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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, Long-nosed Bandicoot, 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 stove and seriously comfortable beds and pillows. Visitors bring only their food. 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 and Long-tailed 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 east.
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| Long-nosed Bandicoot |
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.
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