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October 9, 2011 by Seamus Campbell

Nurdles at Chili Beach Cleanup 2011

I’d never heard of nurdles before – it’s a beautiful sounding word but unfortunately has sinister connotations.

Nurdles at Chili Beach Cleanup 2011

Nurdles at Chili Beach Cleanup 2011

Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets (usually under 5 mm diameter)  used as the main raw product in the manufacture of plastic products.
They are one of the main sources of marine debris.
Nurdles resemble fish eggs, absorb toxins and there are billions of them out there (some estimate there are more the 120 billion kilograms with about 50,000 nurdles per kilogram).
Heidi from Tangoroa told me that they once collected 6,600 nurdles in 1 sq m of sand in WA

Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society has more information in their pdf Fact Sheet on Nurdles

I learnt about nurdles while attending the annual Chili Beach Cleanup in July 2011. It was a great time with many interesting people attending.

They included students from Lockhart State School, residents of Lockhart, Portland Roads and Restoration Island, Kawadji-Kanindji Rangers, Jen Goldberg from Ghostnets, Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society, Sheils Barra from Cook Shire Council, Barry Murray from Rio Tinto, National Parks Rangers and various travellers.

Anna and Matt and Ronya, Lotta and Torben

Anna and Matt and Ronya, Lotta and Torben

Anna, Matt and their 3 children Ronya, Lotta and Torben were wwoofing on Restoration Island whilst on a holiday around Australia.

They are from Denmark in WA were they own Windrose B&B which is being managed by a friend from Germany whiile they are travelling around Australia.

They had just spent a week or so with Dave on Restoration Island, and as he was coming in for the cleanup they decided to join him.

The Kawadji-Kanindji (Land & Sea) Rangers  – Claudia, Caroline, Denis and Neil,  had previously cleaned another section of Chili Beach on the weekend. They had worked with Andy Baker, the QPWS Ranger,  Jen Goldberg from Ghostnets and Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society. It was great for these people from different organisations to be able to work together with the common goals of removing and cataloging the marine debris. The Kawadji Kanindji rangers are keen to continue doing marine debris clean-ups and monitoring of the area.

Neil, Andy, Claudia, Denis, Caroline, Heidi

Neil, Andy, Claudia, Denis, Caroline, Heidi

The  Ghostnets website says “Formerly known as the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme, GhostNets Australia is an alliance of 22 indigenous communities from coastal northern Australia across the three states of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland.  The programme was established in 2004 with funding from the Australian Government. Since its inception the programme has supported Indigenous Rangers to remove over 7,500 ghost nets of varying sizes.  This has resulted in recovery of a proportion of the trapped wildlife, particularly marine turtles (52%), and the prevention of the ghost nets from returning to the sea, continuing their destructing life-cycle. Less than 10% of these nets have been attributed to Australian fisheries.”
And from Heidi’s website:
“In 2004 Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society was founded by Richard and Heidi Taylor. Tangaroa Blue Ocean Care Society is run as a non-profit organisation with the goals of:
– creating awareness in the community of marine environmental and conservation issues through marine environmental science projects; and
– proactively participating in and organising marine conservation projects which address marine conservation issues.”

The litter over the three days included 81 bags plus a lot of larger items. It weighed 1171 kg in total.
The roughly 50 volunteers on Monday covered a distance of 1.24km over about 2.5hrs.

piece of fibreglass at the Chili Beach cleanup 2011

piece of fibreglass at the Chili Beach cleanup 2011

We found an incredible variety of debris: cans, paddle pop sticks, foil, bottles of all sorts, plastic bag remnants, hard bits of plastic, polystyrene foam, shoes, bleach/cleaner  bottles, fishing paraphernalia, cigarette lighters, skincare bottles, toothbrushes, weather balloon foam and a huge piece of fibreglass from a yacht.

The  bleach bottles are used in some coral reefs to kill fish – they are thrown (full) into the water with slits cut into them  – and the bleach kills or stuns the fish for easy collection but unfortunately the coral gets killed in the process.

