Welford National Park; big skies and wide plains

As my regular readers may recall, we are recently home from a memorable four weeks in the semi-arid lands of south-western Queensland. This is the first post - but not the last, be warned! - to stem from that trip. I'll be introducing a few state reserves and a couple of other sites over the next few months, albeit mixed in with other topics.

Australian Bustards Ardeotis australis, in Mitchell Grassland with the Barcoo
River corridor in the background. The fencing remains from the former status
of the park as a grazing property, one of three that were combined to form
the park in 1994. The park was named for Richard Welford, one of the
earliest European landholders there.

Welford is a big park - 124,000 hectares - with a variety of habitats, including Mulga lands, spinifex sand plains, clay pans, sand dunes, river frontages and waterholes. It's not heavily visited, though most of those who go there do so in June and July - including us on this occasion.

The end of the red arrow indicates the approximate position of Welford,
though I'd not recommend you to use this map to navigate there!

We came from Jundah to the north, though you can also come via the south, from
Windorah or Quilpie. The campground is on the Barcoo River in the smaller (but
still substantial) western section; it is marked by a fairly modest sign by the road, so
keep your eyes open. Do not make my mistake and rely on a well-known phone navigation
application; it took us south out of the park, then west and wanted us to head north
on property tracks which would have taken us to a spot opposite the campground on
the wrong side of the river! The River Drive and Desert Drive are shorter drives
from the campground; the excellent Mulga Drive is a 70km circuit in the huge
eastern section. (From the excellent South-west Queensland National Parks booklet,
which is available at the information sign in the parks camping areas.)

Little Boomerang Waterhole Campground (the only one in the park) is relatively small and when full is probably a little squishy for our liking, but this was apparently exacerbated by people arriving late and leaving early, some of whom hadn't booked based on the number in the campground on a couple of nights. However for most of the year this wouldn't be an issue and it's a lovely ground, with the sites scattered among Coolabahs Eucalyptus coolabah.

Our camp among the Coolabahs in the morning at Little Boomerang Waterhole camp;
the river is just to the right of this photo.

Here are three views of the Barcoo from the campground; it really is a beautiful place, with River Red Gums Eucalyptus camaldulensis lining the river. The Barcoo is an unusual river (though perfectly normal in this part of the world!) which flows not to the sea, but inland to the Lake Eyre Basin.

At dawn...

... a little after sunup...

... and in the evening.

The River Drive is the shortest and probably least rewarding of the three; ironically the closest it gets to the river is a carpark 200 metres from it, where a rock 'jetty' extends into the water. However of course it's worth doing anyway, because you just never know what might be around the corner!

Rock 'jetty' in the Barcoo on the River Drive.

There are no qualms at all about recommending the other two drives however. The Desert Drive is a 22k drive north from the campground, ending at the Jundah-Quilpie Road near the northern border of the park.

It crosses a clay pan...

... passes a waterhole which isn't on the Barcoo..

... and traverses sandy plains supporting Spinifex Triodia spp. hummock grasslands.
It would seem implausible, to the many Australians who rarely venture
far from the coastal areas, that this habitat covers nearly a quarter of
the total land area of the continent.

Ghost Gum Corymbia dallachiana growing on the spinifex plain.

Probably the highlight of this drive however was the area of red sand dunes, apparently the eastern-most occurrence of them in this part of the world. One such dune has excellent interpretation (unfortunately not a common offering in most of the parks we visited on this trip) and was a delightful short walk.

A view from this dune, looking out over the sand plains.

Much of the flowering from the previous rains in the south-west had ended, but on this dune there was apparently still residual moisture and there was a selection of flowering shrubs.

Desert Rattlepod Crotolaria eremaea.

Sandhill Grevillea Grevillea stenobotrya, one of my favourite grevilleas,
which grows and blooms on dunes right across central Australia, from
western Queensland to the Indian Ocean.

Lolly Bush Clerodendrum floribundum, growing on the lower edge of the dune.
The green fruit will turn black as it ripens, making a dramatic contrast with the fleshy
red sepals, hence the 'lolly' though it's only in appearance! It has a remarkable
distribution right across northern Australia, from coastal rainforests to the desert lands.

Beyond the dune country was dense Mulga Acacia aneura - which remarkably covers another 25% of Australia!

The upright foliage funnels rainwater to the trunk and down to the roots, so
that the tree effectively harvests nearly all the rain that falls on it.

