The island lies approximately 250 km (160 mi) north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is within the Fraser Coast Region local council area.

The world heritage listing includes the island, its surrounding waters and parts of the nearby mainland which make up the Great Sandy National Park.

He gave these people knowledge and laws, and told them what to do, and how to procreate, so that their children and ancestors would always be there to keep K'gari company.Butchulla (also known as Batjala, Badtjala, Badjela and Badjala) is the language of the Fraser Coast region, including the island.

She returned to England and became a sideshow attraction in Hyde Park, telling ever more lurid tales about her experiences with the enslavement of the crew, cannibalism, torture, and murder.

[43] In 1859 rumours of two shipwrecked white girls living with Butchulla people on Fraser Island gained some credence when Captain Arnold of Coquette arrived in Sydney with information seeming to confirm the story.

[44] Public interest was stirred and Arnold was requested by the government of the Colony of New South Wales to return to the island with a rescue party, obtaining the right to a £200 bonus if the girls were brought back.

[46] Further discredit was placed on the process when it was found that the Aboriginal people who were paid by the search party to find the girls were rewarded in worthless commemorative coins instead of real money.

The main bureaucrat in charge of the relocations of Indigenous people in Queensland at the time, Archibald Meston, transported the 51 men, women and children to a defunct quarantine station at White Cliffs (Beerillbee) about 2 km south of the present day Kingfisher Bay Resort.

[52] The Queensland Government ran the Bogimbah site under the direction of Archibald Meston's son and wife until February 1900, when control was handed over to the Australian Board of Missions.

[54] At the end of 1899 there were 137 Indigenous people from 25 different locations, including some who had served prison sentences in places like St Helena Island and Townsville Gaol and had been refused permission to return to their homes.

[55] A former Native Police trooper named Barney, who had assisted in the operations to capture Ned Kelly, was sent to Bogimbah but drowned there not long after in a boating accident.

[66] As part of ongoing meetings in the United Nations Trusteeship Council on the "Conditions in the Trust Territories", the Republic of Nauru expressed concern that its phosphate mining exportation would be depleted by the end of the century, endangering the future of the island.

[69] In 1964 in the 31st session of United Nations Trusteeship Council meetings it was concluded that Curtis Island could provide a more satisfactory resettlement for the population of Nauru.

[68] Nauru rejected the offer of moving the entire population to Curtis Island due to political independence considerations that Australia would not agree to.

[67] When visiting the island in 1964, the head of the Nauru delegation, Hammer de Roburt, insisted on this point of sovereignty in order to protect his people from the overt racism that he himself experienced on this tour.

[76] Heavy rainfall in mid-December helped contain the fire and the QFES was able to hand control back to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS).

[85] In September 2021, the World Heritage Area within Great Sandy National Park, along with the surrounding waters and parts of the nearby mainland, was renamed "K’gari (Fraser Island)".

The name change was formally adopted at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, and was a major milestone in a long running campaign by the region's traditional owners.

[23] Piggott's contribution, however, was limited as he was killed the following year by Indigenous people on the northern part of the island after what was rumoured to be a "black-shooting expedition" went awry.

[95] Blackbutt trees (Eucalyptus pilularis), Queensland kauri (Agathis robusta) and satinay or Fraser Island turpentine (Syncarpia hillii) were extensively exploited as they provided excellent timber.

The logging industry continued until 1991, ceasing following concerns raised by the Commission of Inquiry into the Conservation, Management and Use of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Region, appointed by the Goss Labor government and chaired by Justice Tony Fitzgerald.

It is made up of sand that has been accumulating for approximately 750,000 years on volcanic bedrock that provides a natural catchment for the sediment carried on a strong offshore current northwards along the coast.

[104] The island is home to a small number of mammal species,[16] as well as a diverse range of birds, reptiles and amphibians, including the occasional saltwater crocodile.

[113] All of the sand, which originated in the Hawkesbury, Hunter and Clarence River catchments in New South Wales, has been transported northward by longshore drift driven by onshore winds from the southeast and repeated wave actions.

[113] Along the eastern coast of the island the process is removing more sand than it is depositing, resulting in the slow erosion of beaches which may accelerate with sea level rises attributed to climate change.

[19] K'gari has a tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen: Aw); it is generally warm and not subject to extremes in temperature due to the moderating influence of the ocean.

Other common birds include pelicans, terns, honeyeaters, gulls, kingfishers, kookaburra, owls, doves, thornbills, ducks, brolgas, and cockatoos.

Typically these zones range from rushes in the shallows, then a mix of pioneer species on the beaches, through to sedges, heath, paperbarks, shrubs and finally eucalypt or banksia woodlands.

[120] K'gari and some satellite islands off the southern west coast comprised the Great Sandy Strait and previously formed the County of Fraser, which was subdivided into six parishes.

[19] It was reported in 2009 that tourists had created environmental problems in K'gari's lakes and on coastal dunes, as the foredunes were being used as a toilet by an estimated 90,000 bush campers each year.