The western downs, like any other place on earth, is inhabited by indigenous and non-indigenous populations.
Emus live on wild fruits, berries and grass leaves and small insects.
They grow up to 2 metres tall but they cannot fly.
I met this emu dad (mum) and his chicks on the little-used and little-known dusty Crowsdale-Camboon Road in the deep south of Banana shire.
They live in grasslands all over Australia.
Late in the day these emus look like a painting on the landscape, but no work of art, no photograph, can depict the thrill of seeing them in their natural environment.
|Sometimes they are as one with their surroundings.|
The koala is not a bear but a marsupial.
They live in eucalypt trees, feeding on the young leaves. Koalas are good climbers but slow and clumsy on the ground. They sleep most of the day in the fork of a tree, foraging for food at night.
The name Koala comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "no drink", as Koalas get enough fluids from the eucalyptus leaves they feed on.
|A wet and wary bustard off the West Myall Road/Roma-Taroom Road junction near north of Roma.|
|Near construction works in Chinchilla-Tara Road.|
They are vulnerable to predation by introduced predators such as dingoes, cats, foxes and igollotes.
|Off Greenswamp Road.|
Goannas or monitor lizards are a common sight in Australia.
Goannas are darkish in shades of grey, olive or brown and most of them show lighter coloured patterns. These are white or yellow spots, or stripes. One day I almost ran over a brighter coloured (orange-striped) goanna, but wasn't fast enough to take a photo before it ran off into the bush.
Goannas are predators with sharp teeth and long claws. They forage and hunt for lizards, snakes, insects, birds and eggs and even small mammals. Like most native fauna, goannas are rather wary of human intrusions into their habitat, and will most likely run away into the scrub, or up a tree like our friend here.
|Goanna off Greenswamp Road.|
The Echidna (or Spiny Ant-eater) is one of only two surviving monotremes, (link between the reptiles and mammals). Echidnas are widely distributed throughout Australia. They live in a variety of habitats, from dry deserts to humid rainforests.
They rest in hollow logs, under stones, clumps of vegetation or in short burrows. The Echidna is not an aggressive animal but has remarkable defensive ability when it feels threatened. It rolls itself into a ball, with prickly spines out to protect its soft under-parts.
Apparently echidnas are falling prey to feral cats, dogs and humans.
|We met this spiky creature whilst zooming along the Warrego Highway between Miles and Roma. I thought it was hitch-hiking. We didn't have any room in the car anyway, so we directed it back to the bush.|
The kangaroo is Australia's largest living marsupial and national animal. Kangaroos of different types live in all areas of Australia, Kangaroos are herbivorous, eating a range of plants.
Most are nocturnal but some are active in the early morning and late afternoon.
I spied this beauty as the sun was setting. It tried to hide behind a fence post.
|At the Argoon-Kilburnie Road in Callide.|
The other threat to kangaroos aside from cullers and hunters are the roadkillers - vehicles.
|Off Mooga-Mooga Creek, Roma-Taroom Road.|
|Near Juandah Creek, Wandoan.|
|Dawson Highway, just below Specimen Hill on the Callide range.|
|Off Inverness Road, Callide range.|
|In a matter of days, especially in the hot sun, it was just skin - no, just hair and bones.|
|A red or brown and very dead snake.|
|This was a roadkill on Greenswamp Road.|
|From the rolling hills of Woleebee.|
This lizard was in three parts, perhaps attacked by a fox. It was in a drain of the Kogan-Condamine Road.
Rocket frog? I'm not sure. I found this sharing a home with some green frogs in Paradise Downs Road.
The immigrants: see part 2. the wild wild west