In December 2005, a group of organisations with a common interest in addressing weeds on K’gari met to discuss how to improve collaboration and prioritise activities.

Facilitated by the Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG), participants included the State Government (Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) and the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM), Fraser Island Defenders Organisation (FIDO), National Parks Association of Queensland (NPAQ), the Cooperative Research Centre for Weed Management (CRC Weeds), Hervey Bay and Maryborough City Councils, Lower Mary River Land and Catchment Care Group (LMRLCCG), Sandy Cape Lighthouse Conservation Association (SCLCA) and the Traditional Owners of K’gari, the Butchulla people.

After two days checking sites, including the culturally significant Bogimbah Mission and townships, it became clear that issues relating to land tenure were affecting the ability to address all natural resource management issues in the World Heritage Area. By the end of the workshop, the participants formed the Fraser Island Natural Integrity Alliance (FINIA) to address issues threatening the future sustainability of the island’s natural environment. 

FINIA boasts a broad and growing membership, with 21 organisations currently partners in the alliance.

FINIA’s Timeline

2005    In December 2005, “FINIA” form following a 2-day site visit and workshop to develop a Weed Management Action Plan for K’gari. LMRLCCG commence voluntary monitoring of nesting loggerhead and green turtles performing nest relocation and protection where necessary, and continues this program until the 2023/24 nesting season.

2006     Hervey Bay City Council and FIDO, in cooperation with Maryborough City Council and QPWS, produce the Weed control on Fraser Island – Guidelines for residents of Happy Valley & Orchid Beach booklet. FIDO continue their volunteer weed management programs at Happy Valley and Eurong alongside the community, addressing the issue of garden escapees in Unallocated State Lands and the National Park. This incredible effort, a key component of FINIA and FIDO’s activities, is sustained for the next 20 years. FIDO undertakes cane toad trapping after a ‘recent’ incursion of cane toads on K’gari.

2007     Funded by the BMRG, timber shelters with information boards are installed at Happy Valley and Eurong to increase community awareness about weed management risk and ‘plant me instead’ alternative planting. A volunteer weed management program commences at Sandy Cape in partnership with SCLCA, LMRLCCG, and QPWS. Weed data is collected to indicate the scale of the issue and monitor the program’s success over the next 15+ years.

2008     Jason Harvey commences a 2-year project funded by the BMRG to develop a tenure-blind Weed Management Plan for K’gari. The University of the Sunshine Coast hosts Jason’s position with Jason taking on the informal role of FINIA Coordinator.

2009     FINIA’s meetings continue in an ad hoc basis twice a year, with meetings generally held in Gympie. FIDO weeding efforts continue in Happy Valley and Eurong. Work continues in the development of the tenure-blind management plan. Given the significance of the Great Sandy Strait as a Ramsar Wetland, Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG) conduct regular shorebird surveys every 1-2 years. The first surveys of the region were completed by Peter Driscoll (1993), with QWSG conducting surveys since February 1995. In October, after surveying 51 roost sites, volunteers record 22 migratory and 9 resident species, and a total count of 26,017 shorebirds.

2010     FINIA meetings move to a new format with quarterly meetings held in Maryborough to increase communication, coordination, and collaboration between partners. The group formalises, developing a vision, purpose, and terms of reference, but agree to remain as an informal, non-incorporated alliance so that all partners have the same status within the Alliance.

2011     The tenure-blind Landscape Weed Management Plan for Fraser Island is launched. QPWS support the work of FINIA, providing secretariat support through Alana Kippers, Lou Coles, Ian Webb, and Amy Sauer before funding ceases in 2014.

2012     FINIA gets their own logo and starts publishing a quarterly newsletter – producing over 50 issues to date. In January, QWSG conducts an aerial survey of 48 roost sites with a total count of 34,501 shorebirds. FIDO’s Eurong weed working bees are supported by work at the Eurong nursery with Michael Lowe. John Sinclair calls for the quarantine on K’gari with 179 species of weeds (now over 200 species) identified within the National Park. This figure does not include freehold aliens and has increased from only 51 species of weeds named in the 1991 World Heritage nomination document.

