GEOGRAPHIC EXTREMES SOCIETY
AUSTRALIAN RECORDS
Sand Islands
For some 500 kilometres north from the beaches of Byron Bay, to just beyond the northern tip of Fraser Island, sand is, by and large, the dominant coastal soil type. These, together with the islands of North and South Stradbroke, Moreton, Bribie, and Fraser make up Australia’s Great Sandy Region. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island, followed closely by North Stradbroke and Moreton Island in second and third place respectively.
Fraser Island. World’s largest Sand Island. (Source Google Maps)
Sizes of Great Sandy Region Islands
*The Cooloola region is included even though it doesn’t constitute an island.
The Great Sandy Region has been described as the greatest concentration of sand anywhere in the world. Many of the world’s sandy deserts are but a thin veneer of sand overlying bedrock. Still, in the Great Sandy Region, the sands are hundreds of metres thick and continue for hundreds of kilometres north of the Queensland border.
The reason for the development of the Great Sandy Region is the presence of the world’s most extensive longshore sand transport system, also termed, the East Coast Sand River, travelling from south of Sydney to Breaksea Spit north of Fraser Island. From there, the sand river pours over the continental shelf, gradually filling up basins in the abyssal plain, four kilometres below sea level.
There have been a few major sources of erosion that have contributed grains to the East Coast Sand River. The most important of these parent rocks are granites from the New England Tablelands which extend from the Barrington Tops in New South Wales to Warwick in southern Queensland.
On Moreton Island, Australia’s largest concentrated sand dune has created Mount Tempest, at 280 metres high, one of the largest sand dunes on the planet.
GES Record: Largest Sand Island in the world – Fraser Island. 181,851 hectares (Source: www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/fraser-island)
GES Record: Largest Sand mountain in Australia – Mount Tempest. 285 metres (Source: Aussie Bushwalking website)
The Geographic Extremes Society welcomes any input as to the veracity of these records and we encourage everyone to contribute to these extreme records by contacting us to initiate the discussion