, subtropical forests and clear waters surveyed by the impressive Mt Gower, standing tall at 875 metres and rated as one of Australia’s best day walks. Less than a twohour flight from Sydney and Brisbane, Lord Howe is also synonymous with luxury. And not just barefoot luxury or the luxury of only 400 guests being permitted onto the island at any one time, but the ‘I never want to leave’ kind of luxury in the shape of Capella Lodge. This Luxury Lodge of Australia boasts spectacular views over emerald ocean and awe-inspiring peaks, which are best gawped at while floating in the horizon pool, dining at its destination restaurant, or from the absolute serenity of your suite – one of just nine. And when you’re not busy doing not much at all, see how many of the 500 species of fish and 90 species of coral you can spot while snorkelling the Lord Howe Island Marine Park, catch some fish, or dabble in some citizen science.

LORD HOWE ISLAND

WORDS

SIXTY KILOMETRES OFF THE EDGE of Western Australia, an island smaller than a footy oval is the last place you’d expect to find a thoroughly decent espresso.

But at 3pm each day, Pete Scarpuzza heats up a shiny pot on the stovetop and waits for friends to come. Like clockwork, locals wander to the weathered cottage for a chinwag, exchanging smiles and stories for a fresh cup of caffeine. Only seven people reside on Basile Island, and that’s when it’s busy. Usually, there are only three.

The woolly cray fisherman and his brother Nino are carrying on a tradition set by their father, one of the first fishermen to colonise this remote archipelago of 122 islands, named the Houtman Abrolhos.

Few people even know these specks exist in the ocean, off the state’s mid-point. As rare visitors, we’re welcomed with an elbow to the ribs, and told our invitation here is one way of freshening up conversation among the island regulars.

We’re on a five-day exploratory cruise and, as espresso cups are handed around, we hear that Eco Abrolhos’ 32-person catamaran is the only tourism vessel permitted to stop at Basile. It’s partly to do with the chocolate cake our hosts bring along, but mainly it’s about the connections made over the 30 years they, too, fished these waters.

“We took it for granted, and eventually we looked at it and thought, ‘It is pretty special’,” says Eco Abrolhos’ owner Jay Cox, a big bear of a man with the booming voice of a market auctioneer. Jay and his wife Sonia raised two kids on the islands; son Bronson is our skipper. “It’s just pristine. It’s the remoteness, the wildlife,” says Cox senior. “It grabs you.”

This is a special time for the islands, since 2019 marked 400 years since a Dutch merchant sailor came across the flat crusts of land en route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Captain Houtman spotted the archipelago 151 years before Captain James Cook arrived on the east coast of Australia. Abrolhos is believed to be a Portuguese term meaning ‘spiked obstructions’ – a fortuitous descriptor of these harsh, coral-rimmed islands that barely peek above the waterline.

Numerous ships subsequently ran aground, including the one named whence the aftermath of treachery and murder still produces goosebumps – and skeletons.

But more on that later. For now, we’re blissed out on the

existence of the past eight decades. We tramp down a raw-wood jetty and take in Basile’s row of boxy, fibro shacks decorated with shells, buoys and frayed rope.

Nicknamed Little Italy, this stretch is painted at first sympathetically, in turquoise, cobalt and emerald, before things get louder with red, violet and fluorescent green.

Batavia, Family Robinson-style Swiss

“When the wives and kids began living on the islands, the colours followed,” says Pete, who is among the last of the 150 fishermen who once called the islands home. Until a decade ago, abodes linked by white, coral paths led to community clubs, tiny schools and over-sea drop toilets that fanned around the landforms like fingers on a hand. Twenty-two of the islands bustled with close-knit, communal life.

“We had power generators in the early days, rainwater tanks, bucket showers and kerosene fridges,” recalls Jay. “You had to write letters; there was no phone or internet. When I first started going out with Sonia, I’d have to wait five days for the carrier boat to come out with the mail. You say things in letters that no one else sees.”

Back then, the islands would buzz from March to July; now, a quota-style measuring system of the cray catch means it’s not worth leaving the mainland for long spells. Instead, most keep to the mainland around Geraldton and fish to market demand.

Jay may have farewelled his commercial fishing days, but his passion for seafood remains strong. Each morning, pots are pulled, and mealtimes are a showreel of the ocean’s bounty: decadent crayfish pizza, creamy seafood chowder, surf and turf, and even chunky crayfish dip. When we snorkel over coral gardens in the glass-blue water and spot wafting rock-lobster feelers, it’s hard not to think of how they might be repurposed.

The marooned crew of the probably had similar thoughts. By night in 1629, the pride of the Dutch fleet hit reef, stranding more than 250 survivors on the islands. With little fresh water, barely any food and no natural shelter, the ship’s commander left to seek help. While he rowed to Indonesia, a gang of mutineers slaughtered some 126 men, women and children – Australia’s first mass murder. Their aim was to keep the scarce resources, and the heavily laden ship’s loot, for themselves.

Batavia

Getting there

The five-day cruise departs from Geraldton, a 4.5-hour drive north of Perth, or an hour’s flight with Qantas. Abrolhos cruises run February to May and September to October.

CLOSER TO Indonesia than the mainland, you won’t feel like you’re still in Australian territory when you arrive at Christmas Island and the Cocos Keeling Islands – except that you are. Connected by the same flight from Perth, these sparsely populated, exotic islands are bursting with natural wonders waiting to be explored.

Touching down on Christmas Island feels like holidays made manifest. The air is warm and balmy and it’s not long before you’re winding through lush jungle and stepping onto your deck at Swell Lodge, one of the world’s most exclusive eco retreats with just two secluded (read: socially distanced) chalets nestled deep within Christmas Island National Park.

In fact, almost two-thirds of the island is national park. It’s famous for its annual red crab migration, which sees an estimated 40 to 50 million bright red land crabs march across the island to the ocean in a mind-boggling flash mob of colour. And when you’re not busy seeking out your own secret beaches, you’ll find many more endemic creatures besides: reptiles, seabirds (like the rare Abbott’s booby) and marine life found nowhere else on the planet.

Christmas Island is ringed by tropical reef that creates some of the best snorkelling and scuba diving out there. It’s also one of the few places you can encounter a majestic whale shark in the deep blue.

Offering the perfect complement to wild Christmas Island, the Cocos Keeling Islands are all about long stretches of white-sand beaches fringed by swaying palm