Atherton #2: Crater Lakes NP

In my most recent post, I introduced the fascinating Atherton Tableland in northern tropical Queensland. It, or at least the rainforest remnants it supports, is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area. These rainforests are a snapshot of ancient Australia, when old Gondwana was wet and rainforests covered most of the continent before the great drying which produced Australia as we now know it. The tableland is volcanic in origin, which led to very fertile soils, hence both the presence of the rainforest and its subsequent widespread clearing for agriculture. I feel that it is frustratingly obvious that a coordinated reafforestation program, offering appropriate incentives to landholders, would make an enormous difference. I've seen how such projects have transformed places with similar climates, such as Singapore and Costa Rica, undoing decades of clearing (though in Singapore most of the subject land is state-owned). However this would of course require a government with both vision and commitment.

Perhaps the richest of the remaining rainforest is the too-thin fringe that surrounds the two Crater Lakes, Barrine, originally Barany, and Eacham, also known as Yidyam, in the north-east of the tableland. 

Looking across Lake Eacham/Yidyam to the narrow belt of rainforest which surrounds both it and 
nearby Lake Barrine/Barany.

Just to save you from having to go back to the previous post; the crater lakes are in
the north-east of the map.

 

Lake Barrine/Barany above, and Lake Eacham/Yidyam; the red arrow points to Chambers Wildlife Lodge,
where we've stayed on a couple of occasions. As I've said before, I will only name
commercial businesses where I believe they have a genuine conservation ethos and
that what they offer is worth sharing with you. The national park covers just less than
1000ha, about half of which comprises the lakes themselves. Even then, not all of the forest
is reserved (eg the lodge I've mentioned is on the edge of the park, though I'm sure 
the forest is safe in their hands) and the two forests are only marginally connected. 

Despite this, the remnants are remarkably rich, a richness which is obvious to even a casual observer. We like to think of ourselves as a little more than that, and we are entranced by it.

The craters formed between 10,000 and 17,000 years ago (depending on what you read) when massive explosions resulted from the conjunction of molten magma with underground water. Pollen analyses tell us that at that time the surrounding forests were drier (this was during the last glaciation, when aridity was the norm). Both lakes are 65 metres deep at the lowest point and both lakes have easy circuit walks around them, 3km for Lake Eacham/Yidyam and 5k for Lake Barrine/Barany. We've done both of these walks more than once, and have enjoyed it every time, and recently did the boat cruise for the first time, so let's start with the lakes. 

A glimpse of Lake Eacham/Yidyam from the walking track.

Lake Eacham/Yidyam has large and usually busy picnic areas and extensive carparks. Often these are really too busy to provide much wildlife, but on our most recent visit we had a real surprise!

This splendid Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius was ambling along,
seemingly oblivious to the gawking humans (which of course included us).
They are massive up close. Cassowaries have not done well from the human
invasion, with traffic, dogs and of course rainforest clearing reducing numbers 
alarmingly. However there are apparently some encouraging signs of at least a 
slowing in the rate of reduction, and we were told that it has been quite some
years since a cassowary was last seen at Lake Eacham. (The next morning it 
turned up at our nearby accommodation!)

Nearby Lake Barrine/Barany has the historic teahouse and boat cruises. The teahouse was built in 1928 and has been a recreation hall, a guesthouse and, during World War II, an army convalescent home. 

Lake Barrine/Barany. (I'm afraid it rarely occurs to me to photograph buildings, but you can find
photos of the teahouse readily on line; it is a handsome old wooden building.)

As far back as 1888 both lakes, with a narrow strip of shoreline, were declared scenic reserves, and in 1934 both lakes were elevated to National Park status. In 1913 George Curry, with his wife Margaret, settled by the lake and after the war they developed the now teahouse and he was appointed a ranger by the Lakes Trust. (The details differ slightly between the accounts of the Curry family told to us on the boat cruise and the parks service website; I'm not in a position to adjudicate and it doesn't matter in this context anyway.) The teahouse and the boat cruises are still in the family; George and Margaret's grandson runs the boat cruises (at least on the day we were there) and their great-granddaughter and her partner run the teahouse.