Some of the bits of foam collected were from weather balloons. In order to accurately forecast the weather, the Bureau of Meteorology sends up 2-4 weather balloons every day from  every office around Australia. The balloons have an almost 1 square metre piece of polystyrene foam with a silver lining for the radar, a large ballloon and at night 2 AA batteries. All of these drop back to earth and cause a huge problem as debris. I believe the Bureau of Meteorology is working to lessen the impact of weather balloons on the environment.

 

Filed Under: Exploring Cape York, Portland Roads Tagged With: beach cleanup, beach debris, Cape York, Chili Beach, nurdles

April 16, 2011 by Cate

White Lipped Tree Frog – Largest tree frog

White Lipped Tree Frog

White Lipped Tree Frog in our yard

We spotted this huge green treefrog yesterday, here at the Portland Roads Beach Shack. He was perched in a tree just near the path to our house. He sat perfectly still while we photographed him. Notice that he has ear patches rather than holes. That is Seamus’ arm behind him holding down the tree branch so that we could get a better angle. It gives you an idea of how big the frog is.

According to wettropics.gov.au
The White Lipped Tree Frog is the worlds largest tree frog growing in length to 14cm. With a green body with white stripe on lower jaw, and a long flattened body and it has PROTECTED status.

Wikipedia adds that:

  • Females are larger than males;
  • The colour changes depending on the temperature and background – they are usually bright green but can be brown;
  • It has a loud, barking call but when distressed it makes a cat-like “mew” sound;
  • It’s diet is mainly insects and other arthropods;
  • It can live to over ten years in the wild;
  • It is distributed in Australia along the coastal areas of Cape York Peninsula and the wet tropics of north-eastern Queensland. It is the most widely distributed tree frog in the New Guinea region, spanning from eastern Indonesia, through the New Guinea mainland, to the Bismarck and the Admiralty Islands in the North.

Much of the wildlife of the Cape is not found anywhere else in Australia but is found in New Guinea.

White Lipped Tree Frog - Back

White Lipped Tree Frog – Back view shows the texture of its skin

Filed Under: Frogs of Cape York, Portland Roads, Wildlife of Cape York Tagged With: Cape York, Frogs, Frogs of Cape York, green tree frog, wildlife

June 16, 2013 by Seamus Campbell

Portland Roads Beach Shack holiday accommodation

UPDATE 1st Jan 2016.
Portland Roads Beach Shack has been sold. The new owner is no longer running it as an accommodation business.

 

This is the place we are were caretaking. We have the cottage halfway up the hill, and this is where the visitors stay. This video shows the stairs, the deck and the view from the deck

This video shows the bedrooms, the deck and the view

The Beach Shack accommodates up to 4 people with a double and two single beds. It is self contained with a bathroom and cooking facilities for self-catering. The living area is on a good sized deck with great views looking out over the Coral Sea. The house is set back from the road for privacy and sits high on the hill to catch the sea breeze. Portland Roads is in the Tropical Rain Forest of Far North Queensland, 600kms North of Cairns. Portland Roads is a great stop if you

  • are on your big 4×4 trip up to the tip of Cape York,
  • want a break from camping
  • are exploring nearby Iron Range (Kutini-Payamu) National Park, a favourite with birdwatchers,
  • want to check out Aboriginal Art of the Lockhart River Art Gang.

Filed Under: Cape York Accommodation, Exploring Cape York, Iron Range National Park, Kutini-Payamu (Iron Range) National Park, Portland Roads Tagged With: Cape York, Cape York Accommodation, Portland Roads

November 7, 2010 by Seamus Campbell

Sunbirds nest – Sun 7th Nov 2010

Sunbirds nest Wed Nov 3rd

Sunbirds nest Wed Nov 3rd

I’ve just put the last 2 days of birds nests.

Plus below that the original nest.

They often build their nests under verandahs – it’s thought that they consider humans less dangerous than other animals, so do build under eaves and verandahs.

And often build a new nest next to the old one, then use some of the old nest in the new.
Click any image to see larger version.

Sunbirds nest Thurs Nov 4th

Sunbirds nest Thurs Nov 4th

Sunbirds nest Sun Nov 7th

Sunbirds nest Sun Nov 7th

Original Nest

Original Nest

Closeup of Original Nest

Closeup of Original Nest

Filed Under: Birdwatching Cape York Tagged With: birds of Cape York, birdwatching, Cape York

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