UN Officially Adopts Aboriginal Name for World’s Largest Sand Island

UNESCO will recognise the name ‘K’gari' for Fraser Island.

People walk on a beach on Fraser Island or K'gari, the world's largest sand island, on Oct. 22, 2018. Phil Noble - Pool/Getty Images

The United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has officially adopted the Indigenous name “K'gari” for what was formerly known as Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island.

Labor’s Environment Minister Murray Watt announced UNESCO’s decision on July 15.

“If you’ve been to Queensland, you‘ll probably know how much we Queenslanders love K’gari, or the island people my age grew up knowing as Fraser Island,” he said in a video.

“Well I’m pleased to tell you that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has just decided to officially rename this island as K'gari, reflecting the [former] Queensland [Labor] government’s name change back in 2023.

“This name change respects the wishes of the Butchulla people, the traditional owners of the island, who’ve been seeking this name change for some time and who have been connected to this island for 60,000 years.”

Fraser Island was named in 1836 in honour of Eliza Fraser, a Scottish woman who survived a shipwreck near the island along with her husband, Captain James Fraser, as well as the ship’s 18 passengers and crew.

Captain Fraser did not survive, described as possibly succumbing to spear wounds, starvation, or disease.

Eliza, on the other hand, did eventually return to England, where she described the local Indigenous people as “savages and cannibals,” a portrayal the Butchulla people deny.

The island’s official name was changed in 2023 under the Palaszczuk Labor government, while 19 hectares of land was also transferred to the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation.

At the time, the then-opposition criticised Labor for focusing on symbolic gestures instead of dealing with real issues.

MP John-Paul Langbroek was critical of “serious and systemic failures” in Indigenous health, citing an auditor-general’s report which found services lacking.

“These findings were released on the same day as the government’s priority was renaming Fraser Island instead of working to achieve better outcomes for Indigenous Queenslanders,” he told Parliament (pdf).