Lake Barrine/Barany rainforest from the boat.

It was with a modicum of trepidation that we booked the boat cruise on the spur of the moment (we'd had a disappointing experience on another boat trip earlier in the year, albeit far from here) but our trepidation was entirely misplaced. We were accompanied on the cruise by a small busload of young local Indigenous people and a bigger busload of girls from a Sydney private school - both groups seemed fascinated by what they saw and heard. Our skipper Steve Curry was accompanied by a local Indigenous elder, Laurie, who told the local creation story of the lakes. Steve quietly told the history of the place, pointed out trees and other landmarks (and shared perhaps quite enough polished dad jokes), and the two of them made it an excellent experience. A highlight for seemingly most of us was seeing a couple of impressive Amethystine Pythons in branches just above the water; it was a cool day and the water is a heat sink, so keeps the air above it warm too and they gather here because of it. 

Australian Scrub (or Amethystine) Python Simalia kinghorni; it kept moving and I
unfortunately was unable to catch the head! (There is some disagreement re the names,
but it seems that Amethystine Python, while closely related, occurs only in 
Indonesia and PNG, not Australia.) Magnificent anyway, it is the longest and most massive
Australian snake, and one of the world's Big Snakes..

Flowering Umbrella Trees were another delight.

Flowering Umbrella Trees Heptapleurum (formerly Schefflera) actinophyllum 
Family Araliaceae growing by the lake, above and below.

A downside was the presence of African Tilapias in the water, among several species not native to the lake, which were all released illegally. As a result the number of fish species native to the lake has now dropped from three to one.

Tilapia in Lake Barrine/Barany.

Needless to say the perspective of the forest from the walking track around Barrine/Barany is rather different; here are some highlights we've enjoyed along the path.

A famous pair of Bull Kauris Agathis microstachya, growing by the track near the start
of the Lake Barrine/Barany walking track (going clockwise from the teahouse). These
are in the ancient Gondwanan conifer family Araucariaceae, and the species is endemic
to the Atherton Tablelands and the immediate vicinity. These two are estimated to 
be 1000 years old.

Boyd's Forest Dragon Lophosaurus boydii on the side of a tree, a common
resting/hunting place for them. A few years ago we went up to the tropics
in January - definitely not tourist season! - and were rewarded with sights
we'd not seen in the drier times of the year. This was one of them.

This spectacular dragon is another Queensland Wet Tropics endemic.

Another treat on the same walk was this male Cairns Birdwing Butterfly 
Ornithoptera euphorion, a real stunner and another Wet Tropics 
special (apart from an outlying population near Mackay to the south).

Atherton Scrubwren Sericornis keri, yet another Wet Tropics endemic,
mostly in the highlands.

 

Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus, a more widespread species,
extending along the east coast south to the NSW mid north coast.

But many aspects of both tracks are, understandably, very similar, so the following set of photos is a combination of both walks; any of these images could have been taken on either walk.

Typical rainforest along the walking track, much of which is a boardwalk (at Lake Eacham at least).

Lianas; the climbing form allows these plants' leaves to access the sunlight by 
ascending into the canopy without investing in a massive wooden trunk. 
They are a feature of tropical rainforests.

A conspicuous group of climbers is the rattan palms, Calamus spp. (I think this
one is C. australis.) They require care on the part of walkers on these tracks. Young 
stems are protected by a thicket of thin sharp spines, and from the crown of palm leaves
descends a very unpleasant flexible 'whip', covered in wicked hooks. We are just
collateral damage however, the real purpose is to hook onto host trees to enable
them to extend upwards to the light.

 

Some rattan palm thorns, small but very effective! Their common name refers
to their use in basket and wicker furniture making, but they are more commonly
referred to in Australia as lawyer, or wait-a-while vines, for their savage entanglements.

