# No Name Creek (first look)



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

So, I have been looking at this creek on maps for 25 years but have never been able to reach it. It is on a large escarpment with the nearest track 10km away. We have bashed up onto the escarpment before but could not penetrate the stone country that surrounds it.

Thanks to updated imagery on Google Earth, and GPS waypoints my mate found a way in two weeks ago. Last week I sent him back with the old waterproof Olympus click and shoot and these are the results. So far only 2 of the 20km of creek explored. Lots of very old art sites and no sign of anyone having been there for a century or more. (Possibly no white fellas ever).

He reports plenty of large monitors, king browns, western browns and olives. Only one cane toad. Prolific bird life and the pools are full of fat Sooty Grunters that climb over eachother to grab a lure.
He reckons there are small to massive snake skins all over the place (not sure what they are though.)

I'm looking at taking the rest of this week off to properly explore the whole system and document it with the D90.














A lot of our "secret spots" have been discovered by clowns who post the locations and directions online and they are now full of beer bottles, nappies and idiots with no respect for what they are looking at. My mate reckons this is the clearest water he has ever seen.













This area is a wildlife refuge with these permanent springs. To the east is granite country and to the west limestone and neither have accessible water in the Dry season. The creek is on a pastoral lease but there are no cattle (or other ferals) up on the escarpment. Fires are also very rare in this environment.













I'm looking forward to exploring this system (and 5 feeder creeks) and will post pics when I return.
We are lucky to still have untouched places like this in the Top End and my mate has raked over his tracks and dropped logs on the access points. Hopefully we can keep the spot secret for a decade or two!










I cant wait to get into old No Name Creek. Looks like the 25 year wait will be worth it!


----------



## Sezzzzzzzzz (Jul 2, 2012)

you are so lucky steve! great find.


----------



## shaye (Jul 2, 2012)

that water does look really clear
i didnt think such thing existed anymore these days


----------



## killimike (Jul 2, 2012)

Looks like a great spot! Might be some interesting rainbows and plants in the water, along w the grunters


----------



## Waterrat (Jul 2, 2012)

Magic spot. Given the isolation, there wouldn't salties in there?


----------



## Sezzzzzzzzz (Jul 2, 2012)

killimike said:


> Looks like a great spot! Might be some interesting rainbows and plants in the water, along w the grunters



aaahhh so a grunter is a fish?

i did try googling it but all sorts of nasty things came up...


----------



## Rissi (Jul 2, 2012)

Don't ever share its location with anyone! It's absolutely stunning.


----------



## Ambush (Jul 2, 2012)

nice one


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

No salties. The sequence of waterfalls blocks them. They will climb rapids but not vertical waterfalls.

With luck there maybe dwarf freshies. They used to occur in creeks north and south in the same rock formation but they disappeared when the toads arrived. Fingers crossed they might have held out here.

I've already spotted one aquatic plant in one photo that is unfamiliar. There are cherubin, turtles and freshwater crabs but my mate is not much of a biologist. This is why I am so excited. Last time we surveyed one of these creeks we found an undescribed grasshopper and a uperolia frog never recorded outside Kakadu (hundreds of kilometers away).

And yes Newtoo, a very tasty fish the old sooty grunter (black bream). Best freshwater fish up here. Better than freshwater barra! Some of the bigger giant gudgeons are excellent on the fang too!


----------



## Wild~Touch (Jul 2, 2012)

Cool pics so nice to see heaven here on Earth

May you always be "Guardian of the Creek"

Cheers
Sandee


----------



## pseudechis4740 (Jul 2, 2012)

Looks great! It should have all the ingredients for the next uranium mine. Pristine water, remote location away from prying eyes and untouched wilderness, good find.


----------



## abnrmal91 (Jul 2, 2012)

Great pics Steve looks like a great spot, it reminds me of being in Arnhem Land.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

The biggest threat to this and nearby creeks is Parks and Wildlife declaring it a Park and pushing roads in for anyone to enter. They do this with no cultural or ecological surveys and unresourced Rangers. With no baseline data things disappear without ever being noticed. It was tried on a creek north of here that was my secret spot for 10 years but I fought it vigorously and they had no resources to manage it anyway, so the project was shelved.


----------



## Twitch_80 (Jul 2, 2012)

Wow, I am very jealous lol. Looks amazing.


