Pungalina, Part 2...Chopper time!

Ghost bat!

  Before we left for the chopper survey, we had a bit more of a chance to have a look around the sites close to the homestead. We spent some time spelunking and exploring the incredible underground world that you could have easily got lost in. The cave was home to a couple of species of bats and we got to see a ghost bat up close and personal. The caves were very humid and had people literally dripping sweat in minutes so afterwards we headed for a place known as bubbling sands… we had heard many descriptions of the place, but couldn’t really get our heads around what is was exactly. Wow! It was beautiful, basically a warm aquarium, big enough for at least 10 people and full of fish! The water bubbles up out of the ground, through the sand, forming a large pool, before flowing into the river near the homestead.

Bubbling sands

  After these days of relaxation, it was time to start packing for the chopper trip.  Everything and everyone got weighed, as the amount of gear the chopper can carry is dependent on the distance and the amount of fuel needed. All the gear gets packed into massive bags that get hooked to a big rope and ‘carried’ by chopper to the campsite.  The site was about a 15-minute flight from the homestead and was stunning! 

Located on Pungalina creek, the spot was in a little gorge with a nice swimming hole, surrounded by spinifex and cliffs. But before we could really start to appreciate the beauty of the place, hard work was required.  While being flown into your camp is awesome, it means there are no vehicles to help you carry the trapping gear to the sites! You therefore have to earn your sites, and we thrashed ourselves putting in 5 sites the first day- not such a bad effort considering we didn’t start digging until after 10! We walked about a kilometer to each site, with our progress made slow by having to navigate through rocky creek beds, scree and sand dunes with armfuls of gear.

In the end, the effort was well worth the catch.  Rock rats, native mice, pygmy goannas, dragons, and other little skinks made it very successful.  Ethan and I were particularly lucky as we got two goannas one afternoon and another one the following morning at a different site!  Meanwhile we spotlighted for rock ringtail possums, went bird watching, hiked around, and swam when it got too hot.  Pack up day came around all to quick and we were headed back to the homestead to pack up all our gear and begin our long trip back to Wongalara.  All in all, what an amazing introduction to Pungalina-Seven Emu, and the secrets that the land holds. 

  

Reptile trapping, round 2...perfecting the art of catching lizards.

  After we arrived back from Pungalina, we had 3 days at Wongalara before heading back into Katherine to collect our next lot of volunteers for the July reptile-trapping program. It’s always fun to sit at the bus station and watch the people come off and guess which ones are with us. Usually they are the ones looking eager and with the most amount of luggage out of anyone on the bus. These three lived up to expectations each arriving with a rather large backpack and a swag each! Hmmm, where were we going to fit all this stuff??!!! The zip on the canopy of the ute had broken that morning and we had already picked up all the food! This was going to be a tight squeeze. We managed to fit everything in, taped and pinned the canopy closed and tied one of the swags to the top of the ute with the spare tyre. We reassured the troops that their stuff ‘should’ make the trip but would be completely covered in dust. They half smiled back, not knowing if we were serious or not.
  Prior to this, we had gone through the stress of ordering all the food for 5 people for two weeks. A fairly easy task until you throw in some vegetarians and strange dietary requirements… One of the volunteers this trip didn’t eat grains… Ethan and I looked at each other puzzled… well, what does she eat?! Apparently fruit, vegetables and strong coffee and lots of it! In a place where fresh fruit and veg is a bit of a luxury item, this was going to be interesting.

We headed out of town getting to know each other and stopping in a couple of places for photo opportunities and to check all the gear was still with us. Arriving at Wongalara in good time, everyone was eager for the survey to start.

Up early the next morning we headed out to put in the sites. We had even managed to get an extra set of hands from an older gentleman that has been staying at Wongalara for a month. This time the sites went in easily and we were back at the homestead for lunch!

  The rest of the week sailed along easily, we were capturing a good variety and number of creatures. Ethan and I worked great as a team, and he even ran the survey for me while I went into Katherine for a medical training course. The official AWC photographer also followed us around for a lot of the survey so you might just be seeing us in the next issue of Wildlife Matters (AWC's quarterly magazine).

  We found ourselves with a lot more spare time this trip and treated the volunteers to some bonus trips to nice spots around the sanctuary. We attempted to watch the full moon rise and the sunset at lost city but because of all the clouds around, we were treated to a magnificent sunset instead!

Tawny Frogmouth

  It was great to have so many hands this time round and everyone was rather relaxed and ready to take on anything. The volunteers decided with absolutely no encouragement from us that they wanted to put in all 18 of the main road sites in the one day so they could have a spare day at the end for more exploring… So it was decided, 18 sites was the target and we would push on until they were all in. We stopped after 15 sites and headed to one of our favourite nearby spots, Saw Mill Springs to cool down/read/sleep through the heat of the day. The rest of the sites went in the afternoon leaving everyone feeling pretty pumped, but tired and stiff. The rest of the time sped by quickly and we had the unexpected luxury of having to find people things to do! After a fairly slow week with captures we were ecstatic to catch our first juvenile rat in a pit fall since we had arrived.

  The reptile survey allowed us to really try out the new lenses that we had bought just before Pungalina and were pretty happy with results… Thanks Jimmy for the camera! Ethan even managed some great photos while we were out spotlighting (see Tawny Frogmouth photo).

  And just like that, we were on our way back to town and another reptile survey was over! Only one more for the year, time seems to be flying!!