2013     FINIA launches its website www.finia.org.au providing partners and supporters across the world access to project information. FINIA, in partnership with students from the University of the Sunshine Coast, develop a visual presentation highlighting values, e.g., shorebirds, threats, e.g., introduced weeds and visitor behaviour, e.g. dingo-safe, to protect the island. The presentation plays on the Fraser Venture barge. FIDO, BMRG, Fraser Coast Regional Council (FCRC) and FINIA publish the Fraser Island Native Garden Planting Guide. In December, QWSG conducts their shorebird survey across 54 roost sites, but only record 21,404 shorebirds. Concerns are being raised about habitat loss, particularly at staging points for migratory waders along the East Asian Australasian Flyway. Myrtle rust is first identified on K’gari.

2014     Butchulla Native Title of K’gari’s mainland is determined and held by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (BAC) on behalf of the Butchulla People. Highly toxic and invasive crab eye creeper (Abrus precatorius subsp. Africanus) is identified at Happy Valley infesting ~40Ha and extending up into the canopy. QPWS launch a Friends of Parks program with Conservation Volunteers Australia and ECOllaboration joining FINIA. The Recognising and Recording K’gari’s Cultural Heritage project is delivered on K’gari led by the World Heritage Indigenous Advisory Committee and QPWS Butchulla Rangers. Using ground penetrating radar, the project locates three cemetery sites with ancestral remains at Bogimbah and goes on to win the Queensland Indigenous Landcare Award.

2015     FINIA celebrates its 10th anniversary. Rain gauges are installed by FIDO at Lake McKenzie (Boorangoora), Central Station, and Lake Coomboo as part of their sediment monitoring program. Later that year FIDO also installs the first of its real time rain monitoring gauges at Happy Valley. Led by Don and Lesley Bradley in conjunction with the University of Sydney, FINIA delivers a Bufotoxin trial to help manage cane toads on K’gari. Pandanus are treated with Confidor at Kingfisher Bay to control Jamella leafhopper, later that year the predatory wasp (Aphanomerus sp.) is introduced to K’gari as a biocontrol to help check Jamella numbers.

2016     FINIA shares a video case study of our activities and partners and marks its 10th anniversary planting two pandanus trees at Dilli Village. FINIA continues to grow with fifteen partner organisations. FIDO and Fraser Island Association launch a program supporting landholders to plant native plants propagated from seed collected and grown on the island. FIDO hosts a 9-person Green Army team for 6 months. FIDO funds a PhD scholarship at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) to investigate the environmental damage caused by vehicle traffic and develop sustainable transport solutions for K’gari. QPWS deploy five listening stations in K’gari’s swamp/heaths to assess the presence/absence of the elusive Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus). At the end of the year, FIDO hosts the first K’gari BioBlitz – Beach to Boomanjin and Birrabeen.

2017     The State Library of Queensland nominates FINIA’s website as part of the PANDORA archive “to capture the essence of the Queensland story to be preserved for both current and future generations”. FINIA’s website is archived every six months and is fully searchable via TROVE. Fraser Island’s National Park is renamed K’gari. FIDO continue their work, installing a second online weather station at Eurong. USC launches its Fraser Island (K’gari) Repository for important materials relating to the island. QPWS commence the development of a Values-based Management Plan for K’gari.

2018     K’gari celebrates 25 years of World Heritage, inscribed as Australia’s tenth property on the World Heritage list in 1992. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan) visit K’gari to unveil a plaque dedicating the forests of K’gari to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy. The BAC’s Butchulla Land and Sea Ranger team launches. Monitoring of myrtle rust continues with the suggestion that the fungus could devastate key Myrtaceae communities on K’gari within a decade, notably Melaleuca swamps and rainforest pioneer taxa. Waste management (including compostables) on K’gari becomes an increasing focus for FIDO and FINIA. FIDO hosts their first ‘Great Plant Giveaway’ at Eurong. Fox detection dogs fail to detect any foxes on K’gari during a 2-week survey, although cats, cane toads and pigs are detected. USC launches its K’gari App. By April 2018, FINIA’s website has received a total of 18,303 hits from a total of 105 countries.

