Wildlife Queensland Archives

Helping Our Wildlife In Crisis

Reposted from Wildlife Queensland’s Townsville Branch Blog

In the face of the ongoing, horrific and completely unprecedented devastation of wildlife and habitat across our country please consider making a donation to the wonderful wildlife carers and rescuers desperately trying to help those animals that have survived. Many will have severe injuries and all will find their familiar territory transformed to an alien landscape without shelter, food or water.

Below is a list of some of the Wildlife Care and Rescue groups dealing with this crisis in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland.

If anyone has information for Western Australian groups covering the fire-affected areas (I believe mostly in the SE of the state at present) please let WQ know. Or indeed any other organisations in particular need or which you can vouch for – this list can be added to. It is only a small selection – but we are truly in uncharted territory and these groups need your now more than ever before. THANK YOU!!
Continue reading “Helping Our Wildlife In Crisis”

Ollera Creek and the beach

I have known for some time about a Mahogany Glider (Petaurus gracilis) research project undertaken by the good people of Wildlife Queensland, but that’s almost all I knew until they scheduled a visit to the site last Sunday as one of their regular monthly walks.

Their monitoring site straddles Ollera Creek an hour North of Townsville, between the highway and the coast. We gathered at the Paluma turn-off before driving in convoy through well-timbered grazing land to the beach near the mouth of Ollera Creek.

Continue reading “Ollera Creek and the beach”

A stroll up Mount Marlow

Perfect winter weather enticed fifteen walkers to join the Wildlife Queensland monthly excursion on the Sunday just past. The group met at the Freshwater bird hide (see Town Common map (pdf) if you’re not familiar with the park) at 9.00 and ambled along the causeway (someone called it a “dam wall”) to the foot of Many Peaks range near Bald Rock, then up to the top of Mount Marlow, the highest point of the range. I walked down it a year ago and commented that “I would rather go down it than up” but really, going up wasn’t too demanding. Continue reading “A stroll up Mount Marlow”

Visiting Turtle Rock on Hervey’s Range

The Townsville branch of Wildlife Queensland has resumed its monthly-except-wet-season excursions and their April trip was to Turtle Rock, an indigenous rock shelter high on Hervey’s Range. It’s a site I had known about for years but never seen, so I was very happy to be able to join the expedition.

Turtle Rock is on private land between Sharps Rd and Edward Rd; access is across the paddocks from the former, a 20 minute walk which can be shortened by driving part-way (as most of us did) or to the foot of the rock (as one of us did). The landowners, the Fryer family, are happy to have people visiting the site at any time but a courtesy phone call is a good idea and may avoid any difficulties with the access track.

Continue reading “Visiting Turtle Rock on Hervey’s Range”

Walking the foothills of Mount Stuart

A week ago I joined my first Wildlife Queensland walk for the year, having missed an expedition to their Mahogany Glider Project Area in March and the branch’s 50th birthday party in April.

Their May walk took us up into the foothills of Mount Stuart behind the Western Campus of James Cook University. It began on a purpose-built walking track but quickly led us onto an impressive network of mountain bike trails, all new to me and a very easy way to “go bush” just a few minutes from suburban Townsville. Continue reading “Walking the foothills of Mount Stuart”