Comet Queensland

Comet is a very small town 42 kms from Blackwater.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet,_Queensland

Comet is a town in central Queensland, Australia. The town is located on the Capricorn Highway, 859 kilometres (534 mi) north west of the state capital, Brisbane. At the 2006 census, Comet and the surrounding area had a population of 233.^[1]

Comet is the oldest town in the Emerald region, established at the confluence of the Comet River with the Nogoa River.^[2] Originally called Cometville, the town takes its name from the river, named by explorer Ludwig Leichhardt who made observations of Comet Wilmot (C/1844 Y2) in the area on 29 December 1844.^[3] Comet is home to a “dig tree” established by Leichhardt to indicate to others where he had buried food and journals.^[4]

Today, the area around Comet supports cotton and grain production as well as cattle feedlots

 

I am working as a cook at AAC GooNoo Feedlot Comet.

Right now the rains are moving into the area.

For the last 3 days buses were stopped because of flooding on the roads. The train went as far as Emerald today and coaches took the train travellers further along to NT. The roads were clear today but the Comet Creek was rising bring further flooding of the local area.

 

 

This cattle station breeds wagyu as well as brahmin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagyu

Wagyu (和牛 Wagyū^?, literally Japanese cow) refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat. The meat from wagyu cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavor, tenderness and juiciness, and a high market value. In several areas of Japan, beef is shipped with area names. Some examples areKobe, Mishima, Matsusaka, Ōmi, and Sanda beef. Highly prized for their rich flavor, these cattle produce arguably the finest beef in the world. These different breeds produce beef that range from expensive (by any measure) to extremely expensive (about US$50 per 150 grams of filet steak sold retail in Japan).^{[citation needed]}

Wagyu cattle’s genetic predisposition yields a beef that contains a higher percentage of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids^[1] than typical beef. The increased marbling also improves the ratio of monounsaturated fats to saturated fats.

Bedford Weir Queensland

My next Stop was at Bedford Weir, which is just past Blackwater, 26 kms from the highway.

The c amping area had only one other campervan…it was very quiet and very peaceful. As it had appeared to start raining I parked under shadecloth and enjoyed the birds in the trees..the galahs, the pink rosellas and the apostle birds busily searching for food and evening shelter.

The Bedford Weir is a man-made impoundment on the Mackenzie River, situated 25 kilometres north of Blackwater. The area is suitable for overnight stays and water, toilets and showers are available free of charge. Wood fired barbecues and a children’s playground are set in shaded areas by the river, making it an ideal picnic spot.

The area is popular destination for boating, skiing and fishing and has been stocked with sports fish, including Barramundi and Saratoga with a fishing competition in September.

Here you will find

• ANGLING SPECIES – Stocked: barramundi, golden perch Other: eels, fork-tailed catfish, jew, leathery grunter, saratoga, sleepy cod, spangled perch.
• CAMPING – Bush camping alongside the weir.
• FACILITIES – Toilets, showers, picnic tables, playground, BBQs. DNR staff patrol the site.
• BOATING – No restrictions apply. Open to all boating activities. Concrete boat ramp.
• COMMENTS – Fish for golden perch in winter and below the weir in flow events. Golden perch and spangled perch caught on bait and lures in times of low turbidity. A summer saratoga fishery exists in all major waterholes of the Mackenzie River the weirs.

There are many walks around the dam and you can walk on the dam wall and view the dam from different locations.

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kandkaway/1/1213488900/tpod.html

Read another story of Bedford Weir….

 

Mt Hay Queensland

Thirty eight kilometres from Rockhampton is Mt Hay, the birthplace of 120 million year thundereggs. and home to Aradon Pewtor.

http://www.mythaygems.com.au

There is a caravan park and cabin accommodation on the property which has been run by the same family for 49 years. The shop sells thunderegg and gemstone products and there is a fossicking field where you can dig through the heaps of soil searching for your own thunder-egg.

You can have a short lesson on  how to find the eggs and then you look through the fossick area searching for rounded rocks that you wash, and if they have a skin, then there could be a magic thunder egg inside. All the rocks are beautiful as many of them are from volcanic cores, and they are various colors and shapes.

 

When you finally decide you have collected enough, you take them to the shop where they are cut with an electric saw for a small fee…..

 

And here are the ones I collected in a few hours…

Agnes Waters and Town of 1770

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http://www.sunzine.com.au/gladstone/agnes-waters.html

Agnes Water is Queensland’s northern most surf beach and is last in a line of beautiful, unspoilt beaches that sweep up the coast from Bundaberg.

