Once again there has been a gap in posting on the blog due to an extended camping trip, and once again I’m going to deal with my mountain of photos by writing an introductory post (this one) linking to several follow-ups as and when I write them.
This trip took us from Paluma via Hidden Valley and Running River to Charters Towers, White Mountains (again – we were there in August) and ultimately Bladensburg National Park near Winton.
Paluma to Running River
We began with a Native Plants Queensland day trip to the Mount Zero area between Paluma village and Hidden Valley resort. The club convoyed down the road, stopping five times to sample different plant communities. Most of the group returned to town afterwards but we stopped overnight at the beautiful camping ground at Paluma Dam.
Next day we drove from the dam through Hidden Valley and Zigzag Station to meet the Hervey’s Range road near the Star River, continuing on to meet the Greenvale road, then to Charters Towers and White Mountains NP. See Paluma to Running River for the first part of this.
White Mountains
White Mountains National Park happens to be halfway to Winton and it’s still beautiful at this time of year although the peak wildflower period has passed. For both reasons, we stopped there on the way to Bladensburg and again on the way home.
See White Mountains in Spring for more photos from this visit.
Hughenden – Winton
Two hundred kilometres of grasslands, the Western Downs country, with stops at Corfield and a quick visit to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (official site) outside Winton. More at …hughenden-to-winton/
Bladensburg at last
Bladensburg Station was established as a pastoral property in the late nineteenth century and became a National Park in 1994. Its 85,000 ha are a mix of Mitchell Grass downs and Channel Country – not desert as we normally conceive deserts, but with the unpredictable, low and sporadic rainfall of our arid inland.
Birds of Bladensburg and Bladensburg Landscapes are the first instalments of what could very easily become a long series about the park.
Deserts Explained, introducing two excellent books about our dry inland, is not part of the series but is highly relevant to it.