| ||Fraser Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, was named after Eliza Fraser, a Scottish woman whose ship was shipwrecked near the island in 1836. At a length of 74 miles (120 kilometers) and a width of 9 miles (15 kilometers), it is the world’s largest sand island. Yet on top of this rather infertile substratum, a humid tropical forest has developed in the midst of which large active dunes intrude, moving with the wind. Fraser Island has important water resources, including nearly 200 fresh-water dune lakes, and has a varied fauna such as marsupials, birds and reptiles. Exploited for its wood (used in particular for the construction of the Suez Canal) since 1860, and for its valuable mineral deposits, the island was later coveted by sand mining companies during the 1970s. Now the tourist industry is beginning to develop on the island. Welcoming 400.000 visitors a year without damaging the local fauna and flora is a real challenge for sustainability of this island, which was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1992.
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