This is a beautiful video of the Lockhart River Aboriginal Community just near us. It shows the places we visit regularly, Quintel Beach, Chili Beach, and some of the people we know. It was made in 2008. Lockhart River intro to Bush Tucker video
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Portland Roads is the access point for Restoration Island which is just a quick boat ride across the water. Restoration Island is listed in the Wwoofing directory. In February 2010 this Wwooofer called to find out if Dave was taking anyone. He said no since it was the wet season and he was going away, [...]
Continue Reading →I found this wonderful article about a trip to Iron Range National Park. They spotted an incredible amount of wildlife in their 3 days, and have some beautiful photos of many of the species to be found around the Portland Roads area. He says ‘The Iron Range is a special place and really is like [...]
Continue Reading →Well, we have been living on Cape York for 6 months now. Portland Roads is very special, but we haven’t really explored further yet. We have some friends coming up from Canberra soon, so now we are planning our Cape York adventure. We thought we would share our research here as it may be useful [...]
Continue Reading →We often hear birds but don’t always see them, so we are left wondering what they are. I was thrilled to find this site to help identify our local species, especially the night birds. Bird sounds from Australasia and the Pacific is a site where people have submitted their bird recordings, it is also a resource [...]
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We spotted this huge green treefrog yesterday, here at the Portland Roads Beach Shack. He was perched in a tree just near the path to our house. He sat perfectly still while we photographed him. Notice that he has ear patches rather than holes. That is Seamus’ arm behind him holding down the tree branch [...]
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This Matrax ad was filmed at Chili Beach in June 2010. The film crew stayed at Portland Roads Beach Shack which gave them a good base to explore the area and easy access to Chili Beach.
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One dark night we heard a strange hissing noise. This is a worry when you live in the tropics in a house that is open to wildlife. On investigation the hiss was regular and occurred whenever we walked past this particlur post on our deck. Once we worked out that it couldn’t be a snake we [...]
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A Blue-winged Kookaburra flew past me while I was driving from Lockhart River to Portland Roads. Apparently they are common on the cape and Southern New Guinea. I had never seen a Blue kookaburra before, it was a very quick glimpse but quite striking. There seem to be lots of bright blue creatures here, birds, [...]
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We were just talking about how much wildlife we have – we see some amazing creature most days. It was dark, Boomer started barking and wagging his tail wildly. I was about to tell him off; he usually barks at squeaky branches other weird noises. Then we spotted this guy in the dark, sitting on our [...]
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We are now experiencing “the wet”. It’s generally very humid but quite a few days are reasonably cool and quite pleasant. Mostly when it does rain it really pisses down, but we also get soft gentle rain. Our daughter Zoe loves it when it does rain – it’s warm and fun and just fantastic just [...]
Continue Reading →A. Yes, you can visit Cape York in the wet season. Most people think that it is impossible to visit Cape York in the wet season. It is true that the major rivers flood, cutting off road access. However you can still explore the Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range) National Park, Portland Roads and Chili Beach. Forget [...]
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We had 2 guests stay for a week in December this year – a birdwatcher and a guide (Jun Matsui) from Sicklebill Safaris. They had flown in to Lockhart, hired a 4wd and stayed with us. Jun (the guide) found a cuscus in one of our mango trees just up the road; came running back [...]
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A tiny little cameraman sailed into our bay today. Our bay is approx 220 kms south-east of Bamaga at the tip of Cape York, and about 800 kms (by road) North of Cairns. I was surprised – I assumed that it had been launched from the point just up the road about 250 metres, and [...]
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Boomer was barking ferociously at something behind the kitchen wall. I thought it must have been a snake, so very gingerly peered around the corner. I caught it in a bucket – to give you an idea of it’s size – it only just fitted on the bottom of the bucket (about 200 mm in [...]
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I heard a strange scuffling, scrunching sound outside our verandah. Looked over the edge and on the lawn noticed a small 80 cm or so long python inexorably dragging a much larger cane toad back along the grass. The cane toad appeared stunned and although obviously alive, struggled very little. The python was only a [...]
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We saw, just outside our back door on the rock wall, a bloody big snail – think it’s either Gnarosophia bellendenkerensis or Hadra webbi. We have seen a few of these around the place (often at night) as well as discarded shells. The shells are amazingly strong – you could probably break one with a [...]
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This is the place (www.portlandroadsbeachshack.com.au) we are looking after. We have the cottage halfway up the hill, and this is where the visitors stay. The Beach Shack accommodates up to 4 people with a double and two single beds. It is self contained with a bathroom and cooking facilities for self-catering. The living area is on [...]
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Very cold today – had to put a long-sleeved shirt on when it got down to 25 degrees! Also rained most of the day and when it didn’t we had a beautiful rainbow. I had 3 young men from Weipa staying (trying to fish but unable to stay out long in their boat because of [...]
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I’ve just put the last 2 days of birds nests. Plus below that the original nest. They often build their nests under verandahs – it’s thought that they consider humans less dangerous than other animals, so do build under eaves and verandahs. And often build a new nest next to the old one, then use [...]
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