The longer Mulga Drive obviously enough does feature more Mulga woodlands, but also a lot of Mitchell Grass plains Astrebla spp.

Mitchell Grass plains along the Mulga Drive.

Australian Bustards in tall Mitchell Grass (well yes, I know I did, but you can't really have
too many bustards, can you?).

Desert Bloodwood Corymbia terminalis growing in the Mitchell Grass.

At the eastern end of the loop drive there are low stony ridges, with a well-graded easy walk up to Sawyer's Creek Lookout, where there are views out over the mulga-covered plains.

Across the Mulga to other low ranges at the furthest point of the Mulga Drive.

And at the foot of this range is the creek for which the lookout is (somewhat confusingly) named.

Sawyer's Creek waterhole. The 2021 park management plan foreshadows a
'small bush camp' here that would 'provide a different camping
experience to that of the Little Boomerang camp ground', but it is
not clear if this is going to happen.

A couple of flowering eremophila, or emubush, species caught our eye along this route, as they always will. They're right up there as one of a small cluster of my 'favourite plant groups' (along with orchids and banksias in particular); the name means 'desert lover' which should be a clue too!

Harlequin Emubush Eremophila duttonii. This one grows on sandy soils
right across the eastern and central arid zones.

Bignonia Emubush Eremophila bignoniiflora, which also has a wide
inland distribution but grows by water courses or on floodplains.

The birds throughout the trip weren't as prolific as I'd expected after the rains, but the country was drying again and despite the previous few photos most of the flowering had passed. Certainly there were few waterbirds despite the presence of good water, and I suspect that many of the nomads had moved further west but I'm only speculating. There's always something though and many of the flocks included young birds.

Budgerigars Melopsittacus undulatus were breeding, as they always will while
conditions are right, but interestingly we'd not seen any on the trip until we got as
far west as Welford, and then we saw them daily thereafter. Always a joy!

Diamond Doves Geopelia cuneata are common, and very attractive, dry country doves,
but again this was the first time that we'd seen them on the trip.

The Red-backed Kingfisher is the arid land kingfisher Todiramphus pyrrhopygius
of Australia, usually seen on any inland trip, but it never seems abundant.

Whistling Kites Haliastur sphenurus on the other hand can be found anywhere in Australia
where there is water, from the coast to the deserts, especially along rivers.

Zebra Finches Taeniopygia castanotis (above and below) are, like the Budgies,
arid land El Niño specialists, breeding up to huge numbers in the good years,
crashing to survival levels in the others.

Part of a constant parade of little flocks of Zebbies coming to drink at the river
in the early morning by the camp. Their feathers are fluffed up against the cold,
and three of the five whose heads are visible (two on the right, and the middle
one on the left) have recently fledged.

And of course we can't ignore the wonderful Red Kangaroos Osphranter rufus that are emblematic of dry Australia, and for which I'll always pause no matter how often I've seen them. Even just typing this makes me smile to think of them.

Mother and semi-independent young Red Kangaroos in lush Mitchell Grass along
the Desert Drive in Welford National Park, with the Barcoo River behind them.
(The red youngster is probably a male but it doesn't always follow.)

However the animal I'll probably most remember is one I didn't even see, but I certainly have sharp memories of it!

Mulga Ants Polyrhachis spp., often pile dry mulga foliage around the raised mound,
supposedly to help protect against ground surface flood waters, though I don't
know that the theory has ever been tested. However I'd never seen one like this
before, and don't even know even it's the same genus. I assumed that the covering
comprised grey sand grains, and picked some up between thumb and forefinger
for a closer look.

Bad mistake! If you look closely you can see that the grains are in fact
thousands of wickedly sharp spiny burrs, probably from a chenopod
(saltbush family) and presumably to discourage intruders.
It certainly worked on me!! However it was worth the sharp shock
to discover something as fascinatingly new to me as this.
If you have any information on it I'd be glad to hear from you.

If you've read this far you'll enjoy the reality of Welford even more, so put it - and south-west Queensland in general - on your shopping list. I'll be offering more of its parks to tempt you in the coming months, so hope to see you then and thanks for reading.

The start of a day on the plains of Welford, with
the moon still bright before sunrise...

... and its ending with the afterglow of sunset through the Coolabahs of the campground.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 29 AUGUST

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