AUSTRALIA TRIP REPORT PAGE 4 of 7
Dates: September 18-28, 2004
Location: Central-Eastern Queensland, Australia
September 22, 2004
Today is the vernal equinox down-under, it also turned out to be the coolest day of our visit. A light night storm had blown through the area and the day was a little blustery, I don’t think the temp reach the 80’s today. We spent most of the day in town doing some sight seeing and shopping but in the afternoon I did get a couple of hours to hike around the outskirts of town near a stream with a lot of dense brush and of course you know what I was looking for.
I followed the stream to a open area with a large pool and was amazed to see nearly a dozen turtles sunning themselves on rocks and logs on the side of the pool. At first I thought these were Krefft’s River Turtles (Emydura krefftii) but I now believe that they are snake-headed turtles, if anyone would like to confirm or argue with the ID (or any of the others here for that matter, please do, I would not be the least offended as I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on any of these species!!!).
Eastern Snake-headed Turtle - Chelodina longicollis
I was walking along a small path when I spotted a snake moving slowly toward a clump of dead braches several yards ahead. Again, I was under a canopy with poor lighting and although I was quicker with the camera this time I didn’t get any good shots of him out in the open. This little guy was amazing! At first I thought that it might be a Tiger snake due to what appeared to be a barred pattern on it’s back and it sure was an aggressive little beast! As soon as I approached it struck in my general direction several times then took off for cover but I was able to quickly flush it out with a stick wherein it reared back, curved it’s neck into an S, flattened its head and started striking wildly in every direction. I noted that it never stuck directly at me even though it could clearly see me and I quickly ascertained that this was strictly a defensive maneuver geared to ward off a predator. I was able to get a few shots of this (non-poisonous) Keelback Water Snake.
Keelback Water Snake - Tropidonophis mairii
September 23, 2004
Today we explored one of the southernmost islands of the Great Barrier Reef, Lady Elliot Island. It’s a coral atoll basically, about a half mile or so across and surrounded by beautiful coral reefs, you fly about ½ hour off shore and land on a small dirt strip. We spent the day diving and snorkeling but of course I had to see if there was any chance of sea snakes, according to the guides on the island it wasn’t the right time of year but I looked anyway. Didn’t see any sea snakes but did manage to observe 4 Green Sea Turtles while diving. I didn’t have any underwater equipment so I couldn’t get any good photos but did get one from my little cheap digital while we were riding around in a glass bottom boat.
Green Sea Turtle - Chelonia mydas
September 24, 2004
Today was a split day, the morning was spent visiting and doing some shopping, in the afternoon we took a short, one hour trip to another national park that was located about an hour north of our location. We visited the Barrum Coast National Park, while the area looked promising there wasn’t too much in terms of herp life present but I missed my second live Red-bellied black snake by a matter of a few minutes. We drove down a road that ended at the coast, turned around and about a mile back the way we came there was a large DOR snake in the road. It was freshly killed and again about 5 feet long.
Red-bellied Black Snake - Pseudechis porphyricacus
These snakes are highly venomous but supposedly pretty docile. They are toad eaters and their populations have apparently suffered in some areas where the Cane Toad is present as the Cane Toad is apparently toxic to them. One thing I wanted to note somewhere in this post was that I noticed that the folks here, even the locals seem to be more tuned in to their wildlife and appreciation of it, could be just the areas I was visiting but to give you a quick example. I pulled off to the side of the road to examine the black snake and a car passed, stopped and backed up, an Australian guy yelled out the window to me, “That’s a real beauty of a specimen, isn’t it? Shame it got killed.” That was surprising to me considering the usual experiences around here but then a second car passed with a family from Brisbane that were in the area vacationing stopped as well, got out and took some photos and again reiterated the first guys sentiment regarding the death of the snake…
September 25, 2004
This was the best day of the trip in terms of herping for me, this was “my day” as decried by my wife so of course we got up very early and were on the road by 6:30 AM. There was an area that we had passed by a few days earlier that I wanted to check out, looked very good for herps so I was excited. The area is called Poona National Park, it is situated a little to the southwest of Hervey Bay and is bordered on one side by a large river called the Mary river and the coastline on the other with a good view of Fraser Island that sits just a couple of miles off the coast.
One of my goals of the trip were to see the major “dragons” of the area, I had already nailed the Water Dragon but was a little disappointed that I hadn’t seen any Bearded Dragons, my other goal was to see a Frilled Lizard but I was told that it wasn’t the right time of year yet as the rainy season hadn’t started. Well, we looked around a few wild areas and I saw plenty of large lizard trails but no luck on anything moving. We drove into a small town called Boonooroo just to check it out and there, in the middle of town on the street was my first Bearded Dragon!
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Bearded Dragon - Pogona barbata
Bearded Dragon - Pogona barbata
Five minutes later, at the fringe area of a golf course I spotted another large lizard, I thought it was another dragon but as I focused in with my camera I was quite surprised, so much so that I almost missed my only good shot at my first Frilled Lizard.
Frilled Lizard - Chlamydosaurus kingii
While the Bearded Dragon seemed to be quite comfortable with me approaching to a point, the Frilled Lizard was not! The first shot was taken from the car, as I opened the door he took off, he was bipedal almost immediately and hit the first eucalyptus tree at full speed. I was amazed at how fast he scaled the tree, this lizard was at least 24” long total and probably a little more but he went 30 feet up the tree faster than I could even raise my lens! We spent the next five minutes playing hide-and-seek as I tried to get some more pictures of him. He would position himself around the other side of the tree regardless of how quickly I moved. Much to the delight of my wife who was watching this whole thing. I finally asked her to stand on one side of the tree while I stood on the other, this apparently confused the Frilled lizard for a few seconds as I was able to snap off a few more shots before he figured out that a side branch would work and he disappeared, hiding himself between the branch and us with only his huge claws showing.
Frilled Lizard - Chlamydosaurus kingii
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- Thanks! - Brad Weinert -
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