Wild BNE

Marcia! Greetings from cyclone-ravaged Queensland! Whether you're reading this from Brisbane, interstate or overseas, you have probably heard the news of Severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia bearing down on the central Queensland coast, unleashing havoc and fury as a category five storm.

Juvenile Tandan, Kedron Brook. As a naturalist, I aim to be well-rounded in my wildlife observations, but there's one group of animals I've always struggled to spend time with: fish. While I have no issue with recreational fishing if done responsibly, I personally don't wish to cause unnecessary stress to any creature I encounter, so that rules out the obvious choice of 'hook, line and sinker' for fish interaction. Yesterday morning, while sitting by the banks of the Cabbage Tree Creek in the north Brisbane suburb of McDowall, I thought about some of the other ways I have been able to observe fish.

Dark bar-sided Skink (Eulamprus martini),  Ferntree Creek National Park. Featured areas: (1) Jacaranda Drive, (2) Ferntree Creek National Park, (3) Nambour Golf Course, and (4) Parklands Conservation Park. Image courtesy of Google Maps. Parklands is a beautifully forested area of the Sunshine Coast, with the majority of it protected by a National Park and large Conservation Park. The Bruce Highway bisects it in two, and in the western segment is Ferntree Creek National Park, and on the eastern side is Parklands Conservation Park. The original version of this Suburb Guide neglected to include the Conservation Park, because Google Maps once upon a time drew the suburb boundary so that it encompassed only the section west of the highway. Listed here are four areas where you might find interesting wildlife and plants within Parklands.