Since no-one seems to have a burning topic for the list I'll indulge myself
and tell you a little bit about my recent trip to the Kimberley region and
in particular the Mitchell Plateau and Kalumburu.
Participants were myself, Dave Wilson and Cameron Bee and we gathered in
Darwin, drove down the Stuart Highway, turned west at Katherine and after
crossing the Victoria River eventually crossed into WA (by the way all
fruit and vegetables and honey are confiscated at the border) and fuelled
at Kununurra after a brief look at Lake Argyle on the Ord. At the junction
of the Victoria Highway with the Great Northern we went north briefly
before heading west along the Gibb River Wyndham Road. The scenery along
the way is awesome - towering cliffs and mesas and broad river valleys
sparsely treed and accented with the occasional statuesque Boab tree. After
crossing the King and Pentecost Rivers, Bindoola Creek and various
tributaries of the Durack (all of which also empty into Cambridge Gulf) we
reached the Drysdale Drainage and eventually turned north along the Gibb
River Kalumburu Road and took initially the Mitchell Plateau track and then
retraced and went on to Kalumburu.
The Mitchell Falls must be one of the top 10 natural spectacles in this
country and is not to be missed. Many of the escarpment streams contained
spectacular displays of aquatic plants and the terrestrial scene was
dominated by countless thousands of Livistonia palms. Reptile addicts would
have enjoyed themselves as huge Frilled lizards and unusual tortoises
abounded. Birdos also would have had a field day as even I was able to
identify Star Finches, Long-tailed Grassfinches and Masked Finches that I
had never seen in the wild before. Also the parrots were spectacular and
numerous.
One of the highlights for me was the unforgettable sight of dozens of
specimens of Australia's most spectacular and rarest aquatic plant, Ondinea
purpurea in all sizes and degrees of maturity. Many of the Rain bowfishes
we saw were different patterns and forms of well-known species in the hobby
e.g. Nigrans with small fins and lacking the definite black stripe, blue
Exquisitas not in an escarpment stream, Australis forms without the black
lines on the lower half of the body etc. All very interesting bit also very
confusing.
The most spectacular "find" was a large Fw Amphipod that Cameron found that
is much larger than usual and has the experts at the Australian Museum in
raptures.
On the wat back we stopped at the Victoria River and hooked out a nice
little batch of Giant Glassfish that all arrived back in Darwin safely and
are now gracing aquariums well scattered over Australia.
Overall it was a fantastic trip and one of the most enjoyable of all for me
- I thank David and Robyn for ther hospitality and Cameron for his
company.
Cheers
Bruce Hansen