----------



## Frozenmouse (Jul 2, 2012)

I go camping there all the time


----------



## JrFear (Jul 2, 2012)

i wanna go there! could easily retire there right now in a nice little tent!


----------



## thebluesnake (Jul 2, 2012)

If only I lived up north... everything is better!


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

thebluesnake said:


> If only I lived up north... everything is better!



correct


----------



## geckodan (Jul 2, 2012)

When you head back I'd be interested in what rainbowfish you find - can you take some photos for me.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

geckodan said:


> When you head back I'd be interested in what rainbowfish you find - can you take some photos for me.



Yep


----------



## Snake-Supplies (Jul 2, 2012)

Get off my freaking property before I call the cops.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

If you do no wrong no-one gets upset. This is still the Territory.

Where would you send the cops anyway? "there's some bastard on my ( 1/2 million km) property! Spend a week finding them in case they're up to no good"


----------



## Jarrod_H (Jul 2, 2012)

Wow that place looks magical. It would be a dream to explore.


----------



## Smithers (Jul 2, 2012)

Heaven on earth does exist. Looking forward to the next instalment Steve thanks for sharing mate.


----------



## bk201 (Jul 2, 2012)

Freshwater crabs are such interesting little things, used to keep the inland qld form years ago, such a hard thing to find these days would be interested at seeing how they differ from the Qld form of freshwater crabs.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 2, 2012)

They'll be Holthusiana sp. I'm guessing. There are at least 3 types (species?) up here but no-one has done the science. There is a completely different type (genus?) in the Adelaide River catchment.


----------



## Jande (Jul 3, 2012)

What a golden find, Steve. And that water *almost* looks good enough to swim in. :lol:


----------



## MathewB (Jul 3, 2012)

You should name it Steve's Creek.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 3, 2012)

MathewB said:


> You should name it Steve's Creek.



I quite like No Name Ck., it's been called that for the last 25 years! The aboriginal group who lived in this area were wiped out in the 1880's when the Station was established. (They were spearing the cattle & horses). So we cant ask them. My mate was first in so we will discuss it when we are in there (looks like next week now).

A previously discovered Creek we named Pollen Face Creek. I had introduced the two ladies who came in with me on the first trip to the delights of sucking the nectar out of fern leaf grevillea flowers (grevillia pteridifolia). When I looked around 1/2 hour later there were two canary yellow faces looking back at me. Their faces were covered in pollen!



Jande said:


> What a golden find, Steve. And that water *almost* looks good enough to swim in. :lol:



It is good enough to swim (if only it would warm up a bit! It's getting down to 6 degrees overnight in these gorges at the moment). There are no salties (see earlier post.) I will certainly be taking the goggles in when we go!


----------



## abnrmal91 (Jul 3, 2012)

Yep goggles are a must, we forgot to take some when we went swimming up there. So disappointed I couldn't see clearly, I did take my underwater camera do I got some pics but it would have been better to see what I was taking the pic of lol.


----------



## Jungletrans (Jul 3, 2012)

Be sure to kill any cane toads you see in there .


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 3, 2012)

As you do!

Agreed Abnrml, when you get the chance to snorkel up here safely- you take it!

A couple of shots from a sister creek 50km to the north.



I found this one (on a map and walked in 25 years ago). 10 years ago someone else found it. Now it is crowded, tracks and rubbish everywhere. It's become popular with interstate 4WD clubs who run generators all night and even whipper snip the grass (morons).











On the right hand side of the 1st pic is a very old faded painting of a half human/ half kangaroo woman- this spot is known as kangaroo woman hole. Nearby are boomerang and yam paintings which date at 20,000+ years old. There will be similar in No Name!


----------



## Pado2087 (Jul 3, 2012)

love northern Australia


----------



## marcmarc (Jul 3, 2012)

My goodness that looks like paradise! Lets hope it stays that way.


----------



## Cockney_Red (Jul 4, 2012)

You are a truly fortunate human being....Keep it under your hat..


----------



## moosenoose (Jul 4, 2012)

I never get tired of your threads Steve. Just magic!


----------



## Darlyn (Jul 4, 2012)

SteveNT said:


> View attachment 257898
> View attachment 257899



Whoa, that chick is hot as : )
You lucky, lucky man!


