Macca's Meanderings

Greetings from Croker Island. Recently, we had a team of scientists from the Commonwealth Government's Biosecurity Department visit to conduct a plant and insect survey. Garngi Rangers assisted. Biosecurity Australia are keen to keep out unwanted plants, insects and diseases that would cause major issues for our agricultural industries further south. Below a plant scientists explains to Charlie how the scientific Latin plant naming system works. Other scientists were interested in insects, grubs, mites etc. Rangers Shaun and Charlie found some interesting grubs.  Below - a Quince tree which is a weed in northern Australia. It was thought to be eradicated here however these were discovered. The gadget below is an insect trap which we set up at the edge of the floodplain. It has a light which attracts insects at night and then a small fan draws the insects into the trap and the bottle of preserving fluid at the bottom. When we returned the next morning the bottle at the bottom of the...

On Easter Saturday we received a request from a member of the Yarmirr family to take them fishing as they do not have a vehicle. Nancy had other things on - maybe next time. They wanted to fish at the mouth of a creek that drains the water from the floodplain into Palm Bay. Below Ian is preparing his line for action.  Below the other members of Ian's family catching some fish. Bryan tried some lures however bait seemed to be the only thing working.  The word was that the previous day just on dusk and on the incoming tide some big barramundi were caught in this location. In the meantime Bryan decided to put the drone up and have look around. Just down the beach was a smallish crocodile just drifting along close to the waters edge. See short video below. Flying back along the beach passed the Yarmirr family just in time to seeing a small salmon being pulled in.  The photo below from the drone up high shows the mouth of the creek with part of the floodplain in the background...