Epiphytes are plants which grow on other plants, not taking nutrients from them (as mistletoes do) but using them for support to again get up nearer to the light. Many of these in the tropical rainforests are fern and orchids, which have minute dust-like spores and seeds respectively, to be carried on air currents to a resting place. 

Basket Ferns Drynaria sp., high in the canopy.

However there is one group of epiphytes which eventually literally overwhelm other rainforest trees; these are the strangler figs. 

A bird or bat deposits a fig seed on a branch or trunk in their sticky droppings. The seed
germinates and sends down roots, fine tendrils at first, which get bigger later. When the roots 
reach the ground they penetrate it and start sending nutrients up to the fig seedling, which in 
turns starts to grow upwards. Eventually its massive canopy kills the host tree, not by 
'strangling' but by shading it and preventing it from photosynthesising. The host trunks 
slowly rots, leaving the fig as a free-standing tree, with numerous aerial roots which 
provide shelter to many animals.

A well-known strangler fig on the Lake Eacham track. There are many species of them, 
this one and the one above being Ficus virens (often known as White Fig or Albayi).

Despite the previous comment however, not all ferns are epiphytes of course, and the rainforest understorey supports many fern species. 

Bank of Maidenhair Fern Adiantum hispidulum.

 And fungi are of course profuse; here are a couple that I can't name - sorry!

These bracket fungi are busy returning the log to the forest soil.

 

To end this celebration of the Crater Lakes NP I'm going to offer some of the highlights we've seen from (and even on) the balcony of our accommodation there, facing into the rainforest. Technically the lodge is obviously not in the park, but the boundary is very close and is unmarked. 

 

This is along the short entrance road to the property, some of which is dominated
by huge Flooded Gums Eucalyptus grandis, forming wet sclerophyll forest;
this track  is always work a walk. The lodge however, a bit lower down, is 
totally within the rainforest.

 

This is the view from a cabin verandah, looking directly into the rainforest.

It is not surprising then that the following photos, taken from one or other such verandah on different trips, are a pretty good sample of some of the vertebrate fauna of the park. They include three more Wet Tropics bird endemics though I'm starting with a couple of much more widespread species.

 

Rufous (or Little) Shrikethrush Colluricincla rufogaster, like all shrikethrushes a glorious songster.
It's smaller than other species, and is found across northern Australia and down
the east coast to northern NSW, mostly in rainforests

Lewin's Honeyeater Meliphaga lewinii is found right down the east coast
of Australia in wetter forests. It readily learns to come to the lodge verandahs
if fruit is on offer.

Grey-headed Robins Heteromyias cinereifrons are endemic to the Wet Tropics rainforests.
I find them beguiling, quiet but not especially shy, intent on going about their business.
This one was just below our balcony.

Black Butcherbirds Melloria quoyi live across the wetter parts of northern Australia
and down the east coast to Mackay, as well as in New Guinea and some associated
islands. An authoritative study determined that it is something of a link
between the other butcherbirds and Australian Magpies. Like other
butcherbirds (and magpies) they have a lovely rich complex call,
sometimes almost bell-like.

Male Victoria's Riflebird Ptiloris victoriae on the balcony. (We may have
inadvertently left some fruit on the railing...) Unfortunately the light was
entirely wrong, but you get just a hint of his glorious iridescence. This
species is pretty well limited to the Atherton Tableland.
There are three species of riflebirds, which are birds of paradise, in three 
small discrete populations in the eastern tropical and subtropical rainforests. 

Spotted Catbird Ailuroedus maculosus, calling from just off our balcony. It has a
rather weird cat-like wailing-yowling call, very atmospheric. Catbirds are 
apparently primitive bowerbirds, which do not build display bowers.
This one is another Wet Tropics endemic; there are two closely related and
similar species in far north Queensland and in New Guinea, with which
 it has until recently been confused.

