Townsville 2020 (Part 5)
Townsville V2.0 and the journey south (22nd-24th)
All I want is a good night’s sleep.
Day 13
With our final day in Townsville and in Justin’s company we wanted to end it with some amazing finds. Naturally, we chose to look for Lerista. The upland areas to the west of Townsville support an amazing number of endemic fossorial skinks, so we selected two to ferret around in the leaf litter for, the Nubbined Fine-lined Slider (Lerista colliveri) and the Vine-thicket Fine-lined Slider (Lerista cinerea). Several dirt roads later and we were on site for the first. Reptiles proved elusive though, with only the appearance of a hatchling Black-striped Snake (Cryptophis nigrostriatus) to break the monotony for the first while. Tracking down Justin and Nick, they spun an elaborate story of finding a L. colliveri only for it to disappear again. I’m still convinced they let it go on purpose. Making up for it slightly, they did produce a hatchling Lesser Black Whipsnake (Demansia vestigiata) to photograph, which promptly disappeared down a hole when Nick tried with his camera. Karma comes for us all.
Demansia vestigiata
Deciding to move on to our next species, we headed further west towards Charters Towers. Somehow, despite largely dodging rain on the much wetter Atherton Tablelands, the clouds began to boil above us. With less than 5 mins before the deluge, Justin jumped out of the car and almost immediately found our second Lerista, out came the cameras and we had a very quick photoshoot before heading to Charters Towers Maccas to celebrate in the rain.
Lerista cinerea
With most of the day spent somewhat successfully chasing skinks, we didn’t have long to wait for night and we were once again road cruising west. This time, we decided to track down a couple of Oedura for Nick to supplement the meagre fare of snakes. We soon had Nick his two species, the Northern Velvet Gecko (Oedura castelnaui) and the Ocellated Velvet Gecko (Oedura monilis) along with a Prickly Knob-tailed Gecko (N. asper). Deciding to cut our losses, we headed back to Townsville, with a Yellow-faced Whipsnake (Demansia psammophis) turning up along the way. One more unsuccessful look for Northern Dwarf-Crowned Snakes (Cacophis churchilli) (although there were White-lipped Tree Frogs (Litoria infrafrenata)) and we were bedding down for a final night in Townsville.
Oedura castelnaui
Oedura monilis
Day 14
Bidding a tearful goodbye to Justin the next morning, Nick and I turned south for what would mostly be an uneventful run to our respective hometowns. The rest of the day passed in a blur of dry woodland until we arrived in the Clermont area in search of highly endangered Lerista. Despite spending the rest of the afternoon investigating the depressingly small amount of remaining habitat on roadside verges, we ended up Leristaless. We did, however, find a huge number of Short-necked Worm-skinks (Anomalopus brevicollis), a welcome consolation prize after failing to find them earlier in the trip. Waving goodbye to the rubbish habitat, we headed a short way east to try and track down the last Oedura species in the area neither of us had seen. Finding a likely looking outcrop and two disgusting Koalas, we waited for the last of the light to fade. Ornate Velvet Geckos (Oedura picta) proved no issue to find as we came across several almost instantly, before hightailing it out of there to see how much ground we could cover before sleep. We didn’t make it far, rolling out our swags and tents at a truck stop in Emerald.
Anomalopus brevicollis
Oedura picta
Day 15
The next day sadly did not consist of any reptile searching, although a good friend did convince us to go out frogging when we finally made it back to Narrabri. We did find some good frogs (Crucifix Frogs (Notaden bennettii), Rough Frogs (Cyclorana verrucosa), Knife-footed Frogs (Cyclorana cultripes and Eastern Water-holding Frogs (Cyclorana platycephala)) and Nick’s first De Vis’ Banded Snake (Denisonia devisi) but it wasn’t long before we were passed out asleep again. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Nick was off in the morning for Melbourne.
Cyclorana cultripes
Notaden bennettii
A huge thank you to everyone who helped throughout the trip, you know who you are. I can’t think of a better way to spend time then being out bush in random, awesome places looking for cryptic species in the company of fine specimens such as Justin and Nick. Hopefully there are many more ridiculous road trips ahead.
