I have never seen these on the mainland but there were obviously quite a lot of them on Magnetic Island. This one (with a lot of friends and relations) was near the old car ferry terminal at Arcadia, and I saw another at Picnic Bay.
I have seen photos of some beautifully coloured grasshoppers from the far north and west of Australia (e.g. Orange grasshopper and Litchfield’s Grasshopper, Kakadu) but I never realised that we had anything comparable here.
I would say this guy made my day, except that it was already a great day – sunshine, beaches and a long weekend ahead of us … when life is this good we should notice and remember it.
I found one of these little fellows a couple of weeks ago. And it just blew me away. So beautiful. I sent a picture to a friend and they thought it was a painted art piece. I assured them it was real.