Agnes Water and it’s sister township of 1770 offer a range of activities and holiday ideas – from relaxing at the beach, Four Wheel Driving through rugged coastal national parks, estuary, beach and deep sea fishing – to enjoying a soft adventure tour aboard an amphibious LARC vessel.

Agnes Water and the Town of 1770 is also one of the closest points on the mainland to the outer Great Barrier Reef, with three tours departing to either Lady Musgrave Island or Fitzroy Reef.

The Town of 1770 was named after the first landing of Captain Cook in 1770.

The  inlet has very low tides with sandbanks visible offering safe anchorage and secluded swimming.  The waters are calm and suitable for children to swim in, and the Camping ground is popular with young families complete with complicated tents, fishing boats and well behaved children who move quietly within the camp which is right on the shore

There are tours available to Musgrove Island cost $160 for a full day out with snorkelling and water activities.

The coastal walk is well presented with wooden and concrete paths winding along Paper Barks, Casuarinas and Moreton Bay ashes with informative boards shsring the story.

The area is rich with flora and fauna.

Around the camp are curlews, kookaburras, doves, honey eaters, seagulls, eagles and many other birds.

1770 is a idyllic paradise with a great kiosk selling fresh local fish,,Coral Trout, Hussar…and a beachfront hotel with excellent meals

Christmas Surf at the Gold Coast

Christmas Swell in SE QLD

 

Report and video by Craig Halstead It’s been a big few days on the Gold Coast. Christmas Eve saw strong southeasterly winds tear into four foot plus surf on the Gold Coast points as the swell from ex-tropical cyclone Fina began to arrive in South East Queensland. The banks at Snapper are gone so Greenmount was the place to be. There were also a few waves at Kirra. By Christmas morning, the swell had built to six foot early then jumped to ten foot throughout the day. Kirra was windy, washing through and uncrowded early. Boxing Day served up a few early ones at Kirra and Greenmount. It was offshore clean early, as the swell climbed again. Kirra was washing through with the big tide but a great tow session went down at Burleigh, which was a clean six-to-eight foot with ten foot sets every now and then. There was a huge crowd on the point watching, as there was on all beaches.

watch  the surfing video…

Read more: http://www.coastalwatch.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=9920&cateId=86&display=0&title=Christmas%20Swell%20in%20SE%20QLD#ixzz1i0ezfATu

Fingal Holiday Park NSW

http://g.co/maps/8fgfm

Fingal Holiday Park

Prince Street, Fingal NSW 2487

1800 234 121 ‎fingal.rvpoint.com.au

Get away from it all and relax in total seclusion at Fingal Holiday Park with the Pacific Ocean and kilometre after kilometre of white sandy beaches at your front door. Just a few minutes’ walk across the peninsula and you’re on the banks of the Tweed River. Do as little or as much as you like… swimming, fishing, walking, boating from nearby ramps or simply relaxing in the sunshine.

Mild winters and warm waters mean that every day’s a day at the beach at Fingal. Accommodation ranges from well grassed tent and caravan sites to luxury cabins with en suites. Just 10 minutes from central Tweed Heads by car, Fingal Holiday Park is an idyllic beachfront getaway, as peaceful as it is beautiful.

— at Fingal Heads Caravan Park.

Russell Island Queensland Australia

Russell Island was named after the British Secretary of State for Colonies, Lord John Russell. In 1871-72 farm lots were sold on the island, the quality of the soil being a strong attraction. Sugar cane and pineapples were grown, and cattle and pigs were raised. A sawmill was kept supplied from natural stands of trees on the island. In 1916 a primary school was opened drawing children from the four islands. Fruit and vegetables were grown for the Brisbane market in the 1920s-30s.

The middle of Russell Island contains Turtle Swamp, mainly heath land, and the southern part has sandy soil with a trace of wallum country. Subject to tidal inundation in places, much of it was speculatively subdivided in the 1970s, culminating in a criminal trial for conspiracy in 1981-83.

Census populations of Russell-Macleay Islands have been:

ISLAND	CENSUS DATE	POPULATION
Russell-Macleay	1976	343
	1986	1087
	1991	2001
	2001	3783
Kurragarra	2006	125
Lamb	2006	373
Macleay	2006	1958
Russell	2006	1779

Russell Island has local shops, a primary school, a hall, a church and a bowling club. Its census populations have been 108 (1921) and 158 (1961). Later census figures are for the combined Russell-Macleay Islands.