----------



## longqi (Jul 4, 2012)

Darlyn said:


> Whoa, that chick is hot as : )
> You lucky, lucky man!



She would be perfect if she didnt lock him in the house every morning to stop him running away??????


----------



## Darlyn (Jul 4, 2012)

longqi said:


> She would be perfect if she didnt lock him in the house every morning to stop him running away??????



Amazing fact number 1) He gave me his key's (should have realised his house keys were on it.)
Amazing fact number 2) Locked inside all day and still did no housework.
Amazing fact number 3) She IS perfect : )

and number 4) he only runs when he is being chased by large bovines.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 4, 2012)

response

1 never gave her the keys, they were where I left them
2 did the 3 day's dishes and fixed the eski
3 she is perfect
4 also run from coastal taipans when I'm on their turf in breeding season


----------



## Darlyn (Jul 4, 2012)

Amazing fact number 5) I have created a new excuse for people to pull a sickie, I can't get out of my house  he he
I thought I had used them all


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 4, 2012)

Cockney_Red said:


> You are a truly fortunate human being....Keep it under your hat..[/QU
> 
> Don't ask don't get bro. There are very few significant events in my life I haven't put my hand up for!
> 
> ...


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 14, 2012)

For those interested I still cant get in yet. Just cant coordinate time off with my mate. (Work committments not synchronising) Out bush again for the next few weeks with work so with the "Build Up" looming it will be hot work when we get in again. Still cant wait. I'll happily cancel an Arnhem Land trip to get a good look at this system.


----------



## Beard (Jul 14, 2012)

Its fantastic to know that places that have been untouched and unspoilt still exist, even if its only in small pockets. I was talking about this to my wife just a few days back. It'd be great to find some isolated pocket in the mountains but I fear that due to past high country grazing, the Snowy Hydro Scheme and now the countless tourists that flock to the snowys, both winter and summer, they will be very few and far between. To the west anyway, east in amongst the coastal escarpment there may be something worth finding. Its pretty bloody inaccessable. When the kids are a bit older they will be palmed off to the grandparents for a week while some walk in exploring is undertaken.

Thanks for the pics and the imagination they create Steve.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 14, 2012)

No worries Beard. 

We have a lot of spots that are "optimum" for a few weeks only (too much water/ not enough water/ best after burning/ best before, etc. ) My recommendation is to imagine the place when perfect (water levels/ heat/cold/ crowds) and target it then. My calendar is dotted with "best time for" notes.

We're doing a three dayer on a houseboat on Coroboree Billabong (Mary River) in a few weeks. It's food for the soul!


----------



## Chanzey (Jul 14, 2012)

How often do you guys do vehicle/personal washdowns for seeds and mud? Would be terrible if you guys were the first in there and brought a bunch of weed seeds with you.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 14, 2012)

Yea spot on! We do regular checks (esp cuffs on long pants.) Mesh screen over the radiator which goes onto the fire if we've been through gamba/ mission/ grader grass. We just removed an infestation of mission grass from a fishing spot we go to. Other people use the site so maybe us maybe not. But it was us that hand pulled every plant there.


----------



## Chanzey (Jul 14, 2012)

Ah that's good then, around Townsville has been a pretty bad season for grader grass, coming up everywhere, wherever someone has slashed it has come up pretty much.


----------



## Radar (Jul 14, 2012)

Chanzey said:


> Ah that's good then, around Townsville has been a pretty bad season for grader grass, coming up everywhere, wherever someone has slashed it has come up pretty much.



This is because around Townsville the response to weeds like grader grass is to slash them :lol: They can handle slashing, the natives they compete with can't, and slashing spreads the seeds to all 4 winds. I've spent far too many working weeks in the past handpulling weeds like this. Fairly rubbish work, so I can appreciate the effort you've gone to to try and remove them Steve.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 14, 2012)

Townsville has creeks full of gouramis, cichlids, tetras, barbs and most aquarium exotics. Healthy populations of gambusia, guppies and platys. At this stage we have (happily) none of these.

There is grader grass the full length of the Central Arnhem Road but 10 meters from the road the natives rule. It needs a disturbed area to get happy. Sadly that's not true for mission grass or the real monster Gamba. In areas around Adelaide River all the trees and shrubs have been burnt to death in Gamba fires and there is now a monoculture. Gamba only. 12 years ago I made representations to our Govt. when the advance was stoppable but they didn't declare it a weed until a decade later. Now it is beyond eradication and millions are being spent in "control".


