The Borrow-pit near Ross Dam

Posted on December 3, 2013 by malcolm
pond with waterbirds

A view of the borrow-pit at the end of the Dry season, with spoonbills and ibis in the small pond in the foreground

Articles about bird-watching around Townsville routinely mention the Town Common, Ross Dam and the Borrow Pits. I have known the first two for years but never quite located the third until a trip to Kelso a fortnight ago presented me with an opportunity. Finding a map that shows it is harder than finding the the pondage itself so here is Ross Dam at lower right and the Borrow-pits – nameless – on the other side of Upper Ross River Road:


View Larger Map

dam with pelicans

Borrow-pit, with pelicans, at the end of the Dry. The ridge in the background is the side wall of Ross Dam

The area is not particularly prepossessing unless you happen to be a water-bird. There are a couple of benches and shelters, and a rough track runs around the pond a little above high water level, and that’s about all. A half-hearted attempt to make it more attractive to human visitors is remembered primarily by a sign at one of the entrances: the project was “due for completion” ten years ago. The birds love it, though: in a visit of less than half an hour I saw Pelicans, Ibis, Spoonbills, Black ducks, Cormorants, Stilts and Greater Egret around and on the water, and Hawks, Crows, Peewits, Friar-birds, Peaceful Doves and unidentified parrots nearby.

My favourite photos from my visit are a short sequence showing a Stilt taking off and landing but I’ll add a couple more to this post too.

black and white wading bird

Black-winged Stilt, Himantopus himantopus, coming in to land

tiny bird pursuing larger one

Woodswallow harassing a hawk; picture orientation is correct – the hawk is flying vertically upwards in its effort to escape

brown hawk in flight

Hawk – perhaps the same one – flying to a tree

wind-ruffled pelicans

Pelicans having a bad-feathers day

More information

The city council offers a short introduction to the borrow pit, this pdf. It probably gets a mention in Jo Wieneke’s birders’ guide, Where to Find Birds in North-East Queensland, too although I can’t check because I haven’t (yet) got the book – I only found out about it while researching this post. Soon!

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Poinciana in flower

Posted on November 25, 2013 by malcolm
red flowering tree

Poinciana in full flower, with monsoonal skies in the background

Poincianas are not native trees but they are so much a part of Townsville’s ambiance that it’s hard to imagine the town without them. They were widely planted both in gardens and as street trees until the fashion swung towards native species, and there are still lots around. Our own street is a product of the post-war building boom so the trees on the footpath are baby-boomers too; the one above, a couple of doors down from us, is one of the best.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that some of our deciduous tropical trees seem to flower better if they are not over-watered and here’s an example: the poinciana above isn’t watered as often as our own (below) and has produced more flowers and far less foliage.

feathery foliage and red flowers

Poinciana foliage and flowers

Wikipedia’s article about the poinciana, Delonix regia, will tell you almost everything you’re likely to want to know about it, but the ABC’s Gardening Australia programme has a more local perspective.

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National Day of Climate Action – Townsville

Posted on November 18, 2013 by malcolm
hundreds of people on lawn

The crowd on Burke St headland, the Strand

The National Day of Climate Action was a great success nationally and Townsville people played their part in it. We gathered on the Strand at 4 p.m., wearing the “hot, bright” colours requested by  GetUp!, and listened to speakers telling us about the multiple threats posed by climate change. Organisers counted over 450 people which on a per capita basis is about as good as Melbourne and, in fact, the national average. Congratulations to GetUp! and local organisers NQ Conservation Council.

Band and audience

Live entertainment between speakers


Halelujah BABY raised the energy levels with some very appropriate songs and there were some great individual contributions – this sign, for instance, and the small group of folk musicians (harp, recorders and fiddle) playing on the edge of the site.

Rain was threatening from 3.30 onwards and started falling about 5.00 as we were coming to the end of the programme but this is Townsville so the rain is warm and we still walked from the headland down on to the beach for a group photo. I might have said “marched” but we were far too happy and relaxed for that. We were serious about climate change and getting some action to address it, sure, but we were also happy to be there together and see such a large group of like-minded people. It’s all too easy to be discouraged by the indifference of those around us at work or in our social circles but this rally affirmed the community support that environmental action does have.

There is a saying amongst politicians that each letter they receive on a given issue is worth ten votes. How many votes is each participant in a rally worth? Surely at least twice that. Ewen Jones, can you afford to lose 9000 votes next election?

Didn’t attend but want to be heard? You can still (as of the time of writing) sign the petition.

