moloch
New member
My wife and I recently went on a short holiday to central Queensland, Australia. We flew to Townsville, hired a car and then travelled south as far as the Mackay area. One of the highlights was a two night stay at the Broken River Cabins that are situated along the boundary of Eungella National Park. Eungella is located in the mountains about an hour west of Mackay. This is a wet location, especially along the escarpment that faces the coast. The wet area supports a narrow band of beautiful rainforest.
Many of the rainforest trees in Eungella have buttressed trunks.
Some of the trees were giants such as this enormus Red Cedar (Toona australis).
Eucalyptus forest replaced the rainforest in the vicinity of the park headquarters. I walked this area each evening and found it to be full of geckos. This Information Office could really be renamed as the "House of Geckos" since they were crawling all over it at night. I saw at least 12 Ocellated Velvet Geckos (Oedura monilis) and 10 Gehyra dubia on the building.
This was the first Ocellated Velvet Gecko that I found away from the office. I did not initially see the gecko but saw something green shaking back and forth on the culvert. As I walked closer, I realized that a pale gecko had captured a large grasshopper and was trying to eat it.
Here is another Ocellated Velvet Gecko in a natural setting. It also was quite pale.
I found a juvenile O. monilis in a gap between this strangler fig and its host.
Here is a Gehyra dubia in a natural setting.
A spectacular Leaf-tailed Gecko, Phyllurus nepthys, lives in the rainforests of Eungella National Park and the adjacent ranges. I went on a couple of long night walks through the forest and searched for the geckos on the trunks of the trees. Unfortunately, I was not successful.
Finally, Broken River is one of the easiest places that I know of to find this extraordinary creature. Platypus are widely distributed along the east coast of Australia but usually they are shy and hard to see. At Broken River, they are habituated to people and put on a good show every morning and evening.
Many of the rainforest trees in Eungella have buttressed trunks.
Some of the trees were giants such as this enormus Red Cedar (Toona australis).
Eucalyptus forest replaced the rainforest in the vicinity of the park headquarters. I walked this area each evening and found it to be full of geckos. This Information Office could really be renamed as the "House of Geckos" since they were crawling all over it at night. I saw at least 12 Ocellated Velvet Geckos (Oedura monilis) and 10 Gehyra dubia on the building.
This was the first Ocellated Velvet Gecko that I found away from the office. I did not initially see the gecko but saw something green shaking back and forth on the culvert. As I walked closer, I realized that a pale gecko had captured a large grasshopper and was trying to eat it.
Here is another Ocellated Velvet Gecko in a natural setting. It also was quite pale.
I found a juvenile O. monilis in a gap between this strangler fig and its host.
Here is a Gehyra dubia in a natural setting.
A spectacular Leaf-tailed Gecko, Phyllurus nepthys, lives in the rainforests of Eungella National Park and the adjacent ranges. I went on a couple of long night walks through the forest and searched for the geckos on the trunks of the trees. Unfortunately, I was not successful.
Finally, Broken River is one of the easiest places that I know of to find this extraordinary creature. Platypus are widely distributed along the east coast of Australia but usually they are shy and hard to see. At Broken River, they are habituated to people and put on a good show every morning and evening.
