Oh Where Have I Gotten to Now?: December 2009

Once more, I have been blessed with a wonderful work opportunity which involves wildlife, travel, and beautiful places. This opportunity also offered intesely hot weather, thunder storms, large agrivated turtles, and more mud than I think I have ever seen anywhere. I got hired by a slightly different arm of the Queensland gov't to conduct fish surveys and collect water quality data in permanent water holes on the Cooper Creek catchment in south-west (outback) Queensland. Cooper Creek drains into Lake Eyre which is a huge, usually dry lake bed in the center of the country (see google maps). On Nov. 14 we flew into Longreach (the epicenter of the Qld outback and original home of Qantas airlines) and spent the next two weeks driving around in 4x4s camping alongside a different waterhole every night. We would arrive in the late afternoon, put three fyke nets into the waterhole (think a series of giant hoop nets that fish swim into, but cant swim backout the way they came), do one seine netting, and then take water quality measurements. Then we would set up camp, cook dinner, enjoy the sunset, sit around the fire for a while, then head to bed. We woke with the sunrise every morning and got back into the water to retrive our nets and process all the fish. We also caught a whole lot of turtles. They did not seem to like being in the nets and would bite and claw at us while we caried the nets in. They also ate much of our catch. Silly buggers! I thought they were quite cute though.
We surveyed all around the region from Adavale to Hellhole Gorge to Winton and Stonehenge and all the way up north as far as Hughenden. Almost all of our sites were on private cattle stations. It is the middle of summer here and the drought is pretty bad, so some of the cattle were very very happy to see us - which usually resulted in severe bovine traffic jams. The waterholes usually had vegetation around them and often supported numerous birds.
During the day we just tried to keep cool. Drives between sites were long so we often got to spend the heat of the day in the AC, which was good because it got into the 100's (high of 45 celsius). Sometimes we would nip into a small town and have a cold drink and talk to the locals or check out some interesting small town attraction - such as the Muttaburrasaurus (see photo bellow).
On the return trip we took a very minor detour so we could spend part of one day hiking in the spectacular Carnarvon Gorge. We were very lucky to get to hike into the gorge with Fred, a local Aboriginal man, who explained the uses of various plants (and let us eat some), the history of the gorge, and the significance and meaning of the extensive artwork that exists in one section of the gorge. If you ever come to Queensland, this place is hard to get to, but well worth the trip. A morning with Fred just topped it all off.
I returned from this trip on Sunday and I head to New Zealand tomorrow (Dec. 3rd), so there will be more photos from a distant land coming soon. In the mean time, enjoy the ones from this trip below.

Incredible moss gardens in Carnarvon Gorge

High walls of an amphitheater like sink hole about 80 meters deep.

Outside that sink hole

Around Carnarvon Gorge

Monitor Lizard called Goana

Aboriginal artwork - this site was a place where ceremonies for the dead were held, right next door was an area where births were celebrated.

Hands of adults and children who passed away

Our awesome guide Fred telling us about the significance of this place to his people and to him personally

Around Carnarvon Gorge

Pretty faced Wallaby

Outback traffic jam

Father Emu tending to his young. Female emus do not engage in rearing activities. They leave the chicks with the males and head off to mate again. This male had 8 chicks with him and he was standing in the road when we first approached him. He seemed to be trying to make sure they all got across safely.

Signs to places which dont exist on most maps

The Muttaburrasaurus - its fossilized remains were found not far from the tiny town of Muttaburra. This was the most intact dinosaur skeleton ever found in Australia. Very exciting!

Black Cockatoos

Galah

This little guy hitched a ride out to a very remote desert water hole with us. We don't know where we picked him up, but we ended up moving him into a nice pond at a property owners house.