Cracking stories from our Group Trips - Part 1 - stories from trips to Fraser Island:

Cracking stories from our Group Trips, is a series of journals about our time leading group trips all over Australia.

"You couldn't make this stuff up!"

It's a place where adventure and discovery are constant companions.

All these stories have become folklore in our groups and get regularly trotted out over campfires some of which tend to get a tad embellished over time. The richest memories are often about relationships and the group dynamics rather than the destination.

The stories are not so much about an event but rather a time, an attitude, a way of life.

Why tell stories?:

Story telling is an essential human need that has been used, for ever, for entertainment, education and cultural preservation. Compelling story telling is the path to imagination and people are hungry for stories.

Memorable travel turns you into a story teller.

Story # 1 - Six Moon Afternoon - "stroke of genius" - Operation Christmas Ham:

Little did we know that a well earned rest day on Fraser Island could prove to be more stimulating than any other day on Operation Christmas Ham, 2001.

Our son Stephen and his best mate Graham (around 16 at the time) were not really fans of a rest day and much preferred adventuring around the island. By late afternoon, boredom was setting in for the boys. This was the time of day when our group assembled on the sand dune for our daily happy hour ritual including catching the occasional wave from the beach traffic going by.

To make matters worse, whinging soon set in with "We're bored". On hearing this, one of the mums in our group, Janis, mischievously suggested the idea of mooning. The boys, and the other parents, were horrified at this suggestion and quickly squashed the idea so as not to condone such untoward behaviour.

Soon after, Stephen & Graham spotted the last tourist bus of the day coming down the beach. "Imagine mooning a tourist bus?" Graham said spontaneously. "Stroke of genius" said Stephen, with neither really thinking it through. As time was of the essence, the boys quickly lined up on the dune in front of our group who were engrossed in happy hour.

The parents were intrigued why the boys were just standing in front of them with their backs to the beach. "Wait, wait, wait till you see the whites in their eyes". said Stephen. At this point Rosemary put two & two together and yelled "No, No" however it was too late. Right on cue, the boys dropped their shorts and gave the tourist bus a big double moon.

In a heart beat, the bus driver swung the bus around and drove right up in front of our group and stopped the bus. At this point, the boys feared the worst. Yet, the bus was not there to confront the boys behaviour, they were there to take it to the 'next level'. As soon as the bus came to a stop, four passengers dropped their shorts and pressed their bare buts up against the windows which of course doubles their size. You can just imagine the mood on the bus as they then just casually drove off.

At this event, our group went absolutely berserk with laughter lasting all night. This story remains one of our all time favourite campfire stories which has been retold many times.

The photos above show the exact moment when the passengers on the bus mooned our group (albeit hard to see in the photo with tinted windows) and some of our group enjoying the unexpected happy hour entertainment.

This event was considered so significant, it became immortalised in the attached poem.

SIX MOON AFTERNOON.pdf

Download PDF • 19KB

Story # 2 - The Heroes of Hook Point - "adrenaline & testosterone dripping from the roof" - Operation Rainbow IV:

As we left Fraser Island we only had minutes to get off the beach before our vehicles became another casualty of the Pacific Ocean. Our destination of the barge was almost within reach yet we still had to cross treacherous Hook Point. Mindful that we had ignored all safety margins, for incoming tides, we knew we should not be on the beach.

The surf washing into our left wheel track and the sand cliff on our right had certainly created white knuckle driving. We had always enjoyed the pictures above the bar at Eurong of some of the $3 million dollars worth of vehicles lost at sea every year on Fraser Island. Now we had an image in our minds of photos of our cars hanging above the bar.

If we could just get through the next half kilometre we would be OK. As the tension was at its peak, with adrenaline & testosterone dripping from the roof, I heard four mind numbing words come from my mate David over the UHF radio - "I'm out of fuel".

This is adventure country and it doesn’t get richer than this.

Of course, its one thing to pull a 4WD out of a bog yet its an entirely different thing to pull a car with no engine running as it is just a dead weight particularly one with a trailer behind.

Before I could tow David's car, I had to drive some distance ahead to ditch my trailer on high ground. Upon my return, we unhooked David's trailer and tried to tow the car. However, the pull was still so hard, I spectacularly broke my snatchum strap. All the while the tide is still coming in. We desperately deployed another strap and finally got David's car up on high ground, some distance away, and left it there while we went back to see if we could rescue the trailer.

By now the trailer was sitting in water and we had almost lost hope assuming it would become a statistic. So much so, all the camping gear had been stripped out by the rest of the family and dragged up to higher ground. Nevertheless, in a last ditch effort, we had a go which required me to do a three point turn in the surf before we could hook up the trailer. .

Miraculously, we did manage to rescue the trailer. After momentary relief, and collapsing from exhaustion, David suddenly remembered that he had left his mother-in-law in his car in the baking hot sun which jolted us into a panic sprint back to his car.

