Media Release
For immediate Release — Thursday, 28th May, 2009
Fraser Island for World Heritage in Danger List
In the same week that the Great Sandy area was listed by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve
conservationists are seeking to have Fraser Island placed on the World Heritage in Danger List
because of Queensland neglect.
The Fraser Island Defenders Organisation (FIDO) campaigned for 17 years to get Fraser Island World
Heritage recognition has now asked the World Heritage Committee in Paris to identify its listing as being
“in Danger”.
FIDO Honorary Project Officer, John Sinclair, said that the Queensland Government has failed to test the
water quality in the islands iconic lakes for more than twelve years and is still resisting all calls to test the
water now and this was endangering World Heritage values.
He said that despite pleas over the past six months and the unanimous urging of the three Fraser Island
advisory committees, the Queensland Government still refuses to spend a cent of its own money to carry
out a single water quality test on any lake.
He described the government’s failure to carry out work that every other Australian National Park
management agency undertook as a matter of course as “an outrageous dereliction its core
responsibilities.”
“Before the monitoring of the water quality of the lakes ceased Fraser Island’s its unique perched
dune lakes were reported to contain the freshest water occurring in any natural water body in the
world but now road wash is pouring into the lakes adding chemicals and pollutants and changing
and degrading the quality of the water,” Mr. Sinclair said.
He accused the Queensland Government of refusing to carry out the tests so that they could turn a blind
eye to the degradation occurring to Fraser Island’s more heavily used lakes and avoid difficult and possibly
expensive management decisions to preserve the island’s World Heritage values.
“Since 1997 the Queensland Government has spent more than $100 million and even proclaiming
Fraser Island, its lakes and streams as a “Wild River” but not one has been spent to check the
water quality in those lakes and streams,” he said
“Lake McKenzie is used by hundreds of thousands of people annually for swimming and recreation
and this volume of usage should require that the water quality be regularly tested on health grounds
alone but there is an inertia to do a singe test on a single lake now because nobody wants to know
how serious the situation is,” he said. .
“By failing to test Lake McKenzie’s water to save a mere $3,000 out of a $9 million annual budget
park managers has enable the bureaucrats to turn a blind eye to the pollution of the lakes and the
degradation that is occurring on their watch,” Mr Sinclair said.
“The neglect of the lakes is only the tip of the iceberg and Fraser Island natural values are being
eroded by casual or deliberate indifference, and that is why we are asking the World Heritage
committee to list Fraser Island as a World Heritage site in Danger of losing its values,” Mr Sinclair
concluded
For further information contact: John Sinclair, phone (07) 3397 5889 or 0418 650 535.
Fraser Island Defenders Organisation
FIDO — The Watchdog of Fraser Island
ABN: 56 009 969 135
1/32 Weston Street, COORPAROO QLD 4151
Phone: John Sinclair: (07) 3397 5889 or 0418 650 535 (Mob)
Aim: To ensure the wisest use of Fraser Island’s natural resources
NEWS 