Russell Island is located on the calm sheltered waters of Southern Moreton Bay, only 45 minutes from Brisbane Airport and the city centre. Russell Island is the largest of the group of islands clustered together between mainland and Stradbroke Island.

It is eight kilometres long and three kilometres wide and has a population of little over 4000 people. Access to the mainland is either by water taxi, which takes approximately 20 minutes and runs half hourly, or by vehicular barge for those wishing to transport their car across. The ferry departs from Banana Street at Redland Bay and the vehicular barge departs from Weinam Street Redland Bay.

The islands are famous for their diverse fauna and flora and parts of Russell have been decreed areas of conservation by the Redland Shire. The weather is generally quite mild with the daytime temperature being 18 to 22 degrees in winter and 22 to 32 degrees in summer. The year-around temperature being mostly 23 to 26 dgerees.

Currently you can buy blocks of land on Russell from as little as $15,000. This is partly because the islands are expensive to live on..travel to the mainland by ferry costs $8 each way, and $150 on the vehicular ferry: and then there is the mainland parking if you wish to keep your own vehicle on the mainland of $12,000 a year

 

Macleay Island Queen Island Australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macleay_Island

Macleay Island is an island located in Moreton Bay, South East Queensland. It is in the Redland City Council Local Government Area and has the postcode 4184. Perulpa Island is a small attached to Macleay Island by a causeway.

For some time the island was called Tim Shea’s Island after a convict who lived on the island for more than a decade. The current name was given by Surveyor Warner who named the island after Alexander Macleay who was the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales from 1825 to 1837.

The permanent population was 1,958 in the 2006 Census. However, the population has a high number of weekend owners with nearly a third of the 1,259 dwellings listed as unoccupied at the time of the Tuesday night census.

The island as a part of the southern Bay Islands can be accessed by passenger or vehicular ferry from Redland Bay.  It is the fourth largest island inMoreton Bay after North Stradbroke Island, Moreton Island and Russell Island.

Macleay Island has sandy beaches and mangrove foreshores. These are popular spots for fishing, swimming, sailing, picnicking and barbecues. A popular launch spot is the new Dalpura Ramp towards the north of the island. Other recreational facilities include boat, bowling and golfing clubs. Macleay has a reasonable range of shops including cafes, restaurants and supermarkets. It has a lively Progress Association which runs the island’s well-stocked library.

In 2007, after a short segment on the Nine television network’s nationally broadcast A Current Affair based on the comments made by real estate watcher John Edwards of Residex said that Macleay Island was a “boom suburb” and worth watching by first home buyers. All the SMBI Islands received an considerable amount of interest from buyers for a short time.

A surge in building followed which forced the Redland City Council to do a review of the official census figures. It estimated 2,319 permanent residents on Macleay in 2008. However with a count of 1,479 dwellings, the peak number of people on the islands during holidays and weekends the total population is thought to have been 3,254.

During the 2006 state election, the Queensland Government prioritised construction of a single-officer police station for on the island because some locals claimed crime was getting out of hand. The station started operation in June, 2008.

Mangrove Flats at Lamb island

http://www.redland.qld.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/_Recreation_%20Facilities/Culture_heritage/SMBIHeritageTrailMap.pdf

 

When the tide is low, the rocky shore of Lamb Island with ancient mangroves twisted in beautiful shapes, gleam in the sunshine and glow in the evening light.

http://www.mangrovewatch.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=81&Itemid=300198

Queensland mangroves have always been affected by adverse natural climatic conditions that are manifest seasonally and annually in the first instance, and episodically with severe events. Various natural factors pose significant threats. Changing rainfall conditions result in expansion or contraction of mangrove areas depending on fluctuations in rainfall. Physical damage to foliage and stems is caused by severe wind and hail storms. Sea level rise results in zonal shift that replaces upland vegetation. Other influencing factors include: increased sea surface temperatures and decreased coastal frosts; insect infestations like caterpillar plagues result in significant defoliation inhibiting mangrove growth and survival; storm-wash wrack smothers breathing roots and trees die; and, erosion destabilizing trees and redeposition of fine sediments buries breathing roots to suffocate trees

http://www.mangrovewatch.org.au/images/brochure.pdf

Mangroves begin as a seed, called a propagule, which germinates while still attached to the tree. The seed has a long cigar-like shape that falls off of the parent tree and either sticks in the mud growing next to the parent tree, or floats off into the ocean. These seeds have a strong, protective covering that allows them to float and survive for long distances and periods of time. When the seedling finally reaches its point of destination, the roots will bury into the ground sending the seedling up into the air forming a new mangrove tree. There are many types of plants located on the earth and, “Approximately 80 species of plant are recognized as being mangroves” (Bellamy & Dugan, 1993).

