Day 3, Airlie Beach to Mount Isa

Date: Thursday 3rd October 2024

Project: Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey

Observers: Richard Kingsford (UNSW), Chris Sanderson

Pilot: Thomas Clark

Taking off over Shute Harbour and looking out to the Whitsunday Islands on our way west, along Survey Band 10. We will travel all the way to Mount Isa today.

Whitsunday Islands

The first large wetland was Proserpine Dam. This often has lots of waterbirds and did not disappoint today. Probably several thousand – mostly cormorants, Black Swans, Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead and Wood Duck. It also had large numbers of egrets and Whiskered Terns.

Coming over the wall of Proserpine Dam to survey the thousand-odd waterbirds.

A view from inside the cabin as we flew over Proserpine Dam

Flew past a large coal mine at Collinsville with sprinklers on, presumably for dust control

We then surveyed a few dams, west of Collinsville, before we got to the Bowen River.

The Bowen River seemed to have a small flow, going through its pools and around the sandbars. Mostly egrets, Pacific Black Duck and the occasional Darter. There were also a couple of Black-necked Storks.  

Surveying Bowen River

We then headed down the Burdekin River – a beautiful river. There weren’t more than about fifty waterbirds on this bit of the river, mostly cormorants and egrets with the odd Pacific Black Duck. We also saw a couple of crocodiles.  

Surveying the Burdekin River

We flew up the Burdekin River to the Burdekin Falls Dam also known as Lake Dalrymple, a massive body of water. It has relatively few waterbirds given its size, mainly because it is so deep and there hasn’t been sufficient time for nutrients to build up.  

Surveying Burdekin Falls Dam or Lake Dalrymple

We flew down the middle of the Burdekin River, across the weir about halfway from the junction of the Burdekin and Bowen Rivers and the dam.

A view from inside the cabin as we flew up the Burdekin River

Flying up the Burdekin River and up and over the Burdekin Falls Dam wall onto the massive Lake Dalrymple.

Then it was off to the west, south of Charters Towers, picking up the occasional farm dam. It is dry this year; most of the dams are less than 40% full. They still have a reasonable number of waterbirds up to 20. We saw a few more camels here than we have previously seen.  

One of the small inland wetlands which had probably filled from a storm.  

After we had surveyed the dams and small swamps, that were mostly dry, we flew over the White Mountains, part of the Great Dividing Range.

This is where the Flinders River starts and flows out to the Gulf of Carpentaria.  

We landed in Hughenden for a break and to refuel.

It was a hot and windy afternoon as we headed west to Mt Isa.  

This is the site of one of the most northerly inland irrigated cotton areas.

The off river storage for the cotton farm was drying back and had quite a few waterbirds including four Black-necked Storks, probably a pair and two chicks, and about a hundred or more Brolgas.  

Surveying off-river storage

North of the town of Julia Creek, the spread of the exotic prickly acacia, a native of South America. It produces huge numbers of seeds and is very difficult to control.

There is very little water in this dry landscape out here apart from a few wetlands drying back. I don’t think I have ever seen as many Black Kites as we saw today. It is not that often that kites out number the waterbirds but this happened a few times.  

Wetlands drying back

The Ernst Henry Mine is a large open cut copper mine north of Cloncurry. It has a couple of freshwater dams which we survey but they had hardly any water.  

The Cloncurry River is a real seasonal ephemeral river, running in the wet season. Today it had a few puddles.  

Lake Moondarra is a dam on the Leichardt River, providing water for Mt Isa. It always has a large diversity and numbers of waterbirds, unlike most large dams. This is because it is reasonably shallow.

As we were coming in to survey today at low levels, we were greeted with the unusual spectacle of a seaplane landing in front of us on the water. Pilots chatted and everyone was happy. There were probably only a few hundred waterbirds today on the water but a wide variety of species, including all the fish-eating species, such as Pelicans and all the cormorant species, Hardhead, PAcific Black Duck, and a few Wood Ducks. There were also Glossy Ibis, and quite a few egrets. We had expected more waterbirds here.  

Lake Moondarra

Flying over Lake Moondarra surveying back and across until we had completed it.