Archive for the ‘Line Burner Articles from 2011’ Category

Some months ago the media heard a whisper from somewhere that one of our large male crocs had been killed by one of the locals. One of the tour guides received a secretive phone call saying that the croc had indeed been shot, dragged out of the river and had been buried. By the time it became obvious that he was not around, the vegetation around where the croc would have been buried had regrown, thereby leaving no tell-tale clues. The croc’s name was Fat Albert. He had become an icon here and when it was assumed he’d been killed, the media found it good reading. I was interviewed and my short and crude comments and thoughts were printed in the newspaper. These comments upset some of the senior locals. I have since had discussions with them and apologised. My comments suggested that the older generation, once passed on, would cause a change in the community’s attitude and that the future of the crocs were in good hands because the younger generation had a different education towards heritage values. When I was a teenager I had access to rifles and nothing was safe near me. However, by the time I was about 20 I had a sudden change of attitude and have not willingly killed anything since.

Back about 20 years ago my friend Chris Dahlberg was conducting his customary tours. He was just coming out from behind Pig Island, just upstream from the ferry when he heard a rifle shot. He tells me that at that instant a flock of egrets took flight from the bang. He sped there and witnessed a large male croc lying on the mud bank in a pool of blood and it appeared to be dead. On his return minutes later the croc had gone, perhaps it had slid into the water through its nerve movements. Within a couple of days the croc’s bloated body surfaced just a short distance away and the authorities dragged it out and away.

About 8 years ago another iconic male croc named Gummy went missing, assumed dead. He was a crowd pleaser and such a good natured animal that sat for tourists reliably. A friend of mine was returning from a fishing trip to the reef one day and said he saw a male croc fitting that description floating belly up in the river.

I personally don’t see these animals as dangerous as long as I respect their domain. It is sad that there are still people out there that fear them and don’t understand them.

See you next month.

Well over one hundred years ago this region became well known as a potential for gold mining. Of greater interest was the Palmer River area and places toward Cooktown. A government agent was appointed by the authorities to check it out. It was he who named this vast area after an Englishman, Richard Daintree. Once gold was found word got out about the prospect and people came running from all over the place. One such group was the Chinese gold miners from Ballarat and Bendigo, in Victoria (which was then New South Wales). That area was starting to close down. There’s nothing on earth that drives Chinese more frantically than gold!

They arrived here in the Daintree region in hundreds and established themselves immediately. It’s all very well to have ‘gold fever’ but at some point you need to eat. So, a group of them applied for a permit or lease to occupy some land to grow rice. It was actually an island along the Daintree River, known as Virgil Island and it is upstream of the ferry crossing by about 5 kilometres on the north side. You would not know it is an island as it blends in with the surroundings with just the small openings barely visible.

I’ll assume that the island and surrounding areas would have been logged for red cedar. So, the area in question would have been re-growth and scrubby. The Chinese would have had an enormous job preparing the land for rice. Obviously the water for irrigation would have come from the river. At low tide the water is fresh, although tidal. Pumps would have been rudimentary or perhaps they just had a line of people with buckets! I guess that would have taken months or even a year or so to become established. I’m told that the people set up camps along the banks close by.

Some years ago, once my ‘Permit to Occupy’ was granted to set up my tour operation here, we set about making a path between the trees from our house (100m) to the river bank. Because the bank is about 5 metres high we had to create a sloping path to allow us access to our proposed jetty. During works we came across what appeared to be pieces of a cast iron stove. I’ll assume that we disturbed an old camp site. Not far from there are a couple of old mango trees in poor condition. I’m suggesting that they had planted the mango trees there for the fruit which they used in their cooking, knowing that they would be in the area for a long time.

Life would have been pretty tough in those days dealing with cyclones, floods, diseases and other obstacles. History books tell us that Aborigines were determined to drive the white pioneers out. They resorted to cannibalism to do so. Modern Aborigines deny this; however, the lighter side of these stories is that they preferred the Chinese flesh because it was ‘grain fed’.

