DID YOU KNOW ?

Australian Zamia palms are amongst the oldest land plants in the world surviving 200 million years of climatic change since the dinosaur era, including ice ages and aridity.

The Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea) seen commonly on our journeys, is found only in Australia. It is neither a grass or a tree but is related to a lilly. They are one of the slowest growing plants on earth at 1 to 2 centimetres a year. See Gallery image

Steele Rudd was the literary figure of Arthur Hoey Davis 1868 – 1935 a city public servant and would be gentleman farmer. Arthur found farming intolerable but wrote prolifically about living on the land, producing 24 volumes of short stories and novels about rural life, (with hundreds of re-prints) mainly comedies of defeat and hardship. His characters "Dad and Dave" featured in art, cartoons, stage and film production, long playing radio serials and works presented in Asian and European languages. These written accounts of early Australian rural life shaped a cultural phenomenon and internationalised the Australian image.

Sister Kenny, an unqualified nurse, was first exposed to the ravages of Polio in young Aboriginal children in the bush and how their elders treated their limbs. In 1933 she proceeded to open polio clinics and her methods and personality disturbed the medical establishments in Australia, England and parts of USA. She began lecturing to esteemed health professionals leading to a meeting with President Roosevelt, a sufferer, in the White House in 1943. A Kenny Institute was formed which partnered with the World Health Organisation in continued research. She educated trained minds and brought to world significance the way Aborigines treated their ill.

The Australian King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas with their bright plumage are large and showy birds of the rainforest and fringes. They feature in our Great Divide journey. The King Parrot is a vivid red with green wings (female a green head). Rosellas are synonymous with Australian trade marks, given their striking appearance. The Crimson Rosella (red and blue) is one of the most beautiful of all parrots. Eastern and pale-headed Rosellas with prominent yellow plumage will also feature in open woodlands darting suddenly across our path. Nesting usually occurs in the hollows and holes of logs or trees. See Great Divide images.

The Rainbow Lorikeet featuring on the Nature-Bound Australia logo, is another of the parrot family, a colourful swift flying bird, screeching noisily in flight. They are common in forests and woodland where nectar and pollen from gum tree blossoms is plentiful. They feed with restless energy and are regarded as one of the more fearless wild birds when it comes to trust in humans, especially where food is involved. See Great Divide images.

Captain Thunderbolt is a name which will surface often on our Great Divide journey. Born Fred Ward in 1836 he was a superb horseman and bushman, wandering horsebreaker, horse stealer, jail escapee, robber of hotels, mail coaches and innocent travellers. Local communities seemingly laid claim to his operations and existence deeming him both a gentleman and a scoundrel and so the legend lived on. We will visit his bush hideaways, travel a highway in his name, ponder his final resting place and unveil his exploits, uncharacteristic of a bushranger.

Rufous Bettongs are an endangered species having virtually disappeared from widespread existence in open woodlands in eastern Australia