SE Queensland 2019 (Part 2)
Day 4
Waking up in a carpark near Kondalilla falls is not anyone’s ideal morning but Nick and I were unfazed as we pushed on. Deciding to forego Maleny for another time we headed further south to try and find a few species before ending up at O’Reilly’s, where we planned to spend the last two nights of our trip.
Our first stop, after navigating around roads that Google Maps thought existed but turned out to be fairy tales, was Mt Nebo. The rainforest was distressingly dry but after walking around for an hour we managed to glimpse our target, the Plain-backed Sun-skink (Lampropholis couperi). Our two-pronged attack failed to capture the little skink, who gave us a sly grin as he disappeared into the leaf litter. Still, seeing one was better than none. Onwards!
Our second stop before O’Reilly’s was in some rather dry and to be honest, unsavoury looking scrub. Fortunately, we didn’t have to spend much time wandering around, with Nick finding a Collared Delma (Delma torquata) within minutes. This incredibly cute but threatened species was one of the highlights for the trip, and photogenic as well!
Delma torquata
After finding our two targets, albeit one only briefly, we made a dash for Lamington where we found the first problem we’d face over the next couple of days, road works. Every night the road up the mountain was to be shut down completely. We soon encountered the second, the camping ground was closed due to fire danger. Despite this, we disappeared into the rainforest, issues that could be worried about later weren’t going to stop us looking for the reclusive inhabitants of Lamington NP. It didn’t take too long before we found some fossorial brown skinks, the Short-limbed Snake-skink (Ophioscincus truncatus), and the third Calyptotis for the trip, the Scute-snouted Calyptotis (Calyptotis scutirostrum). Walking back we also came across the more easily seen Land Mullets (Bellatorias major) and Murray’s Skinks (Karma murrayi) whilst being serenaded by the beautiful calls of cat birds (if you don’t know what they sound like look it up, it’s a strange mixture of interesting and awful). With high hopes we road cruised a little that night with no luck, sneaking out just as the road closed with the vague plan of heading to Springbrook for the night. Sleep deprivation had other plans for us though, and we ended up crashing somewhere near the base of the mountain for a very anticlimactic but at the same time fantastic 12 hours of sleep.
Calyptotis scutirostrum
Karma murrayi
Bellatorias major
Day 5
The final day saw us well rested and keen to track down a species that both Nick and I really wanted to see, Tryon’s Skink (Karma tryoni). We got off to a fantastic start coming across an Angle-headed Dragon (Lophosaurus spinipes), a prehistoric looking agamid well adapted to blending into the branches. We must have caught this one moving between perches as he was sitting on the edge of the path on a rock. Buoyed by early success it wasn’t long before we had our second new species for the day, finding several Orange-tailed Shadeskinks (Saproscincus challengeri) around creeks. From there things slowed down, and we eventually made our way back to O’Reilly’s, passing a female Albert’s Lyrebird metres from the path. I’m not quite sure what the waitress thought of us two strapping lads covered in filth ordering lunch but I sincerely doubt it was a high opinion. Nevertheless, our burgers went down without an issue as we sat and stewed upon how to find our skink.
Lophosaurus spinipes
Saproscincus challengeri
After receiving some intel from a surprising but reliable source after lunch we were revitalised and set off at a blistering pace. It was 2:00pm and we had around 14kms to cover before nightfall if we wanted to get to the skink and be back in time to look for the final frog target of the trip. Luckily enough, once we were in the right place the skink proved no problem to find and Nick and I sat around happily photographing one, with a complementary Marsh Snake (Hemiaspis signata) and Echidna making appearances. After photos and seeing a few more peeking out of rotten logs, we decided to beat a hasty retreat. Both Marsupial Frogs (Assa darlingtoni) and Loveridge’s Mountain Frog (Philoria loveridgei) were calling on our return but we didn’t have time to dig through leaf litter for small brown frogs so they were regretfully put in the next time basket. We had a much bigger brown frog to find!
Karma tryoni
Hemiaspis signata
Arriving back at our creek we whipped out the headtorches and waited for the last light to fade. We were of course after Fleay’s Barred Frog (Mixophyes fleayi), an endangered species known to favour running creeks in certain areas in the McPherson Range. We ended up finding several, although due to our novice frogging experience, neither Nick nor I were sure we weren’t actually looking at Great Barred Frogs (Mixophyes fasciolatus), a much more widespread species, until later. Luckily our fears were unfounded, with the id’s confirmed the next day thanks again to Ben Revell and Matt Clancy. A relatively short spotlight back to O’Reilly’s saw us find 11 Border Ranges Leaf-tailed Geckos (Saltuarius swainii), a large and impressive gecko, but little else. Rolling out our camping gear in a quiet corner, we finished up the night with a quick glimpse of a prowling dingo.
Mixophyes fleayi
Saltuarius swaini
Day 6
Despite the half-considered ideas of chasing more small skinks on the final day, we packed up shop and hit the road for home early on the 6th morning of the trip. Nick ended up making it all the way back to Melbourne in the one go, showcasing the herper level endurance he’d built up over the trip. Overall, we found much of what we looked for and it was a brilliant, quick trip with so much crammed into 5 short days. Some insanely long nights will hopefully have prepared us well for the upcoming two and a half week herp trip planned to north Queensland in January.
