I had to use lots of accumulated leave this year and I never like to waste it at home. So, after returning from Italy, I set off on a photography trip with a friend (Ted) and his son (Andrew) from Arizona. Ted and I explored the deserts in California and Mexico 40 years ago when we were in high school and later at university. Ted also travelled through the outback of Western Australia with me a few years ago. This was Andrew’s first visit. Andrew was keen to see as much of Australia as possible. As a result, we organized the itinerary so that we visited habitats ranging from the dry outback to the wet tropics of north-eastern Queensland. We spent a great deal of time in the car and clocked over 10,000 kms during our 2.5 week trip.

This will be a long post and I will be adding to it for a week or more. I have to apologize for not having the number or quality of butterfly photos as I had hoped. The wet tropics are home to nearly 300 species of butterflies but I have obviously not yet learned their micro-habitats. I saw a few lifers but did not encounter the numbers that I had expected. Mostly, I saw the same species as I have previously encountered. November is the end of the dry and start of the wet in northern Australia. I suspect that the end of the wet may be a better time for butterfly activity in the north. Puddling seems to be rare behaviour with the Aussie butterflies. I found few individuals that were easy to photograph. Most shots were of butterflies sitting on leaves a meter or two above me.

This post will include many photos of habitats, reptiles, birds and mammals as well as butterflies. Most of my butterfly photos will be from the coastal areas since these wetter locations supported more species of butterflies.

Andrew and Ted were keen photographers and I will add a few of their shots as well. I hope that this report will give you an idea of what it is like in this part of the world.

The following map shows the locations of the sites that we visited.

  1. Aerial photos from north-eastern South Australia. I took these shots while flying back to Sydney from Singapore. The lakes are normally dry salt pans but the interior has been we in the last couple of years. The floods in Queensland eventually made their way to the great lakes of South Australia and most were nearly full, a very rare event.
  2. Nyngan. We stopped for a night along a dirt road between Nyngan and Bourke, NSW.
  3. Windorah. One of my favourite locations in the eastern deserts of Australia. This is in the channel country where water from central Queensland drains into the central salt lakes of South Australia.
  4. Winton. We stayed for a couple of nights in the Eyrean Basin about 100 kms west of Winton. This was a scenic spot with red rock, gibber flats and clumps
  5. Porcupine Gorge.
  6. Mission Beach. This beautiful place was smashed by cyclone Yasi in February of this year. The rainforest canopy was gone.
  7. Chillagoe. This area protects beautiful limestone formations and caves on the lower portion of Cape York.
  8. Georgetown. An old gold mining area at the base of the Cape York peninsula.
  9. Atherton. Beautiful remnant montane rainforest and a good place for butterflies.
  10. Cape Hillsborough. Lovely coastal area near Mackay.
  11. Eungella. Cloud forest that is a must visit place for those who want to see Platypus.
  12. Brigalow Belt. Remnant dry forest that is particularly good habitat for elapids.
  13. Warrumbungles. Rugged mountains with dry eucalyptus forest.


I took these photos of north-eastern South Australia from about 10,000 elevation when flying from Singapore to Sydney in late October. The interior of Australia is wet at the moment and the normally dry salt lakes were nearly full. Water flows into these lakes from central Queensland via the channel country near Windorah. I believe that the red colour in the first lake below was due to an algal bloom.



Red dunes, the sort of habitat that I really like to visit. Windorah is a good place to see dunes like this and it was situated only a few hundred kms from the location below.



Ted and Andrew arrived in Sydney at 7am on a Friday. I picked them up a short time later and we immediately set off on the trip. We made a short stop in the lovely Blue Mountains. It was not a good time of day for habitat shots due to the light angle but here are a couple of shots by Ted and Andrew of the Evans Lookout area.



It is spring in south-eastern Australia so there are lots of flowers out at the moment.