One of the highlights of Chambers Wildlife Lodge is the night wildlife viewing area, near to the cabins, facing into the rainforest.

The area is lit, which initially surprised me, but it doesn't seem to bother at least
some of the animals; I've seen the same setup at a waterhole in Etosha NP in 
Namibia, and in a similar forest situation to this in Brazil.

In principle I don't like the idea of feeding wildlife, but this seems fairly controlled. Some honey is spread on a couple of tree trunks in the early evening, especially to attract two species of possum. In our experiences there the animals don't stay long and don't come every night, so it seems to be providing a minor treat rather than a primary food source. Anyway, here are the stars. 

Sugar Gliders are widespread in eastern and northern Australia and New Guinea.
However we now know that there are three Australian species and the most widespread
one, west of the Great Dividing Range, is Krefft's Glider Petaurus notatus, including this one.
(The true Sugar Glider P. breviceps live along the coastal strip in NSW and Victoria,
and has been introduced to Tasmania.) The New Guinea situation is still being studied. 
The gliding membrane stretches from wrist to ankle - we can see some of it by the
arm and leg of this one - and can carry the glider for well over 100 metres
between trees, changing direction as necessary.

Even more exciting to us however, because it is limited to the tropics and we'd never seen one properly, was the wonderful Striped Possum Dactylopsila trivirgata, found across New Guinea in a couple of narrow strips of rainforest on Cape York and the Wet Tropics. 

This striking colouration is usually a warning sign in animals. It has been reported
that Striped Possums have a strongly unpleasant odour, which suggests that they
might also taste bad for protection and would explain the warning.

Here we can see the extended fourth toe, which they use to extract nutritious wood-boring
larvae from the tree trunk. They locate a hollow by tapping on the trunk, then chew a hole
to access it, and use the long toe to extract the unfortunate grub. In a remarkable 
example of parallel evolution this is exactly the strategy used by the entirely
unrelated Madagascan lemur, the Aye-aye Daubentonia madagascariensis; see below.

This female is part of a population on an island in the Pangeles Lakes of eastern
Madagascar, partially habituated to come down for coconuts left out for them.
(The teeth which evolved primarily to rip into wood work well here too.) The photo
is not good (flashes are quite rightly banned here) but if you expand the photo
you can see the very slender fingers on her right hand and the extended
middle finger.

Another mammal came to the offerings too, but was only able to take whatever fell to the ground.

Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta. This little marsupial is found along almost
the entire east coast of Australia, in a variety of habitats. The complete generalist, 
it is also omninvorous and while most of its diet is invertebrates it also eats fungi
and tubers (as well as some spilled honey where available!).

Perhaps the most interesting regular visitor to the lodge however is a tiny kangaroo - the smallest in fact, and the most ancient, perhaps resembling the ancestral kangaroo. Moreover the Musky Rat-Kangaroo Hypsiprymnodon moschatus is the only kangaroo that doesn't hop on its hind legs. It is diurnal and omnivorous and in my opinion one of the most fascinating of Australian mammals. It is not uncommon in the Wet Tropics (and only found there) but until this lodge my only experience of them was repeated glimpses as one dashed across a road or track. Not here though!  

I could scarcely believe my eyes the first time a 'Hypsie' pottered out of the forest
just below our balcony and proceeded to so potter unconcerned by us.
By now you may have some idea how exciting this was for us!

If you've read this far, my thanks. I hope you've been encouraged to visit this tiny park and adjacent forests, whether for the first time or as a return. This remnant of ancient Australia deserves our attention and awe.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 2 APRIL

I love to receive your comments and I will notify you personally by email when a new posting appears, if you'd like me to. This will mean one email every three weeks at the current rate of posting. I promise never to use the list for any other purpose and will never share it. Should you wish to be added to it, just send me an email at calochilus51@internode.on.net. You can ask to be removed from the list at any time,or you could simply mark an email as Spam, so you won't see future ones.
If you do leave a comment - and I love it when you do - please remember to click the
box below your comment that says 'Email follow-up comments to...[your address]'
so you'll know when I reply - and I always do!

