Explore Life in the Field: SFS Australia

Day 1 Monday: The Day of the Cassowary

We awoke not to the sounds of cars passing by, the slow hum of the heaters in our houses back home or even to an alarm clock, but to the sounds of the rainforest. The rain beating against the tin roof, an animal's call that might be described as a cross between a duck and an angry cat, and millions of cicadas – we wonder why they make such a noise and if they ever stop … and we remember that we are in the rainforest.

We went off on a field lecture in the Atherton Tablelands, focused on the geology of the region and what that means for ecology, management, and policy. While each spot had something special to offer, the highlight of our day was a sighting of the often talked about, but rarely seen, cassowary on Mt. Hypipamee, which is a very deep crater. We were told not to get our hopes up because sightings of this magnificent bird were uncommon at best, but our group never let its hopes die. We walked down the path and there, just a few feet from us, was the rare cassowary bird. We came, we saw, we took pictures. This will forever be known as the day of the cassowary sighting!

Day 2 Wednesday: Drying out after Rainy Fieldwork

We are in full-on fieldwork mode. First up was the Natural Resource Management lecture on invasive species, followed by a field exercise investigating the influence of cyclone Larry on weed invasion into fragments of the highly endangered Mabi forest. It seems that the weedy vine Turbina hasn't penetrated far into the fragments, but in every gap, dense layers of stinging tree are colonizing the space. It was a rainy day in the field, but we carried on our research without interruption.

After dinner, we shared a campfire with Aboriginal elders, Doug Stewart and Syb Bresolin, of the Ydinji tribe here on the Tablelands, who introduced the Aboriginal history of the area and their own personal family histories. We had the opportunity to learn more about the trials and history of the indigenous nations of Australia – their past, present, and future, and their way of integrating the environment with the self. We will be leaving our footprints here, just as past, present, and future inhabitants have done and will do.

Day 3 Friday: Working for the Community

We kicked off our community service work today with assignments to either work with TREAT (Trees for the Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands) at the Lake Eacham Nursery, where we potted  seedlings; Landcare at Peterson Creek, where some restoration maintenance work was under way; or here at the Center, where some seeds were collected and sown in our own plant nursery. Everyone was also introduced to the great Antipodean tradition of “smoko,” or morning tea, which is a time to rest and socialize.

After community service, we headed into the bustling rural town of Atherton for some free time.  We mailed off letters, got money from the ATMs, played a game of ultimate Frisbee, and even indulged in French fries, kebabs, lattes, or ice cream, depending on which craving needed to be satisfied this week.

Day 4 Saturday: A Long, but Productive Day

Beginning fieldwork at 7:00 a.m. every morning and finishing up at 10:00 p.m. isn't everyone's idea of a good time, especially not when it's day in and day out for two whole weeks. However, our group cheerfully defied sleepiness, inclement weather, and the threat of scrub itch infestations to check on various traps set up within different sized rainforest fragments. The first to be cleared were always the funnel traps, where through the myriad creepy crawlies inevitably found in them, we hoped to find some skinks, geckos, or frogs. These were weighed and measured, poked and prodded before release.

Following this, many an hour was spent during the day measuring habitat qualities of each fragment for different fauna, such as ground cover (rocks, leaf, and plant) for lizards, canopy cover, and height for possums and, possibly most challenging to a group of fauna biologists, identifying tree species as food resources to different arboreal mammals. The traps were cleared again in the afternoon before we set up the bat trap for the chance of catching any unwary microbat.

Each night we took up our lights to see what nocturnal critters we could spot. Watching possums and tree kangaroos foraging in the canopy, bandicoots snuffling around for food, and northern leaf-tailed geckos staring back unblinkingly, while dodging the occasional low flying bat, and keeping an eye out for snakes and other cool creatures was considered to be all in a night's work. Looking for the invasive cane toad in our rainforest fragments was a less savory task, but just as important. One last look in the bat trap was required before we all headed back home for a good night's sleep, all too soon interrupted by the 6:00 am wake-up call. With unfailing cheerfulness, boosted occasionally by our own rendition of “Eye of the Tiger,” we slogged through the collection of data, which now represents a whole new challenge as analysis and write-up begins.

Day 5 Sunday: Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

We spent today in Cairns, where many of us chose to go snorkeling or diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Some of us spent half the time staring into the bottom of a brown bag as the boat dipped and rocked, and the other half of the time we spent giddy at how close we came to some of the most intricate and colorful fish imaginable. We even came face to face with a majestic Hawksbill turtle that was feeding on the Reef.