Fraser Island’s Amazing Lakes
Fraser Island’s amazing network of around 40 lakes is another reason it is popular with both camping enthusiasts and naturalists alike. The island contains over half of the world’s perched lakes. These lakes are quite low in terms of acidity and mineral content, limiting the species of fish but providing a habitat for a rare group of frogs known collectively as acid frogs. These frogs require the acidic conditions of these lakes in order to survive. This is different to the majority of frog species around the world that prefer water to be alkaline in nature. Perched lakes are formed when dead and decaying matter build up in small craters or valleys created by the moving sand dune systems. These dunes are still shaping and forming the island today. These depressions slowly fill up with water and become beautiful lakes such as Lake Mckenzie, known as Fraser Island’s jewel in the crown.
Butterfly Lake, Fraser Island
Another type of lake on the Island is the barrage lake. These form when the wind carries sand across the Island. The sand forms a bank that then dams an already existing creek or stream forming what is known in Australia as a billabong. There is only one Barrage lake on the Island, Lake Wabby. It is regarded as one of the most popular lakes on the Island for tourists. Lake Wabby has steep banks of the Hammerstone Sandblow that drop into the lake. It also happens to be the deepest lake on the Island. It is an area of high significance to the traditional custodians of the island as it was regarded as an ancient warrior ground.
The third type of lake found on the Island are known as window lakes. Window lakes are created by a natural depression or valley in the sand exposing the water table or aquifer below. These are as the name suggests - windows into the aquifer or water table. An example of a window lake on Fraser Island is Basin Lake, a less famous lake in comparison to Wabby and Mckenzie but one of the prettiest on the island.
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