National news for the National Day of Climate Action

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Tasmania says goodbye to shopping bags

Posted on November 16, 2013 by malcolm

bye bye bagsThe Tasmanian Government announced last year that it would ban lightweight plastic shopping bags on November 1 this year.

The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment set up an advisory site which explained …

Plastics are a major pollutant in our environment and waste valuable resources. You can make a difference and help reduce the number of plastic bags by bringing your own bag!

From 1 November 2013 Tasmanian retailers can no longer supply shoppers with non-biodegradable, lightweight plastic shopping bags. The ban is being implemented by the Tasmanian Government and applies to all Tasmanian retailers. Please be patient with retail workers while everyone adapts to the change.

In the event, the change appeared almost effortless, as the Hobart Mercury reported next day:

Tasmania’s shoppers adjust quickly to ban on plastic bags as new regulations kick in 

Shoppers and retailers got through the first day of the state’s plastic-bag ban relatively unscathed, major supermarkets report.

IGA said early feedback from Tasmanian stores was that day one had gone smoothly. “It is very early days but I expect the next few weeks to be interesting as customers get used to the new arrangements,” IGA’s Grant Hinchcliffe said yesterday. Cloth and bio-degradable plastic bags will be on offer at IGA stores, at a small cost.

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths also reported no major hiccups. Woolworths said the first day under the new regulations had gone smoothly. “The adverts, media coverage and our own communications has meant our customers are well aware and have prepared for the changes,” a Woolworths spokesman said. “Anecdotally, we’ve noticed many customers coming into stores today with their own bags.”

The ban does not apply to biodegradable plastic bags and heavier “boutique-style” bags, which can be re-used. Re-useable green bags, ziplock bags and thin-film barrier bags used to wrap prepared foods and fruit and vegetables are also still allowed.

Next question: why can’t we do it here?

… and “here” means Queensland (since that’s where I am) or whichever state you’re reading this blog from.

  • The South Australian ban came into force in May 2009.
  • The Northern Territory ban came into force in September 2011.
  • The Queensland government briefly considered one in July 1013 – then back-flipped on the specious grounds that it would increase the cost of living. The story about it in the Courier-Mail is worth reading in full so I won’t post it here. All I will say is that the decision is absolutely typical of the Newman government. Sigh … but never give up!

“Here” also means Townsville (since that’s where I am) or whichever town you’re reading this blog from. A statewide ban would obviously be better but a local one may be easier to bring into existence. I first saw one in action in Tasmania, as it happens, in a pretty little seaside town called Coles Bay. They banned bags back in 2003 and when I visited in 2006 it was perfectly normal for the locals, while tourists like ourselves approved of the change and adapted to it very quickly.

More information

A slightly shorter version of this article appeared in Waves, newsletter of the Reef HQ Volunteers’ Association, for December 2013.

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Batwing Coral Tree

Posted on November 13, 2013 by malcolm

We planted a Bat-wing Coral Tree (Erythrina vespertilio, also known as a Bat’s-wing Coral Tree or Bean Tree) in our garden about fifteen years ago and it is now well above the roofline of our high-set house.  The most obvious characteristic of the foliage is the leaf shape which gives us the first half of its common name:

bat-shaped leaves

Leaves … little bats flying away from their twigs

A characteristic which becomes painfully obvious to those who walk barefoot round our garden is that the tree drops twigs and they are savagely spiky:

branch with thorns

Spiny branch

But why is is a “coral” tree?

red flowers

Flowers

The flowers are the answer but I may never have known except for a visit to the Town Common last weekend. There I saw a small tree in flower:

leafless flowering tree

The tree growing wild in the Town Common Conservation Park

When I got close enough I saw the new leaves and recognised it. It was almost leafless, but a lot of our tropical trees follow the same sequence, losing their leaves during the Dry season, flowering as the Wet approaches and then putting out new leaves. I saw a Native Gardenia in the same state on the same day, while the Kapok trees had mostly finished flowering recently and bore green seed-pods.

The specimen in our garden has never, to my knowledge, flowered; the most I’ve ever seen is a small cluster of buds. I suspect it just gets too much water; I know Poincianas flower much better when not watered – trees on road verges or in neglected gardens lose all their leaves, flower abundantly and then burst into leaf but those that are watered regularly merely lose a few leaves, flower moderately and then resume leaf production.

More information: Erythrina vespertilio on the site of the Australian Native Plants Society (Australia), formerly known as the Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plants (ASGAP). There’s a related species, the Pine Mountain coral tree, here. Other relations are pests as per the pdf here and web page here. 

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