Queensland's Channel Country#1: landscapes and plants

I've mentioned here before my love affair with south-west Queensland, a vast and varied area which is somehow noticeably 'different' from adjacent NSW and South Australia. An important reason for this is that a large part of it forms the bulk of the bioregion known as the Channel Country for the complex network of braided flood channels that cover the area of some 200,000 square kilometres. All these channels flow away from the sea, mostly ending in waterways such as Cooper Creek, and the Diamantina, Georgina, Thompson, Barcoo and Warburton Rivers, which ultimately flow (occasionally!) as far as Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre in South Australia. Waterholes may be deep and almost permanent in streamlines, or ephemeral after rains.

We can really only get a sense of the complex tapestry of the channel pattern from above; here is an aerial photograph, courtesy of Wikipedia.

 However it's only down on the ground that we can get the detail of the tapestry.

Little Black Cormorants Phalacrocorax sulcirostris massing at Cooper Creek near Windorah.

Early morning on the Barcoo River in Welford National Park.
Here, and in subsequent photos in this series, the dominant waterside
trees are River Red Gums Eucalyptus camaldulensis.

Waterhole on Morney Creek, west of Windorah.

Ephemeral waterholes in the inter-dune swales west of Windorah.

Frances Waterhole, Welford NP.

Sawyer Creek, Welford NP.

Channel Country bioregion, map courtesy Wikipedia. This post focuses on the
Queensland portion of the bioregion, which accounts for most of it.

As in many previous such posts I've got enough material for two posts, so shall do that again rather than turn this post into a marathon. So today some landscapes and plants, next time some animals.

We've looked at some water features - rivers, creeks and waterholes - that are probably the essence of the Channel Country, but there is a true wealth of landscapes in between them. I've already mentioned the River Red Gums that are quintessential to the waterways, and here are a couple of other important Channel Country habitats - arid and semi-arid woodlands, dominated by a few more key tree species, and grassy plains.

Mulga Acacia aneura east of Windorah. This habitat covers some 25% of arid Australia.

Mulga flowers; the long thin phyllodes may vary, but the flower spikes are
distinctive (though not unique to Mulga.)

Gidgee Acacia cambegei and Coolabah Eucalyptus coolabah, growing near Morney Creek,
a hundred or so kilometres west of Windorah.

Gidgee is a favourite of mine, though one of its other names is Stinking Gidgee, suggesting that others are not so keen. It does have a strong odour, especially after rain, but to me it's like vegetable compost and not especially unpleasant. I've camped near many a Gidgee stand, and it's also perhaps the best firewood I know - it's dense and burns hot and slowly, so we use very little in an evening. It tends to grow in dips where water occasionally collects, and near watercourses where it gets overflow water from time to time. Coolabah, which appears often in Australian folklore and song (though I suspect that most of us wouldn't recognise it), has similar requirements, growing by occasionally wet watercourses and out on mostly dry floodplains. 

Flowering Gidgee, Morney Creek.

And just because I can, here are a couple more photos of these trees, River Red Gums at dawn and Gidgee in the evening, at the same site at Morney Creek.

There are also swathes of grassy plains, especially to the west.

Mitchell Grass plains Astrebla spp., Welford NP. There are only four
Mitchell Grass species but between they cover a huge area of cracking clay
plains across dry Australia.

Spinifex Triodia spp., near Farrans Creek 150k west of Windorah.
By contrast with the Mitchell grasses, spinifex grows on sand,
both plains and dunes.

Such dunes can be found rising from the plains in many parts of the Channel Country (and beyond of course) and can be rich red where there is iron present or paler, yellow to almost white.

Morning dune still covered in tracks, west of Windorah.