----------



## Chanzey (Jul 14, 2012)

SteveNT said:


> Townsville has creeks full of gouramis, cichlids, tetras, barbs and most aquarium exotics. Healthy populations of gambusia, guppies and platys. At this stage we have (happily) none of these.
> 
> There is grader grass the full length of the Central Arnhem Road but 10 meters from the road the natives rule. It needs a disturbed area to get happy. Sadly that's not true for mission grass or the real monster Gamba. In areas around Adelaide River all the trees and shrubs have been burnt to death in Gamba fires and there is now a monoculture. Gamba only. 12 years ago I made representations to our Govt. when the advance was stoppable but they didn't declare it a weed until a decade later. Now it is beyond eradication and millions are being spent in "control".



Same has happened with Siam Weed in North Queensland, I've heard recently the funding for eradication has been recently cut, (which was pitiful anyway $10M for 10 years) so except to see North Queensland destroyed by this in the next 20 years. 

Which means it turns to local council to try to control it, which is useless, as I work for Townsville City Council and we don't even had the resources to control any weed let alone Siam.


----------



## browny (Jul 14, 2012)

we need more people like you and your mob Steve a true Aussie champ, try your best to keep No name creek a secret


----------



## Chanzey (Jul 14, 2012)

rednut said:


> This is because around Townsville the response to weeds like grader grass is to slash them :lol: They can handle slashing, the natives they compete with can't, and slashing spreads the seeds to all 4 winds. I've spent far too many working weeks in the past handpulling weeds like this. Fairly rubbish work, so I can appreciate the effort you've gone to to try and remove them Steve.



Haha I know what you mean, handweeding is one of the most boring tasks, but has probably the best outcomes (can avoid spraying/killing natives, gives a chance for seeds to germinate and is relatively easy(as long as you do follow up), I cant really walk past a single piece of stinking passionfruit/snakeweed/rubbervine etc without pulling it out.


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 15, 2012)

Our big fear here is Pond Apple.

I managed Conservation Volunteers Australia (Cairns & FNQ) for a while. We had two teams of 10 (trained FT employees, not volunteers) working on Pond Apple full time but never made a dent in it. It has been found in Darwin & Batchelor- people liked the flower and brought the seeds back from Cairns. Both infestations were destroyed but if got into the Arafura Swamp or other massive Ramsar listed Wetlands up here it would be impossible to control.

I make sure that all 100+ of our Rangers are trained to recognise not only the existing weeds here but all the horrors that will eventually try to invade from Qld.



browny said:


> we need more people like you and your mob Steve a true Aussie champ, try your best to keep No name creek a secret



Thanks mate. I can be a real ratbag if want to! I'm no greenie, more of a brownie (ha ha), I support mining, pastoralism and shared land use as long as it is done in an environmentally sustainable way. And education is the key which is why I work in Training, specifically Land Management.


----------



## saratoga (Jul 15, 2012)

SteveNT said:


> I make sure that all 100+ of our Rangers are trained to recognise not only the existing weeds here but all the horrors that will eventually try to invade from Qld.



Great to see you are proactive Steve; too many people wait until things become a problem and then they still don't react!


----------



## Asharee133 (Jul 15, 2012)

Just eat the pond apple LOL. It's a relative of the custard apple (Annona squamosa)


----------



## SteveNT (Jul 15, 2012)

Asharee133 said:


> Just eat the pond apple LOL. It's a relative of the custard apple (Annona squamosa)



That's how it got here. They tried grafting custard apple onto pond apple root stock because it is much more resilient. Unfortunately it was so resilient the custard apple died and the pond apple took over. The bloody thing even invades and replaces mangroves. It is already half way up Cape York, the seed floats and germinates on the high tide line. From there cassowarys and pigs spread the seed inland. Evil ******.

FYI We have a lot of custard apple growing around old chinese mine shafts. The chinese pushed seeds into the shaft walls (at the entrance) because custard apple only grows well if it's roots are kept cool. They dont spread away from the shafts so are not considered a weed. And the night tigers find them a perfect roost for catching micro bats.


----------

