# Southern brigalow belt and Granite belt of Queensland (DUW)



## Gecko75 (Jan 23, 2010)

Just another of my recent herp threads, put them up else where and decided to put them up here just for anyone who missed out or doesn't use other forums. enjoy

Have been lucky enough to have spent the last 3 nights in the south east brigalow belt of queensland, found about 30 species, went to a few places, was very hot, and also rained one of the nights, anyway, here is what we saw, will put a bit of story with each species, no locations sorry, most of the place is cleared which is a shame, can see why so many species are rare in these areas. I photographed pretty much everything I saw, if there is no pictures it means it was to quick for me or was dead. can put up full body shots of most animals on request though I didnt want to flood this thread with hundreds of pictures so I am just putting up a shot of each, though I have many more.
*Geckos*
_Diplodactylus steindachneri_
seen on the roads at night





_Diplodactylus vittatus_
seen on the roads at night




_Gehyra dubia_
seen on the roads at night, and on trees and buildings




_Heteronotia binoei_
seen under sleepers and tin and also on the roads at night




_Strophurus taenicauda_ (R)
Seen on the roads at night




_Pygopus schraderi_
seen on the roads at night




*Skinks*
_Cryptoblepharus sp_
seen on trees and buildings




_ctenotus sp_
seen active in the day
_Ctenotus robustus (?)_
seem under sleepers and active in the day
_Egernia rugosa (V)_
seen active in the day




_Egernia striolata_
seen on logs and trees
_Morethia boulengeri_
seen active in the day
_Tiliqua rugosa_
seen dead on road
_Tiliqua scincoides_
seen under sleepers and dead on road




*Goannas*
_Varanus gouldii_
seen active in day and dead on road




_Varanus panoptes_
seen active in day




*Dragons*
_Amphibolurus burnsi_
seen on stumps and on the ground




_Pogona barbata_
seen on stumps and on the ground




*Elapid Snakes*
_Denisonia devisi_
seen dead on the road
_Furina diadema_
seen crossing the road at night




_Pseudechis australis_
seen on roads at night




_Pseudechis guttatus_
seen on road at night




_Pseudonaja textilis_
seen on road at night and dead on road




_unidentified snakes_
seen crossing roads which escaped before we were out of the car.
We also got heavy rain on one of the nights, we saw a few frog species sorry no ID's to them, I added them then figured out I put them all in the wrong spots so I gave up and took them out again.













































On the way to the brigalow we drove through the granite belt and had a quick look at a few spots near the road, we managed to see cunninghams skinks, tree skinks, boulengers morethia and nobbi dragons. Anyway, after the 3 nights at th brigalow, we decided to head down to Girraween national park for the night, we arrived late in the afternoon, a few species were seen there over the afternoon, night and next morning before we left. I noticed a lot of the animals that are not usually rock dwellers used this type of habitat at the park, every single animal I saw would use a crevice to hide or go under a rock bar the single red bellied black snake and a few of the ctenotus and small skinks, anyway here are the pictures.
_Chelodina longicollis_
was seen crossing a road on the way




*Snakes*
_Cryptophis nigrescens_
We saw a large individual hunting geckos on one of the walks near the camp, it would stick its head into crevices then come out and move to the next one, when I approached he went straight into one and I was unable to get pictures
_Pseudechis porphyricus_
I spotted this on one of the walks, my mum and brother walked right past it and stepped about a foot away from it, as I was last I spotted it, it sat still for a bit then slide off straight into a hole, I didn't manage to capture any good pictures as I didn't have my camera ready




*monitors*
_Varanus gouldii_
my mum spotted this near the creek, I got very close, within a foot and got a few shots before he started to move




*Geckos*
_Gehyra dubia_
these geckos were common all over the place, the most common gecko we saw




_Oedura leusuerii_
we saw a few of these at night on rocks




_Oedura tryoni_
we saw a few of these, there noise usually gave them away as they walked through the leaves




_Saltuarius wybera_
We saw two of these geckos, they are a lot similar to the leaf tails I find where I am, these are only found within the wyberba area hence the name




*Dragons*
_Amphibolurus muricatus _
these were seen a few times on walks




_Amphibolurus nobbi_ 
we saw a lot of these aswell, one was very defensive when cornerned, he sat there with his mouth open and up on his legs when he knew it was no use escaping as his area had no good hiding spots




"Defensive"




_Physignathus lesueurii_
we saw two of these near the creek, I didn't manage to capture any pictures as the two were very shy
*Skinks*
_small skink sp, probably morethia or carlia_
seen in leaf litter
_Ctenotus taeniolatus (?)_
seen in leaf litter
_Ctenotus robustus (?)_
seen in leaf litter
_Egernia cunninghami_
these were very common in the park, usually near large crevices




