On The Beaton Track: December 2003
Travels and Treks
Cabbage Tree Island
The coast of New South Wales is dotted with islands. Many of them are declared nature reserves, which means that all visits or landings are barred. Scientists doing research are of course allowed and I accompanied an old mate—David Priddel of Malleefowl fame—and his associate Nicholas Carlile, onto one of the most special islands in the southern hemisphere.
Writer Karen McGhee had wanted to do a story on Gould’s Petrel, a bird which breeds on this one island and nowhere else in the world. We joined David and Nicholas after being dumped onto slippery rocks and clambering up a steep, palm-covered slope. It was a gruelling couple of days. The birds nested among jagged volcanic boulders. I was constantly struggling to maintain my balance for there was no flat ground anywhere. The weight of my tripod and camera bag kept tipping me downhill and as a result, I wrenched my shoulder almost out of its socket. At night, sleep was virtually impossible since incoming shearwaters kept screeching and crash-landing against our fibreglass “tent”.
But it was all worth it when I got to look into the eyes of those fat, downy chicks and take home photos of their placid faces.
Broughton Island
A few short months later I was surprised to find myself back at Port Stephens, heading out between the same heads, but this time taking a left turn and making for a different Island. This was a completely different assignment. Broughton Island is home to a colony of rare Green and Golden Bell Frogs. Its topography is quite different from Cabbage Tree: lots of standing room with wide sandy beaches, a sheltered bay where you could hand feed a giant sting ray, munch on juicy samphire in the marshes and sleep peacefully in a fishing shack with beds and fly screens.
This assignment, for long-time client Australian Geographic, had been going on for a long time. I had made numerous short trips to varied spots around New South Wales—an industrial site at Port Kembla, the brick pit at the Olympic site and a golf course—all on the trail of this beautiful frog. I was looking forward to this closing scene on Broughton Island because the local population of frogs have a high level of salt tolerance: they live in tidal pools splashed by ocean waves.
Bargo
In winter I also had a short assignment to photograph dingos at a sanctuary in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. It occurred to me that wolves and coyotes suffer the same reputation in the USA as dingos do here in Australia. So when I was in California in November for Thanksgiving with my parents, I also tracked down these other members of the dog family. I plan to put together a short piece comparing them to dingos.
Murrumbidgee
I am working again with forest ecologist David Lindenmayer on another major project. This new collaboration began in November among the purple-splashed plains of the Murrumbidgee River. It will take a year to finish, but this time we have more team members. Damian Michael, Chris MacGregor and Mason Crane are all contributing their research efforts to what will become a much-needed book on an important ecological topic. I’ll keep you informed of progress.
Recent Publications
It’s been difficult to find the time to write articles with all the travelling and updating that’s been going on, but one did appear in Australian House and Garden on gardening with wattles. Especially, there have been some very satisfying uses of stock photos. I like seeing my photos printed big and two such were of Windjana Gorge by Natural History (USA) and a Brown Tree Frog by Melbourne Water.
Until next time,