2019     Butchulla Native Title of K’gari’s foreshores and coastal waters are determined (and held by Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC on behalf of the Butchulla People). FINIA advocates for an increased focus on environmental biosecurity as a big issue for high conservation and protected areas. FCRC launch their draft Fraser Coast Waste Strategy 2019-29. Butchulla Land and Sea Rangers undertake Biosecurity Training with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (now DPI). FIDO’s K’gari nursery project is awarded a Queensland Citizen Science grant to identify best practices in native plant propagation for ecosystem regeneration. A Master Plan for Central Station is developed by QPWS in conjunction with the BAC. The Master Plan’s delivery will be staged over many years, with the first task stabilising and restoring historic buildings on site. FIDO’s Orchid Beach and Kingfisher Bay weather stations come online.

2020     COVID-19 impacts Australia with K’gari closed to visitors on 25 March until 31 May. Only essential travel is permitted for residents and essential workers. Butterflies boom in March and early April after drought breaking rains, with thousands of blue tiger butterfly, Tirumala hamata (subfamily Danianae) migrating north. The Butchulla Land and Sea Rangers (BLSR) are trained in water quality monitoring by USC in a collaborative exercise with Prof Cathy Yule and assisting students. FINIA launches their Future Pest project supported by the Australian Government’s Chief Environmental Biosecurity Officer through the University of Melbourne’s Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, developing tools and strategies for minimising the risks of new priority pests, weeds, and pathogens on K’gari. Red Ash undertake an independent ecological study of weed management in Happy Valley on behalf of Happy Valley Community Association (HVCA) highlighting the area most at risk from Abrus and Easter cassia. QPWS provide wongari safety sticks for island walkers. In late November, K’gari again closes to visitors as K’gari experiences a massive wildfire between 14 October to 8 December. The closure remains in place until 15 December, after rains finally halt the wildfire which burns approximately 87,000 Ha (>50%) of the island.

2021     The alliance changes our name to FINIA – the Natural Integrity Alliance for K’gari in support of the Butchulla people and recognising the island’s original name of K’gari. FINIA participates in the K’gari Bushfire Review undertaken by the Inspector-General Emergency Management (IGEM), Alistair Dawson APM. QPWS, BAC and partners to commence monitoring of K’gari’s ecological values for recovery and impacts of the bushfire. The USC K’gari World Heritage Area Discovery Centre opens at Kingfisher Bay Resort. The K’gari Bushfire Review proposes that a set of guiding principles providing a unified response to World Heritage-listed sites in Queensland be included in the Queensland State Disaster Management Plan and reflected in the Queensland Bushfire Plan. In July, the World Heritage Committee (UNESCO) endorses the renaming of the World Heritage property as K’gari (Fraser Island). Cultural burns are reintroduced with a traditional burn of the K’gari camp led by Butchulla Land and Sea Ranger, Blayde Foley. BAC commence a 3-year Mur’rindum (Black-breasted button quail) Conservation project (funded by a Queensland Community Sustainability Action Grant) to detect the presence of the birds on Butchulla country and address threats such as bushfires, predation, and access management.

2022     K’gari celebrates 30 years of World Heritage. Bushfire recovery is reported across all nine REs sampled, except coastal Casuarina equisetifolia subsp. incana woodlands and Banksia integrifolia woodlands on the frontal beach ridges and high dunes, which is a major concern. Large areas of the island are surveyed, with myrtle rust detected in Melaleuca wetlands, heath environments, wet sclerophyll forests, rainforests and vegetation surrounding some lakes. The most significant impacts are recorded in areas recovering from the 2019 and 2020 bushfires. Fish and frog surveys are conducted by the BAC, BMRG, Griffith University and MRCCC with Platys (an invasive aquarium fish) identified on K’gari for the first time in Bogimbah and Poyungan creeks, on the island’s west coast. FINIA and FIDO are asked to assist with post-fire recovery leading to the FIDO K’gari Coastal Foredune Rehabilitation and Pandanus projects. The BAC commences its 2-year Butchulla Fire Management and Heritage Conservation project. Fraser Coast Council launches a Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy for K’gari. The FINIA Future Pest project is completed with the tool identified as a national template for environmental biosecurity of high conservation areas. A flood in SEQ in February leads to a massive clean-up operation on K’gari by QPWS, BAC, 4WD QLD and tourism operators such as K’gari Adventures. Climate change predictions identify that the frequency of intense storm-flood events is likely to increase. The Department of Environment and Science (now DETSI) and Butchulla community commence the K’gari Climate Adaptation project. Aboriginal Freehold title to more than 22Ha of land on K’gari is granted to the BAC. Formal consultation commences on renaming the island to its Butchulla name of K’gari under the Place Names Act 1994.

