Bush Portraits III

At 5 a.m., daylight began tugging away at the blanket of darkness over Townsville, bringing with it clear skies and birdsong in an eclectic collection of voices that included  the sweetly husky tremo...

On Corals Spawning, and Lotus Lilies in Anderson Park Botanical Gardens, Townsville

At daybreak I walked in drizzle, the nagging calls of little corellas picking holes in the air. House sparrows chirped cheerfully, and a female eastern koel – her plumage all speckled brown and barr...

Great Barrier Reef

At 8:30 a.m., Vilis and I boarded Reef Magic’s high-speed catamaran, which transported us 45 kilometres away from Cairns to Moore Reef on the outer Great Barrier Reef. The catamaran pounded over...

Reef Notes

With Vilis’s and my tour to the outer Great Barrier Reef pending, I cycled to the library, signed out a couple of books on the Reef, and did some brushing up. Previously, I’d known that th...