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| Sooty Owl |
I had intended for a
long time to visit Bellthorpe Stays in the Sunshine Coast hinterland,
an hour's drive from home in Nambour and not much further from
Brisbane. Just never got around to it until now. Glenn and I last
week had a very pleasant 4-day visit to this wonderful get-away nestled high in the
wet forests where the Blackall Range meets the Conondale Range.
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| Bellthorpe Stays forest |
Among the critters
noted during our visit were Sooty Owl, Marbled Frogmouth, Lewin's
Rail, Paradise Riflebird, Regent Bowerbird, Koala, Fawn-footed Melomys, Red-bellied Black Snake and loads
more. All images on this post were taken during our visit.
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| Regent Bowerbird outside Bowerbird Cabin |
Dave and Wendy Clark
acquired this former dairy property in 2002 and have since turned it
into a first-class ecotourism destination. A labyrinth of trails of
varying lengths and grades criss-cross extensive stands of
rainforest, towering wet sclerophyll forests, undulating grassy
slopes and cascading waterfalls.
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| Cedar Cascades |
Mighty red cedars
festooned with epiphytes survived the loggers who worked these slopes
in times long gone. The verandahs of well-appointed cabins atop the
ridges offer stunning views of the surrounding mountains and forests.
Creeks and ponds support an abundance of frogs including the
threatened Giant Barred-Frog, along with Platypus and the localised
Conondale Spiny Crayfish. Up in the rainforest lives the quaint
Pouched Frog.
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| Red-bellied Black Snake |
The Bellthorpe area
retains some of the region's finest remaining stands of high altitude
forest; at around 580m above sea level, the temperature is decidedly
cooler than in the coastal lowlands. Bellthorpe Stays is accessed
from Brisbane through Woodford and from the Sunshine Coast through
Maleny.
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| Bellthorpe Stays property |
The cabins provide all
conceivable needs from a first aid kit and books and videos to an
indoor fireplace, a bottle of seed for the birds, and seriously comfortable beds and pillows. Visitors
bring only their food and personal items. Cabins are enveloped by rainforest, unseen
from each other.
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| King Parrots at the feeder |
King Parrots dominate the verandah feeders.
Short-eared Brushtail Possums, Short-nosed Bandicoots and Long-nosed Bandicoots forage at
night on the lawn.
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| Bowerbird Cabin, inside and outside |
Regent Bowerbirds,
Satin Bowerbirds and Paradise Riflebirds are spotted through the
cabin's roof-to-floor windows.
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| Paradise Riflebird |
The 200-hectare
property abuts Bellthorpe National Park. Nearby are the foundations
and restored machinery from the long-disbanded Brandons sawmill.
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| Giant red cedar festooned with epiphytes |
Further to the north stretches the Conondale Range, where
conservationists worked hard to spare its forests from the
developmental fate that ravaged the Blackall Range to the south-east.
Much biodiversity has
been lost in the region, especially the subtropical lowland
rainforests that are the refuge of rarities like the Black-breasted
Buttonquail and Coxen's Fig-Parrot, the latter now likely extinct. It
was more luck than anything that Bellthorpe escaped large-scale
habitat destruction.
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| Short-eared Brushtail Possum |
The area managed
generally to keep off the radar - including for those of us who were
busily surveying wildlife half a century ago across that region –
due to poor access. It is only in relatively recent years that
Bellthorpe Stays has been accessible by good bitumen roads. Property
values in the area have soared recently as word gets around.
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| Bellthorpe Stays forest stream |
Back to the critters. I
located two pairs of Marbled Frogmouth a short walk from our cabin,
one on each side of a ridge-line.
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| Marbled Frogmouth male - above & below |
A Tawny Frogmouth
perched on a post near the rainforest edge. These two species are
often in close proximity but the Marbled Frogmouth – unlike its
relative – is always inside the rainforest.
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| Tawny Frogmouth |
In the same area as the
Marbled Frogmouth pairs was a pair of Sooty Owls calling noisily to
each other. Sufficient old growth trees remain on the property for
resident Sooty and Masked Owls.
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| Sooty Owl |
Crimson Rosella and Pale-headed Rosella occur side-by-side.
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| Crimson Rosella |
As do Red-backed Fairywren and Variegated Fairywren.
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| Red-backed Fairywren |
All three south-east Queensland scrub-wren species - Yellow-throated, Large-billed and White-browed -are common in the rainforest.
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| Large-billed Scrubwren |
Little Shrike-thrush is often feeding with them.
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| Little Shrike-thrush |
Around the bend from
our cabin, called Bowerbird, a young Koala was located by Dave and I
during a spotlighting foray.
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| Koala |
Our thermal imagers
tracked down a Fawn-footed Melomys.
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| Fawn-footed Melomys |
I found two more
melomys the next night along with an Eastern Ringtail Possum.
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| Eastern Ringtail Possum |
Introduced Red Deer
occur in small numbers in the surrounding open eucalypt woodlands but
cats and other feral pests are happily scarce at Bellthorpe Stays. Although the weather is
cooling in April, a large Red-bellied Black Snake baked in the sun on
a creekside walking track. Two Lewin's Rails were calling nearby in
dense waterside vegetation.
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| Red Deer |
Wonder Brown was among
the butterflies seen. Butterflies were scarce in the cool conditions
but the property hosts a decent population of the scarce Richmond
Birdwing.
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| Wonder Brown |
Wompoo Fruit-Dove was
out and about in small numbers.
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| Wompoo Fruit-Dove |
Yellow-tailed Black
Cockatoos frequently wheeled overhead.
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| Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo |
Russet-tailed Thrush and Noisy
Pitta called at dusk and dawn. This place was a joy. We'll be back.
Link
to ebird list is here.
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