Noonbah Station

Monday 12th July

This part of our journey was something I had been looking forward to after recommendations from birding friends in Ballina. I had been reassured by Karen and Angus, the owners of Noonbah, that they had not had any recent rainfalls that impacted on the road quality. The first section on theThompson Development Road was tarred, although not very wide, then 57 km of dirt to the property. There was concern in the camp that the dirt section would be corrugated but it was with great relief we found the only corrugated bit was the last 200m to the house. There seemed to be a lot more roadkill along the tarred section and sadly we were witness to an emu being collected by a passing van. The remaining emus seemed to be perplexed about what to do next.

We were given a warm welcome by Angus and Karen with site options explained. We chose to go to the Vergemont area in the channel country.

There were a few other campers but plenty of room so we found a spot near the water that gave us some great sunset views. While Michael relaxed and made preparations for tonight’s camp fire Libby Eric and I explored the nearby vicinity with binoculars. We did find an addition to the bird list, the first of several exciting sightings. 

It was Eric’s turn to be chef  so once more we had another delicious dinner around the best fire to date.

Tuesday 13th July

This morning we had booked Angus to take us on a ‘farm tour’ but it was much more than that. Although he left school at 16 Angus has continued with lifelong education and there is nothing he doesn’t know about his property….the birds, the plant life, the ecology etc. We saw him recently on 7.30 Report discussing his attitude towards dingoes on his property. By allowing them to roam freely he  has created an area free of feral cats and foxes. They don’t cause his stock any issue as he has cattle on his property but some of his  sheep-raising neighbours aren’t particularly happy with his ideas.

We had a fabulous morning of birding. It is so good to go out with someone who is knowledgeable about his locality and able to lead us to the right spots. I was able to add to both the tally for this trip and some ‘lifers’ as well. The aptly named Splendid Fairy-wren was one of my targets for this trip so just the White-winged Fairy-wren to go.

We stopped at the homestead for a delicious smoko of scones and fruit which we shared with the Emmot family, as well as a young documentary maker from Madagascar and a young woman from Germany who helps out on the farm.

Karen is a typical ‘woman of the land’ , managing to juggle many balls at the same time. At the moment she has four marsupials which she is hand raising with help from the farm worker. While we were stopped for morning tea it was mealtime for the young joeys so I was invited to lend a helping hand. Amazing how soft they are and how individual their face-markings.

By the time we finished our tour I had added 7 new ‘lifers’ to my list and had seen in excess of 40 species.

After such an exhausting morning we had a quiet afternoon before it was my turn to cook and enjoy another beautiful sunset.

Wednesday, 14th July

Libby and I left the boys to pack up camp while we explored the house dam in the hope of finding the elusive White-winged Fairy-wren. Alas it was not to be but we found plenty more Zebra Finches and a few other repeats from yesterday. After a cup of tea we headed back towards Longreach. 

Something I had missed on the way in to Noonbah was that once off this property there were many notices about poison baits for wild dogs and we even saw dingoes hung in trees! Apparently this is supposed to scare off the other dingoes, a belief Angus does not adhere to..

Although we had pre-booked Ilfracombe before heading to Noonbah the consensus was that we’d rather be in town so we had managed to get 2 nights at the Longreach Tourist Park with the possibility of a third. There has been a very noticeable increase in travellers along this part of the route as the Big Red Bash was on last week and there are many people on their way home.

As we drove in to our camp spot we were welcomed by a pair of brolgas. Up to 6 of them became a regular sight during our stay. After we settled in at camp we paid a visit to the Information Centre to pick up a few tips. The woman we spoke to suggested the Sewerage Treatment Plant for some Birdwatching and was adamant that we should book the Age of Dinosaurs Experience in Winton.

After a wander around we found that all the streets in town are named after birds with North-south streets land birds and east -west streets for water birds. On the corner of Swan and Eagle Street we found The Drovers sculpture which were created for the Brisbane Expo in 1988.

After a cooling beverage it was home to another tasty Eric-cooked meal, sadly without a campfire. But the hot shower was very welcome!