Vegetated dune (in fact nearly all them are) near Farrans Creek.

Which seems to provide a segue to introduce some other interesting and attractive plants of the Channel Country, though obviously it will be a very random and limited selection! There are no natural barriers between the Channel Country's habitats and the surrounding deserts and arid woodlands, so many of these plants grow widely across arid Australia. Some other trees first.

Ghost Gum Corymbia aparrerinja, west of Windorah.
(Though there is a chance that this is actually Dallachy's Ghost Gum C. dallachiana.
The Atlas of Living Australia suggests that this would be too far south-west,
but the nearby Welford NP Management Plan lists C. dallachiana
as the ghost gum there. I should have looked properly!)

Desert Bloodwood Corymbia terminalis east of Windorah.

Emu Apple Owenia acidula Family Melicaceae, east of Windorah.
In the same family as Red Cedar, this small tree adapted long ago
to a drying Australia and let the rainforests retreat without it. The fruit
is apparently edible, though I've also heard that it's hallucinogenic,
so won't be trying it any time soon. It is found widely in drier
Queensland and Central Australia.

Lolly Bush Clerodendrum floribundum Family Lamiaceae. The 'lolly'
name is for its looks, not edibility. This small tree has a surprising
distribution, growing at the edge of rainforest on the east coast,
and right across the dry tropics. This one was on the edge of a dune
in a sandplain in Welford NP.

Lots of shrubs of course.

Sandhill Wattle Acacia ligulata, Farrans Creek. Found throughout the Channel Country
and indeed most of dry Australia.

Desert Rattlepod Crotalaria eremaea, on a red dune east of Windorah.
This pea shrub is always found on sand, especially dunes, throughout Central
Australia, south-east to the Channel Country.

Green Birdflower Crotalaria cunninghamii, another in this genus, also
closely associated with dunes and sandy deserts. It's one of the most
strikingly unexpected flowers I know.

And another spectacular dune-dweller, Sandhill Grevillea G. stenobotrya,
Welford NP. Found from the Channel Country to the Indian Ocean.

And one of my very favourite Australian plant groups, up there with orchids and banksias, the eremophilas (ie the 'desert lovers') are found in various habitats in the Channel Country and well beyond it. The common names often include emu-bush (for a mistaken belief that their seeds rely on passing through an Emu's digestive tract to germinate) and turkey-bush (probably a reference to bustards, which were often referred to as 'Plains (etc) Turkeys', and possibly for the same reason as 'emu-bush').

Bignonia Emu-bush Eremophila bignoniiflora, west of Windorah. It grows
throughout the Channel Country along water courses and on flood plains.

Harlequin Bush Eremophila duttonii, Welford NP. Very striking when in flower,
found on sandy soils throughout central and south-eastern arid Australia,
and scattered in the Channel Country.

Crimson Turkey-bush Eremophila latrobei, west of Windorah.
Very widespread in inland Australia and a very beautiful flower.

A yellow form of Spotted Emubush Eremophila maculata, east of Windorah.
The species grows across most of the continent, and can have flowers that range from pink
through to red, as well as yellow and even mauve (though I've not seen many of those).
Moreover they may or may not have darker spots in the tube. It is the basis of most
eremophila hybrids sold in nurseries. Below is a more typical red form.

Rose Cottonbush Gossypium australe, west of Windorah. In the hibiscus family,
this lovely shrub is also closely related to cotton and to the very similar
Sturt's Desert Rose G. sturtianum, the Northern Territory floral emblem.

And of course there are many herbs, including a large number of ephemerals that flower following the rains. Daisies feature heavily among these.

Tangled Burr Daisy Calotis erinacea near Windorah, above and below.
A very common and widespread desert burr daisy; see also in the
photo of the dune at Farrans Creek above.

Soft Billy Button Pycnosorus pleiocephalus, a plant of the south-eastern drylands,
here at Morney Creek close to its northern-most distribution.