This memorable event was with our good friends David & Fiona with whom our two families have shared many trips to Fraser.

The dramatic rescue was such a significant and successful event, the full story became immortalised in the attached poem.

In the telling of this story, we celebrate mateship, resilience and the passion of the human spirit.

The Heroes of Hook Point.pdf

Download PDF • 54KB

Story # 3 - "I get knocked down but I get up again" - Operation Birrabeen:

We were deep in the forest in a very remote part of Fraser Island. A remoteness that makes you think "I hope nothing goes wrong in here". Then a loud nasty crunching noise brought us to a standstill which we knew was going to be bad. You couldn't pick a worse place for a breakdown.

Upon getting out to inspect our daughter & son-in-law's Suzuki Jimny, we were horrified to find the back diff broken in two with the back wheels sitting on a 30 degree angle.

Rosemarys father, Neil, was with us who was an old Bushie and could fix or build anything. Neil was from pioneering stock and nothing seemed to phase him.

Neil just took one look and calmly said "you see that sapling over there? Just cut that down, jack up the diff to a straight line, strap the sapling to the diff, to hold it in place, and run a chain between the two wheel hubs. You will trash the diff, but its trashed anyway, and it will get us out of here" All very matter of fact - no stress.

My son-in-law and I were way out of our comfort zone and it would soon be dark. Nevertheless, we followed Neil's directions and we did drive it out of there. In fact, we drove it all the way back to camp albeit with a lot of crunching noises.

Peter is the one mechanic on the island who we saw the next day. Peter is a real character of the island and has a chalkboard in his workshop that keeps tally of all the incidents on the island, such as 'head ons', 'roll overs', 'T bones' & 'lost at sea'. Anyway, the Peter said we would need to get a reconditioned diff which he could then install. Best part was, all the mechanic wanted for the job was a case of beer and 5kg of prawns.

So next day, we dove all the way down to the Gold Coast, picked up the diff and arrived back at Fraser Island which was a very long day. The following morning, we delivered the diff, beer & prawns and the diff was fitted that day. So, two days later after what we thought was a nightmare, the Suzuki was back on the road and we carried on with our adventure.

Story # 4 - "a dingo's got my lamb roast" - Operation Rainbow:

Despite our best efforts to be Dingo-Safe, we got caught out by the most cunning Dingo.

Cathy had gone to a lot of trouble to get a superb lamb roast from Birds Wholesale Meats of Auburn specially cut and vacuum packed for the trip.

Cathy was getting her lamb roast ready to put in the camp oven for our traditional big group cook up. Cathy took her lamb roast out of her esky, removed the vacuum packing, placed it in on top of the esky then got momentarily distracted when someone asked her a question.

She stepped out of the tent to answer the question when a pilfering Dingo swooped out of nowhere. The Dingo darted in and out of the tent in a heart beat, then disappeared with Cathy's superb lamb roast. Cathy saw what was happening but could not move fast enough yet the whole camp heard her scream out "a Dingo's got my lamb roast".

The next day, Mark observed a Dingo poo near our camp and said "Hey Cathy, I found your lamb roast"

Story # 5 - Code Red storm warning - "give me five stars" - Operation Los Seis Amegos:

The afternoon sky just got darker and darker. We knew a storm was brewing but little did we know the storm ahead was a Code Red.

One thing worse than enduring a 'Code Red' severe storm in a tent is not having advance warning about the storm. We had no mobile phone reception to check what was coming. These are some of the hazards about remote beach camping on Fraser Island.

We were a group of three families and as the evening progressed we became more focussed on the deteriorating weather. We became more diligent about rigging extra ropes and started furiously battening down the hatches. Then the storm hit with a vengeance.

Our otherwise idyllic campsite was all sand yet there was so much rain coming down the water would not soak away and the sand was turning into soup. With soup for sand, the tent pegs soon started failing and popping out one by one with nowhere to place other pegs.

David M & Kathy's tent was the worst affected which soon collapsed with pegs all pulled out and bent tent poles. We could see the tarp over the tent was going to get blown over the hill and disappear. With no regard for personal safety, David H saw this unfolding and launched himself on top of the tarp to prevent it blowing away. All the while, the rain was torrential and the wind gale force.

After spending some time on top of the tarp while we tried to recover bedding and clothes to throw in the car we heard a muffled voice come through the storm from David H, still lying on the tarp, in the torrential rain. "Hows it going in there?" said with a tone of mild desperation.

David M & Kathy were not yet seasoned campers and remote bush camping was a stretch in fine conditions so this had left Kathy a tad stressed. Kathy was huddled under a dry awning frantically watching the commotion of their tent rescue. I extracted my self momentarily from the rescue efforts as I could see Kathy needed some words of reassurance so I said "You know Kathy, some people would be put off by this".

