A nature walk on Mt Stuart

The summit of Mt Stuart is, as I noted years ago, a very odd habitat – very exposed, with a thin layer of poor (and poorly-drained) soil over granite – so its plant and animal life is equally unusual. Wildlife Queensland visited ten days ago, on one of its monthly excursions, and had so much to see in the first half of the planned walk that they (we, in fact) decided they would have to return another day for the second half.

We walked from the lower carpark down to the edge of the cliffs which face NE over Cluden and Cape Cleveland, offering wonderful views, and spent a lot of time among the boulders along the edge of the cliff.

WQ members on Mt Stuart
Some of the WQ members on Mt Stuart

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Panoramas from Mount Stuart

Three months ago I spent a morning on Mt Stuart and came home with new perspectives on familiar Townsville locations. Last weekend I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with friends on a slightly different part of the mountain, and came home with another set of views.

We were hanging round on cliffs which look towards Cape Cleveland and Magnetic Island. For much of the time we were on a ledge only a couple of metres wide, with cliffs above us (on the right of my first photo) and beneath us.

mountain view
The view towards Mt Elliott

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Mount Stuart’s small wildlife

peacock
Welcoming committee

Castle Hill dominates the central Townsville skyline but Mount Stuart takes over that role from anywhere further up Ross River. From Mundingburra all the way up to Kelso and across the river to the university and the hospital, Mount Stuart looms large.

That doesn’t mean people visit it very often, of course, but a road leading off the Charters Towers road just beyond the city winds up to a lookout beneath the radio masts. When I drove up a couple of days ago I was welcomed by a resident peacock (perhaps the same one who met me five years ago) and, after taking in the magnificent views over Magnetic Island, the Palm group and coastline all the way to Hinchinbrook, I wandered around the loop track.

The summit is a difficult environment for plants and animals alike: very exposed, very dry, and with only a thin covering of soil where there is any soil at all. Vegetation is ‘open woodland’ with a decent covering of tussocky grass, but most of the trees are tiny. Ants seem to be the most abundant invertebrates but there were other insects to be found as well as the spiders which prey on them.

* P.S. The ant has been identified by my friendly local expert as Meranoplus sp.

Lower down the mountain

Conditions half-way down the mountain are not quite so arid and I found more creatures per square metre than on the summit.

Notes

  • The two kinds of paper wasps are the two commonest around Townsville. More about them here and here.
  • The Spiny Orb-weaver pictured, Gasteracantha fornicata, is usually seen less often than its black cousins, Gasteracantha sacerdotalis, but outnumbered them on this trip.
  • “St Andrew’s Cross spider” is a common name which is applied loosely to several similar species. Argiope keyserlingi is the best known, A. picta is encountered from time to time, and this one may be unknown to science – which is a little bit exciting.
  • Golden Orb-weavers (Nephila sp.) are usually very big and not so brightly coloured but I have seen others around 12-15mm, like this one, in Western Queensland – at Aramac and Porcupine Gorge, for instance.

Midwinter dragonfly

Just for those who have been missing dragonflies …

Dragonfly resting in long grass
Midwinter on Mount Stuart

Even in midwinter we have dragonflies and other insects, even on the very exposed top of Mount Stuart. This photo was taken on almost the shortest day of the year and well into our dry season. I’m not sure whether the cold or the dry has the greater impact on insect numbers, to be honest, but they are well down at this time of year even in sheltered spots like my garden.

On the same visit I saw a hover-fly, an orb-weaving spider or ten (Nephilengys and two species of Leucauge, plus the spiky Austracantha), quite a lot of grasshoppers, an orange and black mud-dauber wasp, some little yellow Eurema butterflies, a couple of spotty moths and one or two other insects. Getting out of the house did me good and the views are terrific, but I have to say that the bug-hunting will be better in a few months’ time.