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Published: August 6th 2008
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The next stop on my little tour of the Atherton Tablelands was Atherton itself, originally known as Prior's Creek. The road to here is all dry eucalyptus forest, quite a change from the rainforest around Kuranda. I spotted some red-tailed black cockatoos at Mareeba which was the highlight of the bus ride. At Atherton I am staying at the Barron Valley Hotel. I found two pet shops in town, one that had burgundy-coloured freshwater crabs the size of big conkers, for $10, and the other with land hermits, baby pythons, scorpions and "Australian tarantulas". Five kilometres out of town is Hastie's Swamp, the remnants of the formerly more extensive Nyleta Wetlands. The swamp is a National Park, possibly one of the smallest National Parks in the world at just 57 hectares -- you could walk the perimeter in about forty minutes I suspect. Because of the bus schedules getting me into Atherton, I couldn't set off for the swamp till bang on midday. The sun was so hot that if I'd had a spare cassowary egg I could have fried it on my hat as I walked along the highway. The middle of the day isn't the best time to go
birding of course but who cares. Hastie's Swamp is really nice. There was a swirling vortex of black kites over a nearby field, vast swarms of straw-necked ibis, hundreds of magpie geese carpeting the shorelines, jacanas tip-toeing across the water plants, and tiny red-backed wrens scampering through the undergrowth like sunburnt mice. There was even a spotted tree monitor in the tree outside the hide for a brief period. No brolgas at that time of day though.
On the way back hours later I stopped off at Platypus Park on the outskirts of the town. Its not the most promising-looking of places to try and see wild platypus, just a rather dirty pool with an artificial waterfall surrounded by some grass and shrubs with a childrens' playground and barbeque platform to one side overlooking the water. The lady in the Info Centre had said that she'd never ever seen a platypus there, but I figured it had to be worth a look just in case. And there, plain as day, was a platypus swimming around looking for food. Such a fantastic little beastie!!!
The next day I went early pearly in the dawn to Hastie's Swamp to see
the pond at Platypus Park on the outskirts of Atherton
viewing platform and childrens' playground to the left if I could catch the brolgas before they left for the day. On the way I stopped at Platypus Park and yes, there was a platypus again. First animal I see on my birthday is a platypus! How many people can say that? Certainly not Andy!! I got to the swamp just a tad too late for the brolgas but did see one pair flying overhead as I came up the entrance road. I hung around for a few hours seeing all the usual birds from the day before as well as a couple of different ones, then headed back to Platypus Park to see if I could get some photos because, of course, the first time I'd seen a platypus I didn't have my camera set up, and the second time there wasn't quite enough light for taking photos. Naturally no platypus appeared but an azure kingfisher flew in, which was nice, and some old guy came and showed me a spider. Just coming back into town I saw a crested hawk sitting on the powerlines, which was sort of unexpected. For most of the rest of the day I wandered round the forest of in the Halloran Hill
Environmental Park where I found all sorts of birds such as bridled honeyeaters and white-naped honeyeaters (14th and 15th honeyeater species for the week). In the late afternoon it was back to Platypus Park again. Eventually two platypuses made brief appearances but the light had gone by then so still no good photos, and it didn't help that there were two families there who whenever the platypus surfaced would scream "there it is!" and rush along the bank at it.
Even earlier the next morning I made yet a third foray to Hastie's Swamp. For anyone that's keeping track that's 30km of walking back and forth to see brolgas. This time I got it just right and there were what looked like about sixty brolgas clustered on the far shore waiting in the mist, honking and carrying on until they flew off across the swamp and away. And then I saw two platypuses swimming around in the water near the hide, which was a bonus. There was enough light for photos of the platypuses (but not so much for the brolgas) but they weren't very close so the pictures look like the ones people take of Nessie: it MAY
be a platypus or it may just be a shadow on the water. I know what it is though and that's all that counts.
Today I continue my journey, on to Yungaburra where I hope to spot a tree kangaroo...
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andy spall
non-member comment
dam you to hell
well israel i see you are trying to fool us but we all know the so called platypus you saw was actually just an aquatic wombat{wombaticus aquaticuss} to be exacte. i do find it very conveniant that you were not able to take any photos. oh yeah and as for the tree kangeroo do you truly think people will belive that there is such a thing? everybody knows kangeroos need dirt to bounce on. god!!!!