See you next month.

It’s during May that we see the beautiful Ullyses butterfly in abundance. In the evergreen surroundings there appears this obvious flash of bright blue darting to and fro. Then it suddenly disappears , because when it lands it folds its wings up thereby appearing black and being unseen. I often thought that the bright blue warns birds of its toxic defences, but apparently this is not so. So, to avoid being caught, it darts all over the place. On the other hand, the also beautiful Birdwing butterfly glides gracefully along without a fear in the world because it’s toxic to birds, I’m told. It’s spectacular to watch a pair of Birdwings waltzing in the air in courtship, seemingly oblivious to any nearby dangers or risks. The male has bright green on its wings, with yellow and red undersides on its abdomen. The female is longer, grey on top and has the same colours as the male underneath. I believe that the Birdwing is Australia’s largest butterfly.

The most spectacular moth I’ve ever seen is the Hercules. It is about the size of an adult human hand, beige coloured with long dangling pendulums it seems hanging from either wing. Just looking at this moth makes you wonder how it can fly and why on earth nature would make something so clumsy and perhaps awkward to fly!

Another one is the four o’clock moth, seen during the day and often mistaken for a butterfly. We generally see moths at night and they are usually dull-coloured. This moth has a large yellow abdomen and dark purple wings with clear or transparent patches. On the back wings it has yellow spots. This moth should have been a butterfly!

So, what is the difference between a moth and a butterfly? Butterflies have antennae with knobby tops while those on moths are feathery. Moths lock their wings together in flight whereas a butterfly can’t. Moths are most active at night whereas butterflies prefer the day. Butterflies are thought to be useful for pollinating flowers, but the moths are seen to be pests, eating clothing and generally seen as horrible. We often joke about someone’s wallet ‘having moths in it’, suggesting someone is reluctant to pay for his round of drinks in a bar! We could go on forever.

Have you ever wondered why moths have ‘dusty’ wings? I don’t know how accurate this is but I actually watched a moth hit a spider’s web and within a split second, before the spider could pounce, the moth had bounced off. I’m suggesting that the ‘dust’ or scales fouled the sticky catching parts of the spider’s thread.

See you next month!

Beyond the high tide mark and the mangroves the change in habitats is radical. Mangroves dominate the intertidal zones while vegetation beyond that belongs to the woodland zone. There are obviously many different species of trees within that zone, ranging from coastal scrub species through to the rainforest ones. Between the Asian jungles (rainforests) and our rainforests there are several common species. Perhaps this is because of the links to the past.

One interesting tree is the Ylang-Ylang (pronounced “eelung-eelung”); its botanic name is Cananga odorata. Its significance is that the essential oil in the flowers is used as additives in producing fragrances in well-known brand names of scents and perfumes. Europeans, through Marco Polo who discovered the trade route to China, fancied the fragrances to hide the obvious body odours for the masses of people who in those days rarely bathed! I’m told by knowledgeable female tourists that the oil is also used in aromatherapy for melancholy (a feeling of sadness). Why would you bother? Others have suggested it’s used as an aphrodisiac. This really confuses me! However, the fruits or berries are about 15mm long and can be green or black and eaten and dispersed by pigeons, fig birds and cassowarys. The trees’ distribution is from Cape York to Mission Beach.

Another interesting tree that’s found in both regions is the Indian Beech (Pongamia pinnata). It grows to 20m, produces a raceme of flowers which ultimately becomes a seed pod, brown, and is about 100mm long, containing two seeds. The seed is a valuable vegetable oil and has been harvested in India since the first diesel engine developed. The oil is refined and used as a cheap biodiesel instead of diesoleum (petroleum by product). In India, wide spread use of taxis using diesel engines is the practical way to go for economic reasons.

There has been some local interest by people here to promote plantations for future use. Did you know that reject oil from deep fryers is being collected right now, refined and then on sold as bio diesel? See you next month.