Chillagoe: Karsting Call

The Chillagoe region is looking lush and flush following several heavy downpours, the most recent of which swept in with TC Yasi last week. With more rain forecast for the afternoon and Chillagoe Creek only requiring a little push before it cut the road, we didn't hang around.

By lunchtime, storms were already building on the horizon.

Chillagoe - Mungana National Park was looking verdant and luxuriant. Just the way it should be in the Wet Season.

One of the few plants in flower was the stunning desert rose Gossypium australe.

A karst tower cloaked with vine thicket trees and shrubs. Many of these are Dry Season deciduous, so at this time of year they are popping out leaves like crazy.

The karst and associated vine thicket are home to a relatively high diversity of snails. This is a recently dead specimen of the camaenid Xanthomelon pachystylum, which is one of the few that also occur in the surrounding savannah. You can see a couple of other species of Chillagoe snails here and here.

Snails aren't the only invertebrates of note at Chillagoe. A monster mantis must have produced this ootheca shortly before we arrived. I didn't go looking for it among the leaves of the Abutilon, but I'm sure it was watching me!