Mangroves play a role both on land and in the water. In one way in which this plant species is a terrestrial tool is by stabilizing shorelines. The mangrove “wall” between the land and the sea protects the shoreline from erosion and minimizes destruction from powerful waves. Due to mangroves being a naturally flexible plant, they are able to withstand severe damage of winds, waves, and changing tides for thousands of years. Mangroves minimize the loss of property and human lives throughout the globe. Mangroves are such an abundant species that in some areas they form their own islands called mangles. A mangle is, “a term for an assemblage of mangroves interlocked to form patches, which can further extend seaward as a fringe around the shoreline or as a distinct island” (Kraynak & Tetrault, 2003). Mangroves live in shallow water areas and gather sediments that support the root structures. “Mangrove forests help to build up soil along tropical coastlines, buffer from storms, and at the same time provide a habitat for many popular marine organisms such as crabs, shrimps, and oysters”(Prance, 1998).

Mangroves provide a home for many organisms, not only aquatic. All of the different organisms that are found in the mangrove areas are all labeled as being euryhaline-able to withstand wide variations of salinity. Oysters are abundant in these areas. They attach themselves to the roots of the mangroves by hook-like projections from their shells. The raccoons of the Florida Everglades and the crown conch shell eat these oysters. Fiddler crabs run around the mangrove areas during low tide eating plant debris. When the tide returns, they run back to their burrows that they make in the mud. The males have a large claw that they use for communication and defense. The opposite partner has a relatively small claw.

The strangest creature living in the swamps are little fish called mudskippers. During low tide, these fish walk around the mud looking for prey. “Some species have suckers on their undersides that help them to climb rocks and mangrove trees”(Laurie, 1972). Their prey consists of small crabs, mollusks, worms, and insects. The mangrove swamps are also nurseries for many coral fish. The swamps provide a protective area for the coral fish to develop to the point where they can travel further out into the ocean to the coral reefs.

There are many species of birds that live in the mangrove areas. This is an ideal area for these birds to live in due to the easy access to both food and resting area. Many birds have developed special characteristics to their beaks and feet to help them adapt to this environment living off of certain prey. Pelicans and other seabirds live in the canopies of the mangrove swamps. During the breeding season, they form large nesting assemblages of adult birds and their offspring called large rookeries. “Other animals that find shelter in the branches and are adapted to mangroves include bats, Proboscis Monkeys, snakes, otters, the Fishing Cat. As many as 200,000 fruit bats may roost in a mangrove. Some small fruit bats roost in mangroves on offshore islands where it’s safe from predators and commute daily to the mainland to feed. The bats also contribute to the mangrove: Short-nosed Fruit Bat (Cynopterus sphinx) is believed to be the only pollinator of key mangrove trees (Sonneratia)”(Singapore Zoological Gardens Docents, 2000).

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/fieldcourses04/PapersMarineEcologyArticles/EcologyofMangroves.html

Lamb Island Queensland Australia

 

For one island to be known as ‘the treasure of Moreton Bay’ it is quite a feat – considering the wonderful islands in this region. Yet, Lamb Island legitimately claims the title.

A tiny island of only two kilometres long, it is the second smallest of the Southern Bay Islands, and has a beautiful natural environment including a small rainforest. Sea eagles are known to nest here. It is a great place for taking it easy – walks on the beach, sandcombing or picnicking. There is a swimming enclosure towards the northern end of the island on the eastern side, and some very good bed and breakfast accommodations. A great place for a quiet getaway – and not far from Brisbane.

Access to Lamb Island is by ferry from Redland Bay.

 

Lamb Island, or Ngudooroo (paper bark tree) as it is known to the Aboriginal people of this area, is the second smallest of the southern Moreton BayIslands and is 1.5 km wide by 2.5 long with a population of approximately 350. Typical summer temperatures range from 18 to 28 degrees Celsius and in Winter from 11 to 21 degrees Celsius making Lamb Island the perfect all year round holiday destination.

This sub-tropical island has an abundance of native flora and fauna, and is edged with mangrove foreshores interspersed with sandy beaches. There are approximately 200 species of birds and an abundance of fish in the surrounding water. Fishing is a frequent past time of the locals who may be persuaded to disclose the favorite local fishing spots, preferred bait and appropriate tackle. 

Mozzies and midgies are present, as they are in all costal areas, particularly after heavy rain. They are most prevalent at dusk.