Wild BNE

Pale-lined tropical rock crabs (Grapsus albolineatus)  are a common sight on the rock platform below the headland. The Sunshine Coast is a place that abounds with natural beauty, so for Alexandra Headland to be as special as it is really says something! Bordered by the limelight-stealing suburbs of Mooloolaba, Maroochydore and peaceful Buderim, Alex Heads—as it is often called by those acquainted with its charm—nevertheless easily holds its own against these places. 

Book review Reed New Holland Publishing, 2002. It’s noon on a warm autumn day and I am driving south along Beaudesert Road towards the peripheral suburbs of Brisbane’s southside that remain largely a mystery to me. I have decided that not knowing the amphibian fauna inhabiting the suburb of Algester is a personal error that I simply must rectify. My favourite way to search for frogs is to go spotlighting on humid spring and summer nights, but I have left it a little late this year and doubt my chances at finding them now that the evenings have mercifully turned cooler. Instead, I am going to survey the local amphibian population in a way that is quite new to me, aided by a secret weapon sitting in the passenger seat next to me: Marion Anstis’s book, Tadpoles of South-eastern Australia: A Guide With Keys .

Old wife (Enoplosus armatus) , Coolangatta. A surprisingly deep rock pool has formed at Snapper Rocks just in time for the school holidays, and is filled with a large variety of colourful fish.