I heard a bird whose wonderful rambling song
reminded me of our Malabar Whistling Thrush.
Steve told me it was a butcherbird. With curious
cows watching us, we turned over a few tin sheets
before we found a beautiful Eastern Striped Skink.
Under the very last piece of tin was a fine metre and
a half long Red-bellied Black Snake, now one of my
favourite snakes in the world. It has the beautiful
black sheen of a Florida Indigo Snake and an easy-
going temperament. Steve commented that this
species was a good introduction for someone
starting to handle venomous snakes.
While night cruising, we found the first Pale-headed
Snake I had ever seen; a beautiful snake, flattened
onto the bark of a big old tree, their favourite
habitat. Then a Small-eyed Snake and several very
fine looking velvet geckos. Steve wove erratically
along the deserted road, trying to squash every one
of the disastrously invasive Cane Toads under his
tyres.
Next day back at Steve and Mahalia’s house, as I
struggled to hold an unbelievably strong and slip-
pery Land Mullet, Steve told us a cautionary tale.
One of his mates, new to herps, had picked up a
Land Mullet, derisively remarking that it was ‘just a
skink’, and let it bite the webbing between his thumb
and finger. The powerful lizard chomped down hard,
did a death roll, ripped off a chunk of skin, and
bolted it down before anyone could say, “Hell!”
That's a Land Mullet for you; a skink with Komodo
Dragon attitude.
We also visited Steve’s friend Kris Smith, who has
Above: a Robust Velvet Gecko (Nebulifera robusta)
found on a smooth-barked gum tree. Image by Scott
Eipper.
Below: ‘swagwoman’ Janaki catches some zzzs at
Girraween. Image supplied by Rom Whitaker and
Janaki Lenin.