T
here’s nothing like boarding a
plane to head off for a herping
expedition! And my recent trip to
Cairns with fellow enthusiast Daniel
Stace was no exception. We planned
to explore as far north as Cooktown,
and wasted no time in setting out to
search for herps as soon as we
landed at Cairns airport.
We picked up the hire car and
headed straight for Crystal Cascades,
which consists of a series of water-
falls and swimming holes on the
upper Freshwater Creek. Located just
17.5 kilometres west of the city
centre, the entire area is surrounded
by tropical rainforest and is popular
with locals and tourists alike. It didn’t
take long for us to find our first rep-
tile, which was a young Amethystine
Python (Morelia amethistina) found
while walking along a dry creek bed.
We were to encounter several small
specimens of this species during the
trip, but none of any great size. It was
getting late, so after photographing
the snake, we decided to seek out a
suitable spot to roll out the swags
and camp for the night.
the wild in 1987. This prompted a
captive breeding programme based
upon specimens that were already
The next morning we drove to Lake
held in private collections.
Eacham, which is about 65 kilometres Subsequently, however, the species
south west of Cairns on the Atherton was found to occur naturally in a
Tableland. Technically a ‘maar’ – a
number of other locations in the
crater lake formed by volcanic
region.
explosion when groundwater
contacts molten lava – the lake is the Within minutes of our arrival at the
main attraction of Crater Lakes
lake, we came across a Boyd ’s Forest
National Park, where visitors can
Dragon (Hypsilurus boydii) perched
enjoy bushwalking in the rainforest
up on a tree. These lizards are the
as well as swimming and kayaking.
masters of camouflage, and every
Interestingly, although Lake Eacham time we saw one it would discreetly
is cut off from any other water-
rotate around the tree it was on,
course, and must therefore rely
making them very hard to spot. Many
entirely upon rainfall to replenish
arboreal lizards use this technique to
water lost through evaporation and remain hidden from predators. At
soakage, it does contain some
night time, we noticed that the
species of native fish. The Lake
dragons would not seek refuge, but
Eacham Rainbowfish (Melotaenia
would rather tuck into the tree or
eachamensis) was first described in
branch and rely upon their cryptic
1982, and was originally considered colouration. Another camouflage
to be abundant in the lake, however, specialist that we came across at
as a result of predation by introduced Lake Eacham was the Northern Leaf-
species, it had vanished by the mid- tailed Gecko (Saltuarius cornutus).
1980s, and was declared extinct in
The best way to find these stunning