Northern Queensland

After deciding to skip the tortuous drive up the Cape York Peninsula, we headed east towards the coast and Cairns.  Bordering on the coast is the Atherton Tablelands.  This area is at about 2000ft of elevation, and has a unique weather and biosphere.  As you approach the coast, the yearly rainfall continues to increase until it becomes full-on rainforest.  Sadly the vast majority of this highly unique forest has been cleared for livestock and sugarcane. 

The terrain and rainfall make for lots of great waterfalls.










Some local wildlife.


It was also a fowl day. First we found this. This is a Bush Turkey, they are native to most of the wet tropics.  Surprisingly they are not related to North American Turkeys closely.


Then some introduced wildlife came to find us (for a meal, presumably).


Lastly, we found their scrub fowl.






One of the more interesting trees in the rainforest is the Strangler Fig.  Starting life as a poppy-sized seed, a bird drops it on an upper tree branch.  Slowly growing its roots down through the air, it hits the ground. After decades pass, it completely encircles its host tree and strangles it.  After 500 years or more it may become the biggest tree in the forest.







This fig tree is over 72m (150ft) around its base.  It’s canopy covers over 2000 square meters (20,000 square feet).  It is at least 400 years old.


This region also has a number of crater lakes formed in the caldera of extinct volcanos.
















Some forest wildlife.


We managed to finally spot a platypus as well.


This is a pair of very wet Curlews.