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| Undara Lava Tubes |
Having reached Cooktown in the north we headed back south visiting some extraordinary places en route. Our first stop was at Undara Volcanic National Park. Here are the remains of the longest lava tubes in the world which were only discovered in the 1980's when a local farmer went to find cattle and found some had fallen into deep gullies. These were the remains of lava tubes formed some 190,000 years ago when a volcano spewed lave for around 12 months across the tablelands, forming lava tubes up to 160kms long. The remains of the lava tubes can be seen in impressive caves some 20m in diameter and gullies across the dry tablelands where dense forest still occurs, leaving a green trail where the tubes have collapsed.
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| Cassowary at Etty Beach |
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| Cassowary |
From Undara we returned to the tropical forests of the coast determined to see a Cassowary, en route finding a platypus foraging in a small river on the Atherton tablelands.
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| Platypus |
Having heard Cassowary could be seen at Etty beach we parked at the beachfront and while sitting having a coffee were startled when a 4ft cassowary came up behind us, before strutting off along the beach, its bright blue head and dangling red wattles making an extraordinary sight.
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| Dinosaur footprints |
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| Dinosaur Stampede |
Our route back south took us inland to the outback where we stopped at Winton, the home of Waltzing Matilda, and an extraordinary set of dinosaur footprints. Discovered by accident when cattle were being rounded up they are now excavated and available for general viewing. Some 3000 footprints have been uncovered from 3 different species of Dinosaur. It is believed a mixed herd of small chicken and turkey sized herbivores were drinking on a mud flat by a pool when a larger carnivorous therapod the size of a pony arrived and caused panic. The prints are exceptionally well preserved and well defined allowing the scientists to determine the speed they were running and even seeing the therapod accelerate and turn.
Nearby on the dry plains they also started to discover the bones of large 90 million year old sauropods, and each year are excavating at least one site, with a large fossil cleaning workshop established. Gradually they are creating a fine collection of fossils, and have plans to build a large museum to display them as well as dinosaur fossils from across Australia.
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| Aboriginal rock art |
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Carnarvon Gorge
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Our final week before reaching Brisbane was spent in a variety of National Parks including Carnarvon Gorge where the sandstone has been eroded into a sheer sided gorge where overhangs have been used for thousands of years by the aboriginals as special religious and meeting sites, and now are covered in spectacular aboriginal rock art. Narrow fissures and side gorges have been eroded into spectacular chambers.
With forays into some of the remaining temperate rainforests 100km inland of Brisbane we eventually returned to the Gold Coast where we spent a week cleaning the van before it was finally put into a shipping container for its journey to New Zealand.
The birdlife in Australia has been fantastic, colourful, noisy and with huge number of raptors and we have been fortunate to see and identify over 230 species. The east coast has provided us with viewings of platypus and echidna as well as a very large rock python and offers a huge range of habitats from dry outback to coastal mangroves, tropical and sub tropical rainforests with their huge and diverse species of unusual trees, and dramatic landscapes ranging from beautiful sandy beaches, forest covered mountains and deep canyons with numerous waterfalls.
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| Budgerigar Echidna |
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| Hinchinbrook Island |
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| Strangler Fig |
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| The Outback near Winton |
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| Sub tropical rainforest |
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| Van loaded ready for shipping to New Zealand |
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| One of many stunning sunsets |
