The Lerista Trip of ‘21 (Part 1)
Making a break for warmer temperatures.
Narrabri to Townsville (11th-15th)
Nothing stirs more joy in the heart of skink herpers than seeing a fossorial squiggle uncovered among the leaf litter. Or at least few things do. With such a thought in mind, Nick had been pushing Justin and I to look for some of the many Lerista known from northern Queensland for some time. With winter set in and few prospects for decent herping in the south, plans were made to unite at Townsville and hit the road with rakes in hand.
Naturally, covid wasn’t about to let plans go off without a hitch and so the beginning of the trip saw me evacuating to Narrabri from Canberra a week early to ensure I could get into Queensland. Nick also had to do a runner from Melbourne, and ended up making it all the way to Townsville and then back to Narrabri in the extra week and a half that covid enforced on him. After much monitoring of the case numbers and border restrictions, we were eventually both in Narrabri and ready to get the ball rolling. The beginning of our trip (mostly making our way to Townsville) was largely uneventful but we more than made up for it later.
Day 1
While technically Nick and I had left Narrabri the evening before and made it all the way to Injune, we’d done it without looking for a single reptile and so I’ll treat this as the first proper day on the road. It was also largely a disappointment, but you can’t have everything.
Waking up cold and stiff at our roadside camp, we headed north to look for our first Lerista. Despite spending a good amount of time investigating we failed to find our target, along with much of anything. Only the occasional Bynoe’s Gecko (Heteronotia binoei) and Iridescent Litter Skink (Lygisaurus foliorum) served to break the monotony and we eventually threw in the towel and headed north east. It was just on dark by the time we arrived in the Mackay area and we didn’t waste any time heading to a place known for Liem’s Tinker Frog (Taudactylus liemi). Once again we were skunked but a quick hunt along a nearby creek produced the other local Taudactylus, the Eungella Torrent Frog (Taudactylus eungellensis). Giving up for the night, we headed up to Eungella for a chilly camp.
Day 2
A visit to the local platypus was first in order the next morning, Broken River is still, from my experience, by far the best place to see them. Leaving our furred friends behind we decided to next see if we could source an Orange-speckled Forest Skink (Magmellia luteilateralis), as I’d been unable to get a decent photo last time I’d been in the area. Unfortunately, the cool temps kept all the local skinks undercover and we failed to find any, despite visiting a creek where we’d seen numerous before. A singular Red-eyed Tree Frog (Litoria chloris) was the only herp to be found, uncovered sheltering in dead palm fronds by a creek.
Heading to lower elevations we gave Liem’s Tinker Frog (T. liemi) another shot. Despite having been calling in some of the seeps we checked at the same time last year, they were all silent and we turned up empty. A little frustrating when you know you’re likely within a metre or two of what you’re looking for. A few brave Blue-throated Rainbow Skinks (Carlia rhomboidalis) were seen in the dappled light, but otherwise the forest was quiet.
Heading north, we arrived at our destination with an hour or so of sunlight left and set about rock hopping up the creek. Naturally, we were here to search for one of our last Phyllurus, the Airlie Beach subspecies of the Mt Ossa Leaf-tailed Gecko (Phyllurus ossa hobsoni). With darkness finally arriving, head torches were on and rocks and crevices were investigated. Numerous of the undescribed Amalosia (Amalosia cf rhombifer), a common species in most Phyllurus habitat, were quickly found amongst the jumble of rock and fig roots. It took a while longer, but after climbing up to investigate movement in a crevice and watching two Lemon-barred Forest Skinks (Concinnia amplus) disappear, I peered around their home rock and came face to face with our first Leaf-tail. Leaving it to Nick to photograph, it didn’t take much longer to find a second with an original tail hiding out in a small cave. With photos taken, we retreated down the creek to the car, but not before I had an unfortunate run in with a stinging tree. A plant not to be messed with, it was very unpleasant. After sourcing some duck tape to try and remove the hairs, we made camp just south of Bowen.
Days 3 - 5
The next few days passed relatively uneventfully as we made it to Townsville and prepared for the rest of the trip. We did manage some herping but found relatively little asides from some common skinks (Southern Rainforest Sunskinks (Lampropholis similis)) and several Common Tree Snakes (Dendrelaphis punctulatus). The almost 100% success rate wouldn’t kick in until we left Townsville
