Wet Season Wander at Townsville’s Cape Cleveland
Author: Stuart Worboys
Published: Journal September 2022
I’ve rarely had the opportunity to explore the Townsville region in the wet season, so with a short stopover in ‘Mount Isa-by-the-sea’ planned for mid-February I touched base with NPQ Townsville Branch to discuss possibilities. Ian Dyer, long term member and enthusiastic offtrack bushwalker, kindly offered to accompany me on a bush bash. A COVID scare in his household almost scotched those plans (as they have for so many people over the last two years), but Sunday 15 February dawned on a more-or-less healthy home, and he was able to escape the potential lockdown.
The first goal was Cape Cleveland. This rugged granitic headland juts out into the Coral Sea 20km east of Townsville, and is home to the renowned Australian Institute of Marine Sciences. A jumble of steep ridges and hills bear a mixture of woodlands, grasslands, rainforest, mangroves and saltmarsh. Ian and I struck out from the road and immediately encountered thick tall luxurious guinea grass Megathyrsus maximus. To avoid this, we struggled uphill in the wet season heat and humidity to where thinner, poorer soils were less favourable to this invasive cattle food plant, and the shorter grass made for easier progress.
We followed the hillside northward, inching our way up through clumps of beautiful native pea shrubs Tephrosia astragaloides, and over alarmingly steep granite slopes that were home to pockets of vine thicket protected by spreading banyans Ficus virens, glamorous flowering vines Canavalia papuana, Ipomoea abrupta, some not-so-glamorous vines Alyxia spicata, Pandanus cookii, and the always spectacular hoop pine Araucaria cunninghamii. An unfortunate find was Siam weed Chromolaena odorata, not previously recorded on the Cape, but now well established elsewhere in the Townsville region, and likely to find its way into these remote, unmonitored areas.
Tephrosia astragaloides – this white variety was dominant
Ficus hispida
Ipomoea abrupta
Hoop Pine with a view
The slopes we were traversing tracked northwards, and allowed us spectacular views across the valley to 500m high bouldery mountains, and south east to the Coral Sea. We could watch rain squalls approach across the grey sea, but when they arrived to trouble us we were already sweaty enough that the extra moisture made no difference.
Ian led the way into a group of massive granite boulders, some of which provided sheltered overhangs. Here he pointed out little-known Aboriginal artworks – a magical find that made the day quite special.
Our path was interrupted by a steeply-incised gully. From above, the dark green unbroken canopy below indicated an extensive rainforest. We slipped and tripped our way down into the gully to find a beautiful tall closed forest dominated by hoop pines. We reached a small creek tumbling over huge fern-covered Asplenium australasicum boulders, then followed its path downhill, negotiating tree falls, waterfalls, vine tangles and more steep rocky slopes, and eventually found our way to its junction with the main drainage line which wound its way southward, shaded by Ficus hispida, Mallotus claoxyloides and Eucalyptus tereticornis. We followed the creek a way, eventually realising it was going to be far more comfortable to remove our boots and walk along the shallow, sandy creek bed.
Shield-like images painted in simple red ochres
on granite rock
The final 300m of the walk was probably the toughest. After determining the creek was leading us in the wrong direction, we put back on our shoes and headed cross country back to the road. But once again, tall thick guinea grass slowed our progress, and we arrived back at the cars well and truly out of breath.
The next target for the day was the mangrove, Aegialitis annulata. We’d received a request from Glenn Leiper for photographs to be included in the next edition of ‘Mangroves to Mountains’. We scouted some of the tidal channels feeding into Cocoa Creek and Crocodile Creek, but were unsuccessful. To finish things off, we drove to the base of Mount Storth, and wandered up the road to the Clevedon Telephone Exchange. Amongst the rocks was more rock art showing the same geometric patterns and possible shield designs we’d seen earlier in the day. At the top, we encountered more great views and a clump of Xanthorrhoea that seemed distinctly different to the usual X. johnsonii. Our explorations complete, I thanked Ian and we headed home, wet but with an improved appreciation of Townsville’s diversity.
Seedling Pipturus argenteus struggling
for a foothold
Ian Dyer clambering over boulders in the rainforest gully
Reprinted from the Cairns Branch Society for Growing Australian Plants’ Newsletter #217, February 2022