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

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Farewell to 2024!

I've now established this as an annual tradition, a review of our year as represented by one photo - occasionally two where necessary - from each month. (As sometimes happens, at least one month passed with no appropriate photos, in which case I've presumed to 'borrow' photos from other, photo-heavy months.) We didn't leave the country in 2024 and sadly my days of taking people overseas, especially to the wonderful Neotropics, are over. 

I have to confess that birds are probably over-represented in this collection, more than for any other year. I wasn't aware of it while I was taking photos, but sometimes that's just how it turns out. Shockingly there are no mammals or reptiles featuring as 2024 memories; there were of course a couple that could have, but they were over-shadowed in each case by an unusual bird or one with a story to tell. Oh well, there it is. But, having written that, one mammal image suddenly came to me and refused to be ignored, so there are now two images for October...

And as ever I don't make any pretence to photographic excellence; I have no training and my pics are definitely records rather than art. This collection was chosen for their associations rather than any misguided belief in their excellence.

 JANUARY

January is usually a fairly low-key month - we don't see much point in travelling
anywhere near the coast during school holidays, and it's usually too hot inland. Typically
my January photos are taken in and around the ACT and 2024 was no different. For some years
now a solitary Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos (which is actually not very common
in southern Australia) has turned up in the same locality in Tuggerangong
in the southern Canberra suburbs, and stayed for the summer before returning
to the Arctic where it presumably breeds. It's a great story, but I've been generally
totally incompetent at finding the bird and getting near it. However in January finally I managed
to get quite close to it as it pottered and bobbed along the creek. What a little star!

 FEBRUARY

Like the sandpiper we're quite predictable in at least some of our travels, and each
February as soon as the school holidays end we head down to the far south coast of NSW to
Beowa NP (formerly Ben Boyd) and camp for about five nights. There are generally
Superb Lyrebirds not far from the campground but this year they were amazingly
relaxed and fossicked for invertebrates in the leaves, called and even put on partial displays
like this one all around our campsite. It was just breathtaking.

 MARCH

March was a quiet one and I have no photos from then; Lou was commuting to Sydney
every week for uni, so we didn't get away and I apparently didn't get out much
around here either. Hence I've 'borrowed' a surplus photo from our winter trip
to south-west Queensland (see June and July below) to fill the gap.
This is from Idalia NP, a true park beauty south-west of Blackall, which I'll post
about next year. It's a Lesser Wanderer butterfly Danaus chrysippus feeding
on Blue Pincushion Brunonia australis along the roadside.

APRIL

In April we had a few nights at one of our favourite camps, which we also try to
visit at least once a year, in Cocoparra NP near Griffith in the Riverina district
of New South Wales. One of the lovely aspects of this dryland park in a range
is the still dark nights. We love watching the moon and stars through the
surrounding eucalypts; you'll probably need to click on the photo and enlarge
it to see them properly. The stars look light little lights in the trees.

 MAY

For some time I've wondered if the very shy and skulking Little Grassbird Poodytes gramineus
(a non-migratory dweller of the reed beds) owes some of its elusive reputation to being
bullied by the bigger Australian Reed Warblers Acrocephalus australis which share their
habitat during their summer stay here. An experience at a local wetland in the nearby suburb
of Coombs tends to support this, as the birds were unusually bold in coming into the open
now that the reed warblers had left them to it.
It was the first time I'd ever managed any sort of acceptable photo of one.

 JUNE

I mentioned earlier an excellent four week camping trip through the semi-arid lands
of South-west Queensland, a delight (at least until the rain came later in the trip).
This photo brings back to me the glorious clarity and tranquility of the land, here
on the Barcoo River in Welford National Park, alongside the camp ground.
It's early morning and the moon is still in the sky.

 JULY

After the rain we couldn't get into our planned last camp in Currawinya NP, so we
went to the campground offered by Alroy Station, north of Eulo. We'd not
previously been aware of it, but it was a very pleasant experience.
Here is the suggestion of more storms coming, in the campground on
the last evening of our stay there.

Meanwhile alongside our camp, this female Australian Darter Anhinga novaehollandiae
was repeatedly tossing her hard-earned fish to get it properly oriented. I think she
was young and inexperienced, and we groaned when she eventually dropped it!

 AUGUST

Jerrambomberra Wetlands in Canberra is one of my favourite haunts, and
I never tire of it. I watched this normally very shy and wary Australian (Spotted)
Crake Porzana fluminea for some time as it pottered about at very close range on
the mud and in shallow water.

SEPTEMBER

Spring gave us a week's break at the end of September and start of October to
explore the lovely mallee country of north-western Victoria, where we camped
in two wonderful parks. In Hattah-Kulkyne NP (an old favourite) we were thrilled
to come across a flock of the delightful, and threatened, Regent Parrots
Polytelis anthopeplus flying across the road. Of course we got out and followed
them and watched them for some time feeding on saltbush seeds before flying
up into the nearby Black Box Eucalyptus largiflorens. This is a male.

 OCTOBER

This corner of Victoria is the only part of the state where the mostly desert-dwelling
Red Kangaroo Osphranter rufus, the largest living kangaroo, can be found.
It was strange seeing them in open forest rather than the open plains,
but this magnificently huge old male looked right at home there.
This photo and the next were taken in Wyperfeld NP, one of Victoria’s oldest. 

I couldn't decide between these two photos, but fortunately it's my blog so I don't have to...
I have a particularly soft spots for quail-thrushes, mostly dryland ground-dwelling
birds which are often not easy to approach. This Chestnut Quail-thrush
Cinclosoma castanotum however didn't know that. On an early morning walk
it flew over the track a few metres ahead of me and under a bush, then
emerged and foraged about my feet quite obliviously, a lovely experience.

 NOVEMBER

This is one of the most handsome flies I've ever encountered, and it was feeding
in our front yard by the driveway in a profusely flowering Kunzea ambigua.
It's an Orange Cap-Nosed Fly Pelecorhynchus fulvus which is coloured to
imitate the highly toxic Long-nosed Lycid Beetle Porrostoma rhipidius, one of
several non-toxic insect species to do so.

And here's the protecting beetle itself feeding almost alongside it!

 DECEMBER

And in December we always spend a few days at Currarong, on the northern end
of Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast, to coincide with Lou's birthday. I've amassed
quite a bird list there over the years, but here's one I'd never seen there before, and had
never managed to photograph anywhere else before either. This is a Large-billed
Scrubwren Sericornis magnirostra, not especially uncommon but ever on the move
and usually in shady leafy situations. I was pleased.

So once again, this was my year, or at least a version of it. Thank you very sincerely for reading my offerings, and for your support through your comments below. As I've said before, whatever is coming we can be sure that nature is always there to inspire us and keep us in perspective, and I have every intention of continuing to share it with you through these posts. May your 2025 start peacefully and naturally. My best wishes to you, Ian.

 NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 23 JANUARY

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