ABOVE Beach camping and boating go
hand-in-hand on the Fraser Coast.LEFT Gleaming turquoise waters are
commonplace.RIGHT Cruising on the Mary River in the
neart of MaryboroughT
he Fraser Coast in
Queensland is a subtropical
paradise that attracts
around a million visitors
annually for marine-based
adventure and recreation. At its heart
lies the Great Sandy Strait, a unique
waterway that separates World Heritage
Fraser Island from a mainland shore
riven by inlets and tidal estuaries.
The strait’s serpentine passage
stretches 70km (40nm) from Hervey
Bay in the north to Tin Can Bay in the
south, through a main channel up to
25m deep. It is more than 10km wide at
its northern entrance and barely 1km
wide at its southern limit, Inskip Point.
Its western extremities reach along
the Mary and Susan rivers and the
estuaries of Kauri, Teebar and Snapper
Creeks.
A few deep channels run the length
of the strait and most are well marked
with navigation aids. All main channel
buoys and beacons are lit and laid red
to port green to starboard when sailing
south through the strait, as well as
when ascending a river or entering an
ancillary channel or inlet.
Despite the many shoals and
sandbanks, the main channels are
navigable by deep keels. Creeks are
generally too shallow for the average
displacement vessel, although Teebar
and Kauri Creeks have useful depths
just inside their entrances. The
shallowest area of the strait is a ridge of
sand west of South White Cliffs where
depths have been known to reduce to
one metre, changes being indicated by
lateral mark buoys.
Tides in the strait flood from both
ends, meeting in the vicinity of Boonlye
Point, south of Ungowa, from where
they ebb in both directions. From
either north or south, a favourable tidal
stream can be enjoyed from one end
of the strait to the other by timing your
arrival at the tides’ meeting point (use
Ungowa in the tide tables).
Calm water sailing aside, the beauty
of the Great Sandy Strait from a boating
perspective lies in its abundance of
sheltered anchorages, numerous bolt
holes and tranquil places to drop the
pick.38 tradeaboat.com.au