The two camper trailers survived the storm and we had two families, being 11 people, squeezed into our camper trailer for the night.

It was all sunshine in the morning and as we drove down the beach to survey the damage to other campsites we found absolute carnage with many camps decimated. Kathy reflected on the ordeal and said to her David "next holiday, give me five stars".

This storm hit on 27/12/1999 with 200mm of rain overnight, 75kph winds and a 4m swell.

The photo above shows the campsite 24 hours later where the water had still not soaked into the sand as it was so saturated.

The group considered this such a significant event, the story was immortalised in the attached poem.

Give me five stars.pdf

Download PDF • 28KB

Some years later we were on another group trip to Fraser Island, Operation Red Canyon, where we were the support crew for a large group of young adults. We were in a house and they were all camping.

On that trip we were also were hit with a Code Red storm however this time we heard the warning on the news at the Happy Valley Resort restaurant. In that case, the campers evacuated, apart from two die hards, and all 20 campers slept in our house that night. During that storm, the swell brought the surf within half a metre of the only remaining tent.

Story # 6 -“I’ve lost my case of wine” - Operation Rainbow:

“I can’t find where I buried my case of wine” said Bill with an air of desperation.

When we camp on the beach at Fraser Island we put the back of our tent to the prevailing SE wind which can get pretty tiresome on a bad day.

The day after setting up camp, Bill found the wind had come up and his tent wasn’t quite facing the right way so he spun the tent around by about 90 degrees. Bill was a seasoned camper, he was always very well set up for a trip and he liked to get his camp just right.

Now moving his tent was straightforward and relatively easy to do except for the fact that Bill had buried a case of fancy wine next to his front door to keep it at a better temperature. With the tent moved he was now having a hell of a job finding the case of wine and it was very fine wine in deed.

Best thing to do he thought, was to enlist all his buddies to start digging. Soon, about a dozen camping buddies were all digging like there was a lost treasure.

Janis was part of the search team and she just loved a bargain. In fact, she was known for never spending more than $5 on a bottle of port which became a bit of a contest to see if anyone could find cheaper port or wine than Janis. The thought of some of Bill’s fancy wine seemed very appealing to Janis and she became the most diligent in the search.

Suddenly Janis could feel a bottle under the sand and with one hand firmly grasping the neck of a bottle she yelled out “Hey Bill, if we find your wine, to we get to keep a bottle as a reward?”

Happy hour was approaching fast and Bill needed his wine desperately so he responded with “sure, no problem”. Upon that response, Janis instantly pulled up a bottle out of the sand, with great gusto, yelling “found it!”

Story # 7 - Things go missing at Lake Wabby? – Operation Rainbow III:

We read in the paper that the Fraser Island Rangers had dragged Lake Wabby looking for a missing tourist. This immediately got our attention and our antennas were up.

We were headed for Fraser Island and it had been about a year since our last visit. On our previous visit we were having great fun at Lake Wabby with a borrowed toboggan where we would slide down the long steep sand dune into the water. We would take it in turns for hours and some surf board wax under the toboggan made it go like the clappers.

We didn’t take much notice of the fact that lots of sand was lodging on top of the toboggan which eventually caused it to sink into the deep water. As hard as we tried, we could not find that toboggan.

Twelve months later, on our next visit, we came armed with face mask & snorkel to attempt a recovery. Lake Wabby was a priority to visit to see if we could find the toboggan that had now been sitting at the bottom of the lake for over twelve months. Although, we were not confident given Lake Wabby sits next to the immense Hammerstone sandblow which is slowly consuming the lake.

Our search in the lake was not going well as the sand bank under the water got very deep very quickly. We concluded that they must have pulled it up when they dragged the lake.

However, just when we were about to give up I spotted a little bit of orange in the sand bed and knew I had found it. I then made several deep dive attempts and to everyone’s amazement soon pulled up the lost toboggan which triggered great celebration and hero status.

We were then able to carry on enjoying sliding down the dune which seemed even more spectacular this time.

However, again, we didn’t take much notice of the sand lodging on top of the toboggan and it sunk again! Despite having our recovery gear, we could not find it this time and it remains at the bottom of Lake Wabby to this day.

Sadly, they found the missing tourist, two years later, at the bottom of a hill near the lake with an unknown cause of death.

David & Rosemary Allan – the faces behind:

May adventure & discovery be your constant companions.

Reflection:

For me, a trip is memorable when I am enriched by a deeper sense of connection to a place which triggers an emotional or spiritual response. This comes from feelings of Awe when I feel part of something bigger. Such as, seeing dramatic landscapes, being caught up in the history and sensing the passion of the human spirit.

A memorable experience will cause me to day dream about the next trip even more than the last trip.

Remember: Your adventure begins the moment you decide to go.