_Egernia mcpheei _
common on rocky areas, we saw 3 young ones together but they all ran when I got the camera out, we saw many adults aswell, they seemed to like the lower areas of the park




_Eulamprus martini _
one of the most common species, they were everywhere




_Eulamprus quoyii _
seen along the creek




Ornate burrowing frog




A red crayfish




I was happy to see minimal damage, I did notice a few up turned rocks and broken rocks, this was taken right near a walk, as you can see people have trampled a lot of them, and others have been turned, what usually gives them away is the fact that there is a big pale spot on the rock next to a rock with a pale bottom, this type of stuff annoys me, please put rocks back if you turn them and make sure you are very carefull not to chip them, crack them or squash inhabitants, also remember its illegal to do this in a national parks, though a lot of this is not herpers, just careless people who walk all ovet the rocks, which means they are broken, I think it would be great if they put a board walk type thing accross areas like this or just signs saying not to go off to path, as its very fragile and takes thousands of years to form, and a few seconds to destroy!








The park had great views from the top of the pyramids









Thanks, hope you enjoyed my pictures.


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## OzGecko (Jan 23, 2010)

Some nice pictures there.


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## Gecko75 (Jan 23, 2010)

thanks gecko, apoloogies for no paragraphs, when I copied it accross it seemed to remove all of that. I also arrived home a week ago, not today, but I can no longer edit out that bit saying I just spent the last 3 nights. thanks, apoligies also for no common names, I cannot add them now, I know all the other field herpers will know what they are, but if anyone with not as much knowledge is curious as to what someone is just ask!


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## Bretsta (Jan 23, 2010)

amazing post mate. top work. love it!!!


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## Gecko75 (Jan 23, 2010)

Thanks Bretsta.

has anyone got an ID for the Cryptoblepharus skink I found. it has been split so much so I am not even going to attempt looking it up in my book, think this is one for eipper.


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## womapyth (Jan 24, 2010)

Enjoyed your presentation immensely. Thanks for all the hard work.


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## morgs202 (Jan 24, 2010)

Thats one angry looking crayfish! You can see Hydra growing on its claws too!


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## Gecko75 (Jan 24, 2010)

thanks guys for kind words.


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## Jay84 (Jan 24, 2010)

WOW !! 

Looks like an amazing trips and such a variety of herps! Thanks alot for sharing.


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## Gecko75 (Jan 24, 2010)

Thanks Jay.


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## eipper (Jan 25, 2010)

C pannosus

Cheers,
Scott


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## Gecko75 (Jan 25, 2010)

Scott which one is C pannosus? the cray? thanks.


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## eipper (Jan 25, 2010)

the cryptoblepharus is pannosus

the cray is a Euastecus Adsell would know the species

Cheers,
scott


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## Gecko75 (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks Scott for skink ID and cray ID.


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## JasonL (Jan 25, 2010)

It's E. suttoni


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## Gecko75 (Jan 25, 2010)

so cray is E. suttoni? are the red ones and the blue ones that are found down here on mid north coast the same species? I have no idea when it comes to things like them. the cray was strange cause it was the middle of the day and I said something to my brother about crays biting our toes in the murky water then we looked over and saw the red thing walking along, I am glad I didn't end up with one of them latched onto my toes.


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## JasonL (Jan 25, 2010)

This is easier....
Crayfish List


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## Gecko75 (Jan 25, 2010)

thanks Jason, checking out the link now, didn't know there were so many species, suppose its the same as herps.


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## moosenoose (Jan 25, 2010)

I must say I've really enjoyed a few threads today, and yours is one of them! Thanks


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## JasonL (Jan 25, 2010)

Gecko75 said:


> thanks Jason, checking out the link now, didn't know there were so many species, suppose its the same as herps.



lol, and just like reptiles they have split them all up, just noticed now that suttoni is now refined to one creek and sulcatus? is the one covering Inland Northern NSW and Southern Qld.... hard to keep up eh?


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## Acrochordus (Jan 25, 2010)

What about the two Crayfish that me and you found Gecko75, Haha and your driving.
Thanks Tim.


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## Gecko75 (Jan 25, 2010)

thankyou moosenoose, glad you enjoyed it, herping threads are always my favourite threads, even if the herper nly managed to find a few little skinks, there always good to look at and have a read of. Jason, the cray was found in bald rock creek does that mean its still suttoni, lol yer that was fun tim, lucky I didn't run the big one over I thought it was a green tree frog when I saw it from the car, looked very strange. as for that one we found, I would have no idea, I guess it would be one that is found on mid north coast somewhere.


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