Today (20th February 2007) I spent two hours exploring the creek flowing out from Barney Springs. This satellite image doesn’t do it justice at the moment. It is the wet season in North Queensland and it has been raining on the Atherton Tableland for a few weeks. Wearing a thin plastic raincoat, I parked at the Rocky Creek World War II Memorial Park and walked the short distance across country and down into the creek. It was flowing very strongly and the rain made for a tedious slippery exploration. After two hours of exploration and shooting video along the way I had not yet come to the confluence with Rocky Creek.

I decided to leave the rest for another day and climbed up the then steep high bank to walk back to the car. I came out at the main roads gravel depot and it took me a whole 10 minutes tops to walk back to the car.

Although I have experienced this before, the psychological change in space to time when following meandering creeks always surprises me. I had the same experience last August when walking with my youngest son along Prior’s Creek on which Atherton was originally settled. After and hour and half getting along the creek and taking photographs we had moved the equivalent of three blocks of the town.

There are a lot of small creeks around the Tableland that can be explored if you don’t mind getting your feet wet. I recently enjoyed walking with my son and two of his mates up Downey Creek that flows into Tinaroo Dam Lake. It comes out of rainforest so the water is wonderfully cold in Summer.

On 5th May 2007, my son Reuben and I went for a further exploration of Barney Creek. Here are views of that 2 hour adventure.

12th June 2007 found my way to the top end of Rocky Creek through a rural residential suburb called Rangeview which sits below Bones Knob hill. Bones Knob is named after a story that early white settlers or police hunted a group of aboriginal people over the cliff edge. It is not a verifiable story but a lot of people here believe it, probably because other verifiable atrocities did occur. Anyhow my easy plod turned into a bit of hard work when I made the mistake of deciding to climb up the side of the waterfall. I hate exposed heights and so it took me a big effort to get up a steep hillside. In the effort I didn’t control the bag I was carrying my video and slr cameras and it tumbled off. So not only I had to get up, I had to find an easier way around and back down. But I will return. The creek dries off when there hasn’t been rain for a few months.

My excursions seem to be getting more and more hazardous. In October 2007 I went to walk down the headwaters of Peterson Creek near the little town of Yungaburra. I tried to take a shortcut through a remnant of rainforest with a ‘curtain’ fig tree, a tourist attraction up here. Well this video tells the tale of that befell me……

25th May 2008 went with a few friends for a bush walk up Black Mountain north of Kuranda, North Queensland. There are only colour tags to follow in an often dense undergrowth. It was a bit wet and muddy and the climb (up and down) was long and steep. Eventually we made our way up a rocky outcrop to a rocky ledge sitting in the canopy. Not so goo on heights like that myself. See photos of the walk on my Flickr site. Link on the right and search for “Black Mountain”. Exhausting five hours but well worth the effort with great companions.

Through my new venture, Phoenix Functions, I am taking a step up in my interest in creeks. The Cape York Wild Rivers and Wilderness is one of the world’s largest wilderness environments but The Wilderness Society is concerned about waning interest among the younger generation for environmental issues. To help improve awareness and involvement of children, youth and families, in environmental issues I will be coordinating a play, Cape York Critters and Wild Country, to go into State Schools and public venues. The play explores the development of awareness of the Cape York Wilderness by a middle class business woman who is taken on a magical trip of the key landmarks by the spirit of Cape York.

In July 2008, on the way to Cairns, Reuben and I stopped off at Davies Creek National Park for a short (one hour) walk. See the photos in flickr (access from link on right). The walk was just a bearing taker. I will have to do a long walk in that park to the top of Lamb’s range overlooking the Cairns coastline.
June 2009, still haven’t taken that walk up Lamb’s Range, but drove to the top of the Davies Creek waterfall and walked about for a couple of hours upstream that is more placid than might be expected leading to a waterfall. More photos in flickr.