Fraser Coast including Fraser Island - Introduction

North of the Sunshine Coast is the Fraser Coast encompassing Fraser Island, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Tiaro and the Great Sandy Strait and on to Bundaberg. The Great Sandy National Park, of which Fraser Island is a part, extends onto the mainland to the south. This is called Cooloola-Great Sandy National Park and Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach are two small coastal towns, both virtually on the outskirts of the park.
From August to October, the Hervey Bay area is a good place to view the giant yet gentle Humpback whales. At the beginning of the Australian winter the whales make their way northwards from the Antarctic to their breeding grounds in the Coral Sea and at the end of winter the whales and their newborn calves can be seen returning to the Antarctic.

Hervey Bay and Maryborough

HERVEY BAY is rather a sprawling coastal town with a number of hotels and motels. The harbour area has seen some upmarket hotel development recently. Hervey Bay has an airport and daily ferries to Fraser Island.  MARYBOROUGH is one of Queensland's most notable heritage towns with some beautifully maintained timber 'Queenslander' buildings.  
Inland is the attractive regional township of CHILDERS, which has some classic Australian pubs (as pictured).  Childers was named after the colourful nineteenth century British and Australian statesman, Hugh CE Childers, part of the equally colourful Anglo-Irish Childers dynasty.
Getting to Hervey Bay
 ~ Tilt Train from Brisbane's Roma Street Station (Roma Street Transit Centre)The Brisbane to Cairns Queensland Rail trains stop at Maryborough, where there is a bus connection (roughly half an hour's journey) to Hervey Bay.
 ~ Self driving - there is secure parking near the harbour for approx A$5 - A$10 per day
 ~ Bus from Brisbane (Roma Street Transit Centre) and from the Sunshine Coast resorts
 ~ Flying - direct from Brisbane or Sydney to Hervey Bay

Travelling Around Fraser Island  A 4WD vehicle is needed to drive on Fraser Island and you cannot take an ordinary car there. Hire 4WD vehicles can be picked up on the island or taken in by ferry. Several local operators offer one, two and three day tours of Fraser Island which take in the main highlights which include:

Cooloola National Park

The Great Sandy National Park covers all of Fraser Island and a section of the mainland coast at the southern tip of the island which is known as Cooloola-Great Sandy National Park www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/park(Cooloola). 
On the outskirts of the Cooloola National Park are the small coastal centres of Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach, immediately to the south of Fraser Island, from where you can get a vehicle ferry to the island. Tin Can Inlet is on the edge of the Great Sandy Strait, an area of waterways sheltered by Fraser Island and popular for sailing, canoeing, birdwatching and house boating. The area is well known for its wildlife and there are regular sightings of dolphins, turtles and dugong.
There are a number of campsites in the Cooloola National Park and also commercial sites outside.
The park's beaches can be accessed from the south by crossing the Noosa River on a ferry or from the north via Rainbow Beach. The picture shown is of Lake Poona, near Rainbow Beach.

Bundaberg

To the north of Hervey Bay is the country town of Bundaberg, in the middle of a sugar cane and fruit growing area and famous for its dark rum - the distillery operates public tours on week days. Bundaberg has some wide streets and gracious buildings from the first half of the 20th century and the centre has a distictive Queensland feel to it. 'Bundy' as it is affectionately known, is a departure point for Lady Elliot Island and Lady Musgrave Island.
About 15 km east of Bundaberg is Mon Repos Conservation Park www.epa.qld.gov.au/park(Mon Repos), home of a very accessible loggerhead turtle rookery. The QLD Parks and Wildlife Service run nigtly tours from November to March at the height of the laying at hatching season (other than for the tours, the public are not permitted onto the beach from 6pm to 6am).
South of Bundaberg is the pretty coastal village of Woodgate which is at the heart of the somewhat unsung but beautiful Burrum Coast National Park www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/park(Burrum).