2023     On 7 June 2023, the world’s largest sand island, formerly known as Fraser Island, officially reclaims her name of K’gari after more than 6,000 submissions are received with ~70% supportive of restoring the island’s Butchulla name. The Butchulla fire management project continues with training, cultural heritage surveys and fire mitigation works in preparation for planned burns. Red Ash releases its second independent ecological study of weed management in Happy Valley on behalf of HVCA. The report identifies significant reductions of both Abrus and Easter Cassia and natural regeneration of native species throughout the treated area. Dangerous dingo (Wongari) activity on K’gari associated with appropriate visitor behaviour results in the euthanasia of the animals involved. The BAC and QPWS increase their K’gari Dingo-Safe/Wongari-Wise efforts and messaging, particularly during peak visitation periods. A cooperative DNA study between QPWS, BAC, University of Southern Queensland and University of Cape Town, determines that K’gari’s dingo population is sustainable, but that genetic health monitoring should continue for detecting morphological signs or physical abnormalities associated with inbreeding. The BAC’s Mur’rindum (Black-breasted button-quail) conservation project ends, with several conservation initiatives undertaken including a cultural burn at Dilli Village (to reduce bushfire risk and protect habitat), weed management and pig control activities in the Inskip Recreational Area. FINIA update their Terms of Reference to include issues threatening the future sustainability of K’gari’s natural and cultural values, systems, and processes.

2024     The Butchulla Working Group launches a Butchulla Climate Change Response Plan for K’gari. Building on the Climate Change project, and funded by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the BAC undertake a desk-top review of existing reports and literature to identify over 220 values for their Butchulla Water Stories project and undertake training in Seagrass Watch and the Wetland Condition Assessment Tool (WetCAT) to monitor K’gari’s significant wetlands. Griffith University ecologist, Dr Luke Carpenter Bundhoo identifies the Endangered Australian brook lamprey (Mordacia praecox) on K’gari. FIDO’s K’gari online weather station network covering Happy Valley, Eurong, Orchid Beach and Kingfisher Bay upgrades to 4G. Sealink report the highly invasive fish, tilapia, at Kingfisher Bay Resort. FIDO’s Zela Bissett explores turning K’gari’s weeds into paper to fund management activities. The BAC commences an 18-month project to develop a collaborative K’gari Biosecurity Strategy (funded through an Australian Heritage Grant) to prevent future invasive weeds, pests and pathogens and increase the BAC’s capacity to monitor and respond to invasive species. On 28 October, the Australian Government gazettes a name change from Fraser Island to K’gari for the National Heritage place name.

2025     In March, Cyclone Alfred leaves more marine debris in his wake. K’gari Adventures remove 527Kg of rubbish followed by 8,355 kg of waste across 114 km of K’gari’s coastline removed by 826 volunteers from 24 affiliated 4WD clubs during the 4WD Queensland annual K’gari Cleanup. Continuing the theme of biosecurity, the BAC, DPI and CSIRO undertake a project to identify which pests may be hitchhiking to K’gari on vehicles. Alice the Phytophthora sniffer dog indicates that over 50% of vehicles are positive for the fungal pathogen. The Biosecurity Strategy’s development continues with a 2-day BlueSheet workshop held on K’gari. Delivered by the BMRG, with BAC and QPWS (funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust), Indigenous and Conventional Scientific Approaches to Fire and Water Management on K’gari, a new groundwater management project, commences. A second project, led by the BAC, BMRG, CSIRO, the University of Adelaide, and DETSI will investigate the hidden lifelines of K’gari’s unique freshwater systems. Using a suite of techniques—from stable isotope analysis and sediment coring to lake bathymetry and water quality sampling—the team is unlocking critical knowledge about the island’s water sources, their age, and vulnerability. Finally, following a request by the Australian Government, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee adopt K’gari as the name for the World Heritage property.

As of November 2025, the FINIA website had published 478 articles that had been viewed 116,415 times by 65,648 visitors from 186 countries. In December 2025, FINIA celebrates 20 years of collaboration.