2022 Mazda BT-50 Thunder strikes Fraser Island

Australia is blessed with some of the best 4x4 driving destinations on the planet. Iconic locations such at the Cape York Peninsula, Kakadu National Park, The Kimberley, the Simpson Desert, the Flinders Ranges and the Victorian High Country make up the bucket lists of many a 4x4 adventurer.

One of the most accessible (depending on where you’re coming from) bucket-list destinations has to be Queensland’s Fraser Island. Lying just off the South-East Qld’s coast just 3.5-hours north of Brisbane, Fraser Island, or K’gari is a must-visit place for any four-wheel driver, particularly if you like fishing and beach driving.

Fraser is the largest sand island in the world and as such is a World Heritage listed site, so we’re lucky that we can still drive on its hundreds of kilometres of beach and inland tracks.

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The main track, if you like, runs up the eastern beach of the island and is inaccurately called 75-Mile Beach. Then there are many tracks that criss-cross the island to reach the protected western side and many of the freshwater lakes that dot the island.

It’s a four-wheel driver’s island paradise and one of the best things about driving on it, is that you don’t need a modified or heavily accessorised vehicle to access its tracks and destinations. In fact, you can drive most of Fraser Island in a bone-stock 4x4 vehicle and that’s just what we’re doing on this short adventure.

Island time

We’re visiting Fraser Island with Mazda and the flying visit allows us a full day to explore just a few of the island’s delights. We’re driving the Mazda BT-50 ute, the brand’s only proper 4x4 model and more than up to exploring the sandy tracks. Most of the cars are showroom stock, while a few of them are fitted with factory accessories and packages to improve their capability.

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Our steed was a BT-50 fitted with the Thunder Pack that includes a steel front bumper with a Lightforce light bar, all-terrain tyres and a sports bar in the cargo tray.

When we say that the BT-50 is a proper 4x4 vehicle, we’re referring to the fact that it has good ground clearance and dual-range transfer case. It’s not a soft roader like the many SUVs in the Mazda showroom and the BT-50 should have no trouble on the island.

Be prepared

While we say that you don’t need a heavily accessorised 4x4 to drive on Fraser Island, there are a few things you should carry to ensure your drive experience is as good as it could be.

You need to drop the tyre pressures for driving on sand. Doing this increases the tyre’s contact patch on the terrain and helps the vehicle ‘float’ over the soft sand easier than it would with high pressure you normally run on the road. Around 16 to 18psi is usually the magic number for sand driving, but you may need to drop lower for really soft sand or maintain a higher pressure if you are carrying a heavy load.

To make this job as easy as it can be, you’ll want a tyre deflator, a quality tyre-pressure gauge and a 12-volt air compressor to reinflate your tyres as needed or at the end of your trip.

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For our trip to Fraser Island, recent and ongoing rain had packed the sand relatively firm so the tyres were only dropped to 24psi.

No matter what you’re driving or how experienced you are, you’ll inevitably get bogged when driving on soft sand and you’ll want to be able to get yourself out safely.

A long-handled shovel is the first piece of equipment you’ll want to have on board to dig out any sand from around the bogged tyres or up around the chassis. Next a set of traction boards such as MaxTrax or Treds will help you out. At least two of them, but ideally four that you put under the wheels and drive on to, to get you up and out of the holes your tyres have dug in to the sand.

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A snatch strap or kinetic recovery rope is also a handy piece of equipment to help you get pulled out of a sand bog. To use this piece of equipment safely, your car will need to be fitted with specific recovery attachment points that are rated to accept the load of a snatch recovery, and rated D or soft shackles to attach the strap to the bogged vehicle and the one pulling you out.

Finally, its worth leaning how to properly and safely use the recovery equipment, and your vehicle, before you set off on your Fraser Island adventure.

The BT-50

The current generation of Mazda BT-50 was launched in 2020, so it’s still a relatively new model and features all the latest safety and convenience equipment. It’s no secret that the BT-50 shares most of its engineering and drivetrain with the Isuzu D-MAX, and this is a good thing as the Isuzu is a well-proven and reliable ute.

The shared equipment includes Isuzu’s venerable 3.0-litre diesel engine which in this latest application, puts out 140kW of power and 450Nm of torque. It’s backed by a 6-speed automatic transmission and the aforementioned part-time dual-range 4x4 system with a rear differential lock. A 6-speed manual gearbox is also available in some models of the BT-50 range.

With the tyre pressures dropped, the transfer case in 4x4 high range and the electronic traction and stability controls switched off, the wet sandy tracks poses no obstacles for the capable BT-50 Thunder.

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The internal tracks on Fraser Island can get very cut-up from vehicle traffic and become quite challenging, but not on this occasion. Roots extending from the massive trees that line the tracks create some deep holes and ruts on the tracks and these did stop a few drivers, requiring a change of line or a bit more momentum to make it across, but we managed to avoid needing any vehicle recoveries.

Venturing from our base at Kingfisher Bay Resort, we traversed the island to the eastern beach and turned north, passing Eli Creek and heading up to Happy Valley before we turned left and traversed back to the western beach at Woralie Creek.

Backtracking to the eastern beach, we turned south and stopped to check out the wreck of the SS Maheno which is slowly rusting away on the sand. Eli Creek provided a water crossing that required some well-judged timing on the way back, but nothing to challenge the BT-50’s 700mm wading depth. Eli Creek was also a great spot for a lunch stop, even if the weather wasn’t playing nicely.

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The gloomy and wet conditions also kept Lake McKenzie from looking its glorious best but, like Eli Creek, this is another must-see location on Fraser Island. The ultra-white sand and freshwater usually provides the perfect place to while away a few hours swimming and enjoying the Queensland sun.

Our visit to Fraser Island was essentially a day trip and as such, we only touched on a few of the island’s must-see locations. Previous experience tells me you want to plan your visit to K’gari to give you at least three entire days to explore and a week or more if you have time to spare.

The island has ample places to camp along the beach or in fenced-off campgrounds, or even staying in a resort or house accommodation if that’s more your thing.

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More time on the island will allow you to explore more of the many sandy tracks and take you to places like Sandy Cape with its lighthouse on the northern tip of the island, the Champagne Pools which are stunning rock pools for swimming in or checking out many of the inland freshwater lakes. And that’s before you get in to the renowned fishing all along the beach.

Fraser Island is a national park so you will need to pay access fees and vehicle permits to drive on it. Accessing the island with your 4x4 is done by vehicle ferry from either Inskip Point near Rainbow Beach on the mainland, or Riverheads near Hervey Bay.

Gear to go

As mentioned, Mazda offers a huge range of accessories to customise the BT-50 and better equip it to your needs, be it for touring or tradie use.

Some of those products come from brands well-known in the 4x4 business like the Lightforce LED lights and light bars, but something we didn’t realise until now was that Mazda has also partnered with ARB 4x4 Accessories to offer suspension packages for the BT-50.

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The suspension package is based around ARB’s excellent remote reservoir, internal bypass, adjustable BP-51 shock absorbers with matched coil and leaf springs to suit 0 to 300kg or 300 to 600kg loads depending on your requirements.

The products were co-developed by ARB and Mazda Australia to deliver optimal calibration and performance and would make an excellent factory-approved addition to any BT-50 that heads off road. The ARB BP-51 suspension kit for the BT-50 starts at $6720 when ordered via your Mazda dealer.

2022 Mazda BT-50 Thunder specs