Cairns Botanical Indoor Garden

  We visited a Butterfly Conservatory in the Cairns Botanical Gardens up north (Australia). Plants sometimes grown indoors in that area were on show, but I didn't take many photos, these are some of them and a chart of the butterflies present and mostly not seen.  A tree in bloom outside too.  Something a little different to show you.

We didn't go any further into the Botanical Gardens even though it was winter it was rather warm at 35 deg C on that day a few years ago.

I borrowed a few butterfly photos.

Ulysses Butterfly

Cruiser Butterfly

Varied Eggfly Butterfly

Red Lacewing Butterfly

Anthurium Flamingo Flower

Spathiphyllum wallisii Peace Lily.

Rocks in Kununurra, NT

The photos of the some of the rock formations around a town called Kununurra in Western Australia in the tropics of Australia.  Kununurra is a very interesting place with much history attached to it. We've been there several times and it's a long way from home here in Launceston, Tasmania. The route in the photo is the shortest.

The striking red rock formations are made of quartz sandstone stained red by iron oxide around 360 million years old, dating back to the Devonian period, formed from ancient sand dunes, riverbeds, and windblows sand that compressed into solid stone.

The Devonian period is a major chapter of geological and biological evolution occurring from 419 to 359 million years ago, widely known globally and locally as the 'Age of Fishes'.

During this era, Australia was not an isolated island continent in its modern position; instead, it was part of the supercontinent GONDWANA and sat near the equator as a large peninsula before drifting southward. 

The first photo is typical of many such the same landscape you see in certain areas inland/outback in this area.

These two photos are of what is called Kelly's Knob was named after Father Kelly, a Catholic priest who was the first clergyman to visit the Kimberley district during the 1890's. This area all along the coast and inland is known as the Kimberley area.

The description term 'knob' refers to the prominent, rounded hill or small mountain that rises about 190 meters above the surrounding plain on the northern outskirts of Kununurra.

In the traditional Miriwoong language of the local Aboriginal custodians, the landmark is known as THEGOOWIYENG, reflecting thousands of years of connection to the land.  Dual naming signs now recognize both names of the site.

The view on top on Kelly's Knob is magic, you can see forever, the land below is flat.

Various rock formation around the area.

The red dotted area is the area of Kununurra.

Buildings of Tenterfield, NSW.

The Tenterfield Saddler Building is Heritage Listed is blue granite structure built around 1860 that gained international fame through Australian singer-songwriter, Peter Allen. The song Peter wrote 'Tenterfield Saddler' was written about his grandfather and the time Peter spent growing up in Tenterfield, NSW.

My recent post "On the way to Tenterfield [ here ]

Photo borrowed of Peter.

Early uses of the building served various functions over the decades, including operating as a bank in 1874 and a private residence in the late 1890's before returning permanently to a saddlery.  George Woolnough, the grandfather to Peter Allen took over the saddlery, running it for 52 years until his retirement in 1960.

Today the building is a museum.

St. Joseph's Primary School in Tenterfield and the Convent 1914.  In 1880 the Sisters of St Joseph founded the local Catholic school which was the first regional parish the order entered.  The nuns initially lived in a modest shack outside the town. In 1992 the Nuns finished there tenure in Tenterfield.  

Today the convent building operates as part of the local Catholic Primary School campus serving the Tenterfield community in the Diocese of Armidale.

A couple of homes in a quiet street.

Uniting Church and the door below.  The Church was opened in 1930 after the original one was burnt down due to a lightning strike.  The original was built in 1898.

The Arts Center in Tenterfield. Above and below.

Tenterfield Post Office built in 1881 to 1892 with the clock tower being completed in 1891-1892.

Tenterfield area with the red dots around it on the map.

Scenery

We headed off to Bridport the other day and was gone for 5 hours.  I took some photos of the spring pastures along the way.  Bridport is a rural area with a beach here in northeastern Tasmania.

This is where we bought some fish and chips for lunch and took them down to the sea and ate them.

On our way home we came across the trees that were cut down in the plantation.

Termite Mounds

4,225 km (2,625 miles) from home here in Launceston, Tasmania, is Litchfield NP in the Northern Territory of Australia. A long way from home for sure, it took many days to travel there a few years ago.

Magnetic and Cathedral Termite Mounds near Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory.  The mounds are up to 2 meters tall and can live up to a hundred years. 

Magnetic termites build them.  

Each mound has a single Queen who lays all the eggs alongside a massive workforce of blind, soft-skinned worker termite and defensive soldier termites that protect the nest using sticky secretions.

Natural predators are ants, if they get inside where the termites are and not stopped, they will kill the termites. 

The Wedge shape mounds have a thin edge of the blade-like mounds that point directly north and south, while the broad flat sides face east and west.  They are built this way by the termites to keep their home cool.

Their name, Magnetic Termite comes from the uncanny, compass-like orientation of their massive mounds.

Magnetic Termite act as grazing herbivores, feeding on surface vegetation, leaves, and dry grass in the tropical savannas of Northern Australia.