Journey Jottings

Before the Christmas season is totally over, I want to share this photo I took on a walk over the festive season of this Christmas beetle -

They get their name due to their ‘sudden’ appearance at this time of year, but they look as though they have come dressed for the occasion wearing a green metallic waistcoat, which is  all of a sparkle and glittery!

Christmas Beetle spotted on a Christmas walk

There are 34 species of the beetle genus Anoplognathus – The one above was about 35mm long.

The larvae is laid in the soil and takes either 12 or 24 months to mature (depending on warmth of winter) before pupating and emerging usually after the onset of the summer rains.

They are voracious eaters, making zigzag cuts into the eucalyptus leaves that they feed on, which shreds the leaves with much getting wasted as it falls to the ground. In numbers they can therefore have dire effects on eucalyptus woodlands. Happily, no such swarm was spotted here

Platypus are such shy creatures it makes seeing one in the wild all the more remarkable and special!

When in northern NSW I’d go down to the creek with the children, in the early morning or late evening, and we’d stand on the wooden bridge scanning the water’s surface for a glimpse of the platypus we knew lived there. But the sightings could only ever be described as ‘fleeting’ as we’d turn our head towards movements caught out the corner of our eye only to catch the sight of bubbles, circled by ripples, as each time they’d elude our gaze as they ducked back down to the creek floor to forage for food.

Platypus by John Gould 1863

It was not until I visited Eungella, 90km west of Mackay, Queensland that I got my first ‘real’ look at one in the wild.

There are viewing platforms set up along Broken Creek, where the platypus have become used enough to their admirer’s glances that whilst still shy, they can be seen more readily.

Only two monotremes exist in the world – The platypus and the echidna. Monotremes are egg laying mammals.

Another unique feature of the platypus is the venomous spur on the male’s hind foot, which when human inflicted causes great pain.

The Platypus is featured on the Australian 20 cent coin

Seeing wild animals in their native habitat is simply magic

I simply had to share these wonderful images by Linoprint artist Anna Curtis.

As Anna says…  “The unique beauty of the Australian native bush and all its elements is wondrous.”

“I like to capture the essence of flowers, fruits, leaves and trunks through close observation of their intricacy, patterns and colors. With the addition of bushfire, devastation and regeneration, the images culminate in a feast of color and movement.”

Anna specialises in the art of reduction linoprinting. It requires a single linoblock, which is progressively carved away between the printing of each colour to create these amazing multicolored images.

To watch this remarkable process appear before your eyes as each colour is applied in a time lapse sequence for the linoprint pictured below “Nature’s Garden – Bold Banksia”  click here

Anna’s work can be found in numerous galleries across Australia ~

For details go to her website: http://www.annacurtis.com.au

And if you’re lucky enough to be in Port Douglas, north Queensland on a Sunday morning, you’ll invariably find her in the market there

Living by the sea I’ve become very aware of the ever changing tides… their times and their heights.

Governed by the moon the two high tides and two low tides, in each twenty-four hour period, follow the lunar cycle of a twenty-nine and a half-day month. This means that each day the tide occurs 50 minutes later than the same event on the preceding day.

Moon Map by Johannes Hevelius dated 1645

When the moon is full, and then two weeks later when we have a new moon, the gravitational pull due to the moon, the earth and the sun all being aligned results in a much higher high tide and a much lower low tide.

Alignment of Sun, Moon & Earth create Spring tides

These tides are called Spring tides. This is nothing to do with the season, but is rather from the old English word ‘springan’ to well up.

The Bay of Fundy in Canada has the claim to fame of having the largest range between its high and low spring tides, which reaches nearly 16 metres. Avonmouth in the Bristol Channel, UK comes in second with a range in excess of 15 metres.

Here, in the bay off Brisbane the difference between high and low spring tide is a mere 2.5 metres but at low tide on these weeks the bay looks as though someone has pulled out the plug as the water drains far away exposing the silty sand.

In North-Western Australia where the spring tidal range reaches 10 metres it creates a natural phenomenon called ‘Staircase to the Moon’. For three nights each month between March and October, when the full moon creates an exceptionally low spring tide, it then reflects off the exposed mudflats of Roebuck Bay, Broome to create a beautiful optical illusion of a stairway reaching up to the moon!

Staircase to the Moon, Western Australia

On alternate weeks between the full and new moon, when the sun, earth and moon are at right angles to each other resulting in a less intense gravitational pull there are Neap tides. Neap is derived from the old English word ‘nep’ meaning to nip in the bud. On these weeks, here in Queensland, there is then only a metre difference between our high and low tide so happily there is nearly always something left to paddle in!

For the time and height of tides here in Australia:

http://tide-times.com.au/

Time and tide wait for no man

Watercolour from a walk in the Border Ranges, NSW

Volcanic rock, Bleeding Heart leaf, giant snail shell, eucalypt leaf and fallen Flame tree flowers are things that caught my magpie eye on this walk through the rainforest at Bar Mountain in the Border Ranges, NSW

Reflection of a moment

When you think of Australia which landscapes do you picture?

Rusty red sunburnt country… Aquamarine coral reefs… Pearly white beaches… or… Lush green rainforest?

With only 0.3% of the continent covered by rainforest it is not surprising that the first three landscapes listed generally steal the limelight. Yet the rainforests contain about half of all Australian plant families and a third of Australia’s mammal and bird species.

Stepping into the Australian rainforest feels like stepping back into the ancient world of Gondwanaland when, 140 million years ago, Australia was part of a large southern continent connected to Antarctica, South America, Africa and India.

Gondwanaland ~ Showing fossil connections

The vegetation found here is the most ancient in Australia with plant forms showing little change over the aeons of time from their fossilised ancestors and it is here one can see the magnificent Antarctic Beech trees.

Up until recently it was thought that these amazing huge dinosaurs of the forest were now only reproducing by copsing, or suckering, as they grow in circles encompassing the older remnant of a predecessor.

Their moss and lichen covered trunks, frequently adorned with birds-nest ferns and creepers rise atop exposed gnarled roots from which they have grown for hundreds of years.

Antarctic Beeches ~ Nothofagus Moorei

These ancient mammoth like sculptures can be found in the few remaining pockets of cool temperate rainforests, which thankfully are now World Heritage listed, and lie between Barrington Tops (200km north of Sydney) and the Lamington National Park just over the border into Queensland.

My favourite spot for time travelling back into their pre-historic kingdoms to view these awe-inspiring relics is in the Border Ranges National Park, which is on the NSW side of the Qld/NSW border