Early this morning I strode past the rich green of rain-fed vegetation on the Townsville Golf Club beneath dark periwinkle clouds decorated with tufts of white. From Bicentennial Park, I watched the tidal Ross River pushing upstream in thick, murky curves. The city looked fresh, renewed. I carried some of that freshness home with me and poured it into assisting Vilis with removing furniture and organizing our garage sale scheduled for tomorrow. We repeatedly swarmed out of the house and into the garage as though we were giant ants lugging desks and beds, corner-walking the fridge and wash machine, hauling deck chairs, clothes, and household goods from resource source to anthill.

Could we have flown with our burdens, I might stretch the insect analogy to liken us to a miniscule buzz within the unimaginably large swarm of locusts – 25 kilometres by 10 kilometres in area – today blown from New South Wales into northern and central Victoria.¹ That swarm contains unknown millions of adult locusts. A dairy farmer mistook it for a dust cloud in the distance. The cloud settled on one of his paddocks and turned its green to white. He doesn’t know if there’ll be any grass left when the locusts move on.¹ I thought of the locusts Vilis and I saw in the Red Centre in late September, their wings clattering as they leapt out of clumps of spinifex grass on the Ormiston Pound Walk, and others an airborne cloud of bobbing gold lit by late afternoon sun at Jessie Gap. In comparison, they were few.

Today’s post is a sequel to yesterday’s and features more bush portraits, these from the months of April through July and spanning dry season adventures in Queensland and Western Australia (although the North Queensland wet tropics version of the Dry could be described as receiving somewhat less rain). During this time, Vilis and I bushwalked the Many Peaks Range outside of Townsville, checked out more of Paluma Range National Park, visited Eungella and Undara Volcanic National Parks, and with our son Janis, explored Girringun and Bowling Green Bay National Parks and the verdant, rolling Atherton Tablelands – all in Queensland. In addition, Vilis and Janis spent three weeks in Western Australia working as volunteers on a dingo/biodiversity research project. Our bush portraits tell tales of mozzies and desert sands, of giant figs and unwary roos. Enjoy.

Here I am on buggy Mount Marlow, Many Peaks Range near Townsville, Queensland (© Vilis Nams)

Here I’m crossing Waterview Creek, Paluma Range National Park, Queensland (© Vilis Nams)

Vilis and Desert Toilet in Western Australia (© Janis Nams)

Janis and I under a Giant Fig Tree at Lake Eacham, Crater Lakes National Park, Queensland (© Vilis Nams)

Vilis on Lake Barrine Track, Crater Lakes National Park, Queensland (© Magi Nams)

Janis and I on the Misty Summit of Mount Baldy, Atherton, Queensland (© Vilis Nams)

Janis on Cunyu Station, Western Australia (© Vilis Nams)

Vilis at Undara Volcanic National Park, Queensland (© Magi Nams)

Here I am on Rainforest Track at Broken River, Eungella National Park, Queensland (© Vilis Nams)

Roos and I at Hundred Mile Swamp, Undara Volcanic National Park, Queensland (© Vilis Nams)

Janis and Desert Sunset, Western Australia (© Vilis Nams)

Reference:

1. Emily Bourke, ABC News. Locust swarms on the move. The World Today, Friday, December 3, 2010. © 2010 ABC. Accessed 9-Dec-2010. http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3083914.htm

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