Townsville 2020 (Part 1)
Strap in ladies and gentlemen, or at least prepare your reading glasses, as this will be a long one. This is the epic tale of three strapping lads and their homeless two week adventure through north Queensland and back. Yes we saw some reptiles (103 to be precise), yes we suffered severe sleep deprivation and yes we would do it again. I’ll break it up into 4 parts otherwise it might get a little ridiculous.
Sydney to Narrabri
This shall be the shortest section as it mostly involves assembling Nick, Justin and I in the same place at the same time but also involves a couple of reptiles, hence why I’ll include it. After talking to Justin for over a year he was keen to join us for the trip and flew to Sydney where I picked him up. One night in Sydney and the first official reptiles for the trip later, (the Barred-sided Skink (Concinnia tenuis) and the Delicate Skink (Lampropholis delicata)), and we were heading back off to Narrabri.
Seeing as Justin rarely came this far south and I still had a few targets in the area we stopped at two places in the Hunter on the way back. However, extremely dry conditions made it very hard to produce even common species. We ended up seeing Tree Skinks (Egernia striolata), White’s Skinks (Liopholis whitii) and Eastern Ranges Rock Skinks (Liopholis modesta) as well as a few other common species before deciding to keep going. A certain Delma and the Punctate Worm-skink (Anomalopus swansoni) remained elusive. Getting home later that afternoon we found the final member for the trip, Nick, who’d just driven up from Melbourne. The dream team was finally together.
Egernia striolata
The next day was uneventful as we decided to spend it sitting around Narrabri to keep well rested before the true road trip began. We did road cruise both nights however and with a bit of rain found some frogs and a Carpet Python (Morelia spilota). Not really the most spectacular beginning to a trip but the best was to come.
Narrabri to Sarina (10th-12th)
The official start of the trip. Boys on tour.
Day 1
Leaving Narrabri reasonably early on the first day we set our sights on Brisbane. Justin wanted to see a diminutive Delma and Nick and I wouldn’t have minded some little brown skinks. Just so you don’t despair at how little is written for the first day, we failed almost completely. We did up our game in the following days.
If anyone’s driven through the southern Brigalow recently they’d know it’s quite a depressing sight with the drought. Our experience was no different. Nick and I spent the whole day telling Justin how easy the Collared Delma (Delma torquata) was to find but of course Murphy intervened when we did arrive at the spot. We found nothing. Brilliant. With Justin now likely thinking we were both fools we headed for the hills. Glorious and Nebo to be exact. Justin managed a glimpse of a Yolk-bellied Snake-skink (Ophioscincus ophioscincus) but it quickly disappeared. Never mind, we would wait for night! To make a boring story shorter, we again failed and ended up camping near Yarraman. Stunning work from the guys all round.
Day 2
With everyone’s herping ego a little flat from our slightly dismal first day we headed north. Blackdown Tablelands was always somewhere I wanted to visit and I was sincerely hoping to not be disappointed. We weren’t. Spending most of the day driving we finally arrived in the national park mid-afternoon, ready to look for the one and only dragon species we would specifically target throughout the trip. The Black-spined Nobbi Dragon (Diporiphora phaeospinosa) is restricted to just the park and the nearby Carnarvon Range and we saw many running around that afternoon. Cooling off in a gorge we also happened upon both Eastern Water Skinks (Eulamprus quoyii) and Dark Barsided Skinks (Concinnia martini) as well as some pretty male Lively Rainbow Skinks (Carlia vivax) on the walk out.
Diporiphora phaeospinosa
Concinnia martini
With much higher spirits now we’d found our first target, the dynamic trio were feeling in fine form and ready for a night of geckos and cruising. Rough-throated Leaf-tails (Saltuarius salebrosus) were next on the list and were found without issue. As always, I was stoked to see a new leaf-tail and this was my second last Saltuarius species. Eximius I will come for you. Moving a couple of hundred metres down the road we also found our first Rough Knob-tailed Gecko (Nephrurus asper), an alien looking species with a huge head. We’d see many of these geckos throughout the trip and I’ve got a bunch of photos, they’re extremely sassy and up there with some of our coolest species. Several of the final subspecies of Golden-tailed Gecko (Strophurus taenicauda albiocularis) completed our first round of gecko searches rather nicely.
Saltuarius salebrosus
Strophurus taenicauda albiocularis
Jumping back in Ernie we decided to drive the roads for a bit and see what we turned up. A tiny Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis) and our first Burton’s Legless Lizard (Lialis burtonis) for the trip warmed us up for the grand finale of a very young Black-headed Python (Aspidites melanocephalus) showing off the fluoro orange that juveniles have. Whilst waiting my turn for photos I also happened upon my third new species of gecko for the night, the Eastern Fat-tailed Gecko (Diplodactylus platyurus). With the comforting thought that maybe we weren’t actually the worst herpers getting about comfortably restored we made our way back to the Dingo Roadhouse for a well-deserved shower and sleep.
Aspidites melanocephalus
Diplodactylus platyurus
Day 3
A friendly warning to would be campers. Assess the ground for ant trails before laying out your swag. I woke up missing my feet and ankles. Lovely creatures. Bidding goodbye to the Dingo Roadhouse, which was likely the most upmarket camping place we stayed in all trip, we once again headed north. With very little planned for the day except for a short poke around north of Rockhampton for the Short-necked Worm-skink (Anomalopus brevicollis) we were unaware of what to expect. We should have expected very little. Little brown skinkless and slightly hot and sweaty we returned to the main shopping centre in Rocky for a reprieve. An hour later and even more bored we moved on to the Caves Pub for a couple of beers. Justin passed out on the sidewalk to pass the time, a skill I wish I possessed as I watched the clock slowly tick by. We were of course waiting for night.
The shadows did finally lengthen and we were off again. Marlborough is a rather forgotten village between Rocky and Mackay but to its west lies an interesting little gecko. Distantly related to the much more widely spread Eastern Spiny-tailed Gecko, the Golden-eyed Gecko (Strophurus trux) is found on several low hills dominated by Xanthorrhoea and spinifex. One romantic sunset on said hills later and we were casting around our headtorches for our quarry. It took a while and my nerves were starting to climb but eventually one was spotted resting on a twig amongst vegetation, luckily, we’d been spurred on by the many Rough Knob-tailed Geckos (N. asper) that were also walking around. Beating a hasty retreat down the hill we made our way back onto the highway.
Strophurus trux
Nephrurus asper
As tradition demanded, a second gecko was also within our sights for the night. Swapping arid savannah for rainforest-lined creeks we pulled up somewhere to the south of Sarina. I was particularly keen for this gecko. Champion’s Leaf-tailed Gecko (Phyllurus championae) is one of four species of Phyllurus distributed around Mackay and one of two I’d failed to find previously. Fuelled by some trusty caffeine and haunted by a rather loud railway we powered up the creek and it wasn’t long before I spotted several amongst some jumbled boulders. Success was ours and battling the friendly mosquitoes we got our photos before disappearing back into the night. The tourist hotspot that is the Sarina roadhouse was graced by our presence for the night and also turned up a Fine-spotted Mulch-skink (Glaphyromorphus punctulatus) under a rotting mattress. Day 2 and Day 3 had been a remarkable improvement on our first couple of days.
Phyllurus championae (Juvenile)
Phyllurus championae (Adult)
