Auswildlife.com

If you are travelling along the central Queensland coast, then Cape Hillsborough is certainly worth a visit. There are some great opportunities for some beach landscape photos and there is also some interesting wildlife. The wallabies in these photos are Agile Wallabies, a very common species in the savannah grasslands across the semi-arid Australian tropics. Interestingly, there are not that many places where you can easily see them in the wild (yes, well they are not really wild but they are free to range – so wild in that sense!) .  This is one place to see them and another that I can think of, is the East Point Reserve, not far from the Darwin CBD in the Northern Territory.  I’m sure there must be other places  but Cape Hillsborough may well be the only place where they come out onto a beach. This all seemed a bit odd - why would they come out onto an exposed beach where they might risk predation etc?  I was told that they were usually on the beach between about 5 and 7am, so I decided to go and see for myself. Running a bit late as usual, I got there at about 7am and there they were! Then I discovered that they were eating bits of vegetation that had been washed up, including the seeds of some of the local mangroves. So there it was – they were feeding! In this area, predators such as dingoes are long gone and being in a national park, there are no other pets (dogs) allowed, so they probably feel quite safe.

Cape Hillsborough offers quite a few other attractions as well. There are a number of walking tracks that lead through the coastal forests and along the shoreline. As mentioned, most of the area is national park and there are some really nice camp sites near the beaches. Do beware of the sandflies!  Most (all?) of the campsites are run by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and so you must pay a camping fee. Here is some information from the QPWS people.

If you want to go more up-market, there is a Cape Hillborough Nature Resort (with much better pics on their website than I managed to get!) .  The Resort has camping sites as well as cabins and some are right beside the beach (where the wallabies are to be seen).  This is where Cape Hillsborough is on Google Maps (just north of Mackay).

Out of the murky gloom came this pair of sharks and then the lead animal turned and headed straight towards me.  Determined to get a few photos, I kept my eye to the viewfinder and put all other thoughts out of my mind as they came in… racking the zoom to full wide-angle to try to get them in the picture – it was slightly unnerving. Then  just at the last moment, the leading shark swerved away. Well, I mean, it had too unless it wanted to crash into the perspex! Yes… did you really think I would be in the water with a pair of bull sharks?  This was at SeaWorld on the Queensland Gold Coast, Australia.

There are plenty of interesting places to stay in this part of  Australia! A little while ago I spent some time near Lake Eacham at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodge. The Lodge consists of a number of small, separate bunkhouses in the rainforest and a larger reception and kitchen/eating area nearby. There are quite a few good subjects for wildlife photography in the immediate vicinity including Chameleon Geckoes along the rainforest walking tracks at night and Sugar Gliders and Striped Possums come to a feeding area that has been specially set up for the purpose. While I was there a Japanese film crew were busy setting up hides and filming some denizen of the local forest -  I never managed to  find out exactly what it was!
It is also a good place to base activities if you want to explore the local area and maybe see the flying foxes at the Tolga scrub (described in another posting).  Chambers Lodge has a website where you can check out the accommodation. It is located about here!!!

The Bunya Mountains are located to the north-west of  Toowoomba in South-east Queensland. The range is a small, isolated  western outlier of the Great Dividing Range that runs along the east coast of Australia.  Species that are easily seen: Red-necked Wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus), Satin bowerbirds ( Ptilonorhynchus violaceus), males attend their bowers immediately adjacent to the camping area and along the walking tracks – Late September to November or sometimes to late December), Scrub Turkeys (Alectura lathami, build large incubation mounds with leaf litter near the walking tracks and campground), King Parrots (Alisterus scapularis) and Crimson Rosellas (Platycercus elegans) are hand fed near the Kiosk.  Predatory birds such as Pied Currawongs (Strepera graculina) and Torresian Crows (Corvus orru) hang around the campground area, menacing other birds and trying to steal food from visitors (don’t encourage them!) and there is usually a pair of Laughing Kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguinea) that look as if they need a good wash.  At night you will probably see the large battle-scarred Short-eared Brushtail Possums (Trichosurus caninus) around the camping area and buildings. They occasionally climb into the large rubbish (trash) bins and forget to go home, curling up in the corner to sleep. If it’s their unlucky day, they will get emptied into the compactor and taken to the waste dump at Kingaroy (usually unharmed!).  You may also see a very reddish version of the Common Ringtail Possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus).  There are many other species in the area and there is quite an impressive bird list for the area.  I once met a group of bird enthusiasts while at the park, and some of the members were doing quite well around the campground with 300mm lenses or thereabouts, and some fill flash. The shot of the Superb Fairy Wren that I use on my home page was taken in exactly this manner at the Bunya Mountains.

As you have gathered by now, the national park has a campground and bookings can be made over the www. here: QPWS. There are also private houses to rent and some lodges that hold larger groups. Enquiries can be made here: BM Accommodation.

And, this is a locality map!!  A relatively easy drive from Brisbane!

UPDATE:  I just recently re-visited this area and shock-horror – the little tea house has closed down! Now there is a somewhat sterile-looking cafe  near the top of the range that dispenses food and beverages with not a bird in sight! I’m sure if you walk around the area you will still see some wildlife, but that really great little bird observation area is gone! ….
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Just to the north of Townsville, you will find a turnoff that takes you to the top of the range and there you will find the small village of Paluma. This is a great little stop where you can photograph some of the local bird species while sitting at the tables with tea or coffee! Be careful driving up the range as the road is narrow and winding. When you get to the top, the tea house is well marked on the left-hand side of the road. The birds that you should see there include Macleay’s Honeyeater (shown here), Victoria’s Riflebird and sometimes you might see white-cheeked honeyeaters. There are many more birds than that, of course and I think the local bird list stands at about 256.  Paluma Range Tea House.