November Outing Details: Glen Lomond Park, McStay Street entrance, Sunday 03 November 2024

McStay St entrance, Glen Lomond Park

Time: 8.30 am

Where:  at the McStay St entrance

Directions: Follow Rowbotham Street to the far end and turn left onto Zupps Road. Turn left again into Dippel Street and park at the McStay Street entrance. 

Description: This is one of Toowoomba’s Escarpment Parks and the least visited of all the parks that make up the escarpment park precinct. The track travels through a grassy paddock that becomes narrower approaching the ridge. It undulates until it reaches a cleared picnic area that offers magnificent views of the range including Table Top Mountain (Meewah).

Activities: We have a permit from the Toowoomba Regional Council to take 3-4 vehicles (preferably 4WD) through the locked gate to the end of the Hell Hole track. It is suggested we put our morning tea, lunch and chairs in the vehicles while most of us walk the Spur track (340 metres) and those less able to take a vehicle ride to the picnic area. (It is not suggested we take the full 2.75 kilometre walk to the Hell Hole Falls.)

Level of Fitness: All levels - see Activities above.

Facilities: benches, picnic tables and shelters but no rubbish bins, so come prepared to carry rubbish back with you. Also no toilets, probably the nearest are at Duggan Park.

What to Bring: suitable clothing and footwear for walking in the bush, sunscreen, insect repellant, water, morning tea and lunch, chair, and the usual naturalist stuff of your choice; binoculars, camera, field guides, notebook, etc.

October Camp Details: Stanthorpe, Friday, 18th - Monday 21st October 2024

Non-members, please contact our Secretary for full details (toowoombafieldnaturalists@gmail.com). 

Members, please see your October newsletter for details.

Nats at Girraween in 2009

Stanthorpe Campout Friday 18th – Monday 21st October 2024. Suggested accommodation (but not essential) Top of the Town Tourist Park where camping, powered sites and cabins are available.

Places we're visiting: Basket Swamp, Boonoo Boonoo, Storm King Dam, Girraween and Old Wallangarra Road. 

Hopefully the wildflowers will still be spectacular.

September Outing Report - Nangwee, 08 September 2024

Adapted from the Toowoomba Field Naturalist Club newsletter, Issue 800, October 2024 

North Branch of the Condamine
Photo: R. Ashdown

Members travelled west out of the basalt hill country onto the black soil plains (originally treeless grassland) of the Condamine River Alluvial Plains. At the property near Nangwee we were welcomed by our hosts and their family; their daughter and son being the fourth generation on the land.

This sustainably managed cereal and cotton property has double frontage along the North Branch of the Condamine River providing habitat for native fauna, including the Endangered

Condamine Earless Dragon
Photo: L. Balmain

Condamine Earless Dragon Tympanocryptis Condaminensis and the Vulnerable Brigalow Woodland Snail Adclarkia cameroni. 

Quality crops of chickpeas, sorghum, wheat, barley and more, assisted by irrigation from water harvesting and alluvial water from the Condamine Catchment Alluvium, are produced on the property.

From along the treed banks of the North Branch of the Condamine and around the homestead and dams, the following list of fauna has been compiled from members' sightings. 

Mammals: Eastern Grey Kangaroo, European Brown Hare, Red Fox* Birds: Hardhead, Pacific Black Duck, Grey Teal, Australian Wood Duck, Australasian Grebe, Rock Dove, Spotted Dove, Crested Pigeon, Dusky Moorhen, Pied Stilt, Masked Lapwing, Silver Gull, Australian Tern, Australian Pelican*, White-necked Heron*, Eastern Great Egret, Australian White Ibis, Little Pied Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Pied Cormorant, Australasian Darter, Black-shouldered Kite*, Wedge-tailed Eagle*, Spotted Harrier*, Grey Goshawk*, Whistling Kite, Black Kite, Eastern Barn Owl, Sacred Kingfisher, Laughing Kookaburra, Nankeen Kestrel, Cockatiel, Galah, Little Corella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Red-winged Parrot, Pale-headed Rosella, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Superb Fairy-wren, Striped Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Little Friarbird, Brown Honeyeater, Blue-faced Honeyeater, White-plumed Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Spotted Pardalote, Striated Pardalote, White-throated Gerygone, Western Gerygone, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Rufous Whistler, Golden Whistler, Australian Magpie, Pied Butcherbird, Willie Wagtail, Grey Fantail, Torresian Crow, Australian Raven, Restless Flycatcher, Magpie-lark, Apostlebird, Mistletoebird, Double-barred Finch, Australasian Pipit, Golden-headed Cisticola, Welcome Swallow, Common Myna. Reptiles: Red-bellied Black Snake* Amphibians: Emerald Spotted Treefrog Molluscs: Brigalow Woodland Snail*, Invasive Field Slug Deroceras invadens, Freshwater Mussel Alathyria jacksoni Crustaceans: Common Yabbie Cherax destructor Butterflies: Orchard Swallowtail, Chequered Swallowtail, Green Grass-dart, Small Grass-yellow, Cabbage White, Caper White, Black Jezebel, Lesser Wanderer, Monarch, Common Crow, Glasswing, Meadow Argus, Brown Ringlet, Common Grass-blue. Dragonflies and damselflies: Aurora Bluetail, Australian Emperor, Tau Emerald, Wandering Percher, Scarlet Percher, Blue Skimmer.                            

 * Denotes species seen enroute to and from Toowoomba/Nangwee.

Nats enjoying a break on the September outing
Photo: D. Johnston