From sand mining to sand bashing in about 30 years: a difficult journey towards sustainable tourism for Fraser Island.

Abstract

This chapter reviews the difficult journey of Fraser Island towards sustainability. This chapter describes the setting and historical context of tourism development, covering the previous sand mining and logging economy and describing the process of attaining world heritage listing in the 1990s, and the impetus that this has given to tourism development. As this book goes to press, another sand island off the Queensland coast in Australia, North Stradbroke island, is undertaking a similar transition from sand mining to ecotourism.