Living And Working on The World's Largest Sand Island! [Fraser Life]
Living And Working on The World's Largest Sand Island! - Fraser Life
Just 2 weeks ago we got some awesome news, we had secured paid work on Fraser Island! Now we sit here a few days in, having seen our first Dingo, amazing night skies and having hanged with a sleepy python.
We only got here last week and yet we continue our record of managing to see all the famous Australian animals some people manage to evade the entirety of their time here.
Back to where this all began...
Having accepted this hard-fought for job opportunity, we would be leaving our farm-life and pretty much beginning new work right away. It was a whirlwind of change, and it was a rushed goodbye. I would of happily stayed on the farm longer, in our lovely home. But another beautiful setting was beckoning us on.
Arriving on the island via a tiny plane, it was a pretty amazing way to show us the vast sand island that sits adjacent to Rainbow Beach and Hervey Bay. A rickety 4x4 ride later and we found ourselves at our new home. Mixed feelings of apprehension and enthusiasm meant our first few work days were a bit intense. Lots of new things to learn as well as people. Hospitality is something fairly new to us both, although it suits us quite nicely.
I work in the store (which is also a coffee shop, cafe and reception desk). It is the centre of the camp's operations, and it is a super well-stocked shop, so you are never ever short of work to do. Taran is in the yard, doing maintenance and cleaning across the site. We no longer see each other all day as we did on the farm, so its always lovely to return to our little two room tent each evening. No TV's or luxuries here, just our laptops to play games and write blog posts on. No internet either. Well its available, either at cost, or at the top of a sand-dune out the front. But when its not easily there on tap you use it more wisely. And you don't waste time scrolling through nothingness!
Sharing our tent with a few ants and some spiders (which remain outside and are remaining alive to act as our fly-guard team) we live nearby the other workers caravans. It's a mostly British team, so I don't think we will ever feel lonely whilst we're here. I did have one moment not long after we started work, which bordered on panic. My brain was already working at full capacity trying to take in all my new surroundings and responsibilities, and suddenly, I found myself thinking 'I'm on an island. I'm trapped, I can't get off'. It sounds funny even to myself now, but at the time I was a bit overwhelmed.
Travelling has been all about changes, making transitions and starting over, and each new change has brought us new skills, knowledge and fun! Sometimes we've approached a new change with too much fear or too much excitement, neither emotion based in reality. You usually find something much different, sometimes worse, but mostly better.
Nothing has been a waste of time on our trip so far. Everything has been purposeful. Even the weeks on end where it seems like you are doing little to nothing, those weeks make the ones where you work yourself silly much more bearable.
We hope to see all of this sandy paradise bit by bit over the next 3 months, all the while just enjoying our good fortune. Living on a remote farm to living on an island, we aren't doing this Australia thing in half-measures. And we've never been happier.
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
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