Pungalina, Part 1

  Let’s start this post by saying that we’re very lucky people.  While being up here in the middle of nowhere, working in beautiful places and catching cool animals is an adventure itself, we recently had the opportunity to travel to another sanctuary in order to help with the annual survey.  This is different than our normal work here, which focuses on our enclosures multiple times a year.  Annual surveys aim to survey key vegetation types and habitats throughout the sanctuary as part of AWC’s focus on monitoring ecosystem indicators. The data collected then helps guide conservation management throughout the sanctuary.  With about 3 million hectares under AWC management (making them the largest NGO in Oz in terms of land for conservation), this allows for long term monitoring of animal populations.  At the same time, it allows people like us, as well as other volunteers, to see parts of the country that very few people get to see and camp in places and catch creatures that most could only dream of.  This is why we nearly peed our pants when our friend who runs the trapping in the Northeast region of the country contacted us to see if we were interested in coming on the annual survey at Pungalina-Seven Emu.

  Pungalina-Seven Emu Sanctuary is southeast of us at Wongalara, and lies right near the Gulf of Carpentaria.  Pungalina station is owned by AWC, while a part of Seven Emu (a neighboring station) is leased.  Ever since AWC acquired the property in 2009 we’ve been hearing all these things about the unique animals that live there and the beautiful scenery that awaits those who are lucky enough to go.  Besides its aesthetic value and rare inhabitants, it also has high conservation value.  The Gulf region is particularly important because of its mix of coastal habitat, sandstone ridges, natural springs, and diverse woodland vegetation.

  Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity to go for the annual survey.  Not only would we be participating in the trapping and camping out in some remote areas, but we’d be conducting part of the survey BY CHOPPER.  That’s right, you get flown to an area with the trapping gear and get left there for 4 days. 

  In a frenzy of activity before our departure, we trapped the rats in our enclosures, deployed the next 15km set of camera traps, cleaned, and packed.  We’d drive Frank the 1200km or so southeast to Pungalina-Seven Emu, and he did his best to make it difficult.  We had been having issues with something draining the battery and this trip was no different, as we had to jump him almost every time we turned off the vehicle.  However, it was easy enough with our trusty spare battery box on the back and we were saved from asking strangers for help.  Our first stop was at Cape Crawford, a roadhouse near Booroloola, where Tegan ordered a steak that turned out to be as big as the plate.  Bigger than your head.  About the size of a laptop.  Meanwhile I got pork and received 2 of the biggest T-bone pork chops you’ve ever seen.  Not sure where they get these animals, but you can be sure they’re well fed. 

Campsite 1..big stinking lagoon

  Sufficiently fueled up with an entire side of both pork and beef, we made our way to Pungalina the next day, eager to drive the treacherous road that led to the homestead.  We’d heard plenty about how rough it was, how many sharp rocks there were, and how boggy the sand could be, so we were teetering on the edge of both excited and crapping our pants.  In addition, we had heard that an entire tour bus full of over 50 tourists got stuck in the deep sand on the same road the day before we were due to arrive.  Only the manager and his grader were able to pull them out.  It was time for Frank to really prove himself.  In the end, Tegan drove and took it slow (i.e. 2 hours to drive 70km), managing not to get a flat or stuck in the sand.  Our nervousness turned to elation when we saw the homestead and Tegan’s relief spilled over into raucous shouts.  The hard part was over, and Frank could sit with his flat battery while we were out and about trapping.  He was happy to have a long run, much like a cooped up dog gets excited to have a walk (I’m looking at you, Angus and Colby).

Loaded up with trapping gear

  We left the following day to camp out for 2 weeks straight, traversing the rather limited tracks up to the different areas we were going to trap.  Along the way we saw plenty of awesome animals and sights, the most notable being a little furry fellow; the Carpentarian False Antechinus.  This carnivorous mammal is quite small and lives in the rocky areas, and is so limited and rare in its distribution that when they first caught it 4 years ago at Pungalina it was the first record in 96 years.  There have been something like less than 25 individuals EVER caught.  IN HISTORY.  It made all the digging quite worthwhile, since we had to dig the buckets into the ground in some very rocky and difficult land.  Driving to many of the sites was difficult, let alone trying to dig a big bucket into the ground.

  In addition to the furry things, we got plenty of reptiles, our favorites including a black-headed python (big thanks to Gina for grabbing that one off the side of the track), some cool looking skinks, and the best one yet…a file snake.  Named for the feel of its skin, these harmless snakes are aquatic and, as our friend puts it, ‘are the Shar Pei’s of the snake world’.  That’s because they can’t really support their own weight, being aquatic they don’t have to, so they’re very baggy and loose feeling in your hands.  

  Our last campsite was near the mouth of the mighty Gulf of Carpentaria, on the Seven-Emu portion of the land that AWC manages.  The drive there was over some rugged areas and creek crossings, with plenty of trees to drag out of the way.  It took us something like 6 hours to cover 70km, with overheating utes and some slow going.  Once we arrived, we took one look at the campsite, perched among grass that was as tall as us, and looked at each other.  What exactly were we in for?  But without fail everyone roared into action, slashing grass and clearing the area for our living space.  Once we settled in over the next couple days, we hiked to the coast, saw plenty of birds, and trapped in some of the coolest areas we’ve ever seen.  Sand dunes that give way to massive palm swaps, back up to sand dunes and so on.  The swamps looked like dinosaurs could’ve lived there, but alas we didn’t catch any. 

  We returned from our 2 weeks in the bush in desperate need of long showers, and were treated to a few days off.  Just in time for the 4^th of July!  Our friend had previously made me a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving 4 years ago and this time she did not disappoint as even with our food supplies running low she managed to pull together one delicious apple pie, complete with custard and whipped cream.  Being that far out in the bush, with no connection to America but my accent and this glorious apple pie, it was the best thing I could’ve asked for.  Up next...the CHOPPER SURVEY, caves, bats, and swimming.