Large White Sunray Rhodanthe floribunda, also at Morney Creek.

And finally examples of some more very attractive Channel Country herbs, albeit subtly so in some cases, from six different families. All these were growing in the Windorah area.

Flax-leaf Indigo Indigofera linifolia (Family Fabaceae) which is found in a range of habitats
across the deserts and into the tropics, as well well beyond into southern Asian and Africa.
(I don't know how carefully those far-flung populations have been compared; if not it may be
reasonable to suppose that more than one species is involved.)

Poison Morning-glory Ipomoea muelleri, (Family Convolvulaceae) also widespread
in central and northern Australia. The foliage and seeds are said to be toxic to stock,
though Indigenous people from the Kimberley are reported to eat the tubers.

Long Tails Ptilotus polystachyus (Family Amaranthaceae). This genus, widely
known as mulla mullas or pussy tails, is common and often forms extensive swathes
after rain, right across the arid lands.

Small-beard Fanflower Scaevola parvibarbata (Family Goodenicaceae)
is a herb of the eastern inland.

Lifesaver Burr Sida platycalyx (Family Malvaceae) is quaintly named for the shape
of the fruits, which form a torus when completely dry. This genus too is
widely found inland.

Nardoo Marsilea drummondii growing alongside Cooper Creek after flooding.
This herb grows in floodwaters and subsequent muds, the dormant spores having
being triggered by inundation. The spore-bearing bodies, the sporocarps, lie
dormant for decades if need be, awaiting the next flood.

Nardoo played a key role in one of the great Australian folkloric tales of heroic tragedy - the Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860-61, better known as the Burke and Wills Expedition, which sought to find a route from Melbourne to the north coast. The tale has been told many times and you can easily find the details if you wish. However the essence for our purposes today is that it did end tragically - six of the seven remaining expedition members died on Cooper Creek in the Channel Country on the way back. It was not an inevitable tragedy though, it was very largely due to the ignorance, arrogance and intransigence of their leader, Robert O'Hara Burke.

 

While awaiting rescue on the Creek, the expedition used the abundant nardoo sporocarps as flour and ate lots of freshwater mussels and, we were always told, starved to death. It doesn’t make sense. The local Indigenous people ate both these items, and even showed the Europeans how to prepare them. And in that is the essential clue – because Burke of course could never conceive that a mere native could tell him anything of value.

To cut it short, they died amidst obvious plenty, not of starvation but of beriberi – the symptoms, of leg paralysis, extreme sensitivity to cold and breathlessness, are described perfectly by Wills in his journal. Beriberi is vitamin B1 (ie thiamine) deficiency. By coincidence both the mussels and nardoo spores contain thiaminase, an enzyme which destroys thiamine. Over time the locals had learnt this, doubtless painfully, and had worked out techniques to destroy the thiaminase. They roasted the mussels on the fire; Burke and co ate them raw. The Aboriginals made a watery paste with the nardoo spores - the water neutralises the enzyme - but the explorers made a dry flour with them. 

 

Ah well, perhaps a red herring in today's post, but hopefully of some interest. 

 

The Channel Country's story is much bigger than this one and it is grand and glorious country. If you didn't already know about it, I hope that I may have piqued some interest in you to consider planning a trip out there. Meantime I hope to see you again next time when I will introduce some of the animals of the Channel Country.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY: link here

I love to receive your comments and in future will be notifying you personally by email when a new posting appears, if you'd like me to. All current subscribers have been added to this mailing list and have already been contacted. This will mean one email every three weeks at the current rate of posting. I promise never to use the list for any other purpose and will never share it.
Should you wish to be added to it, just send me an email at calochilus51@internode.on.net. You can ask to be removed from the list at any time,or could simply mark an email as Spam, so you won't see future ones.
If you do leave a comment - and I love it when you do - please remember to click the
box below your comment that says 'Email follow-up comments to...[your address]'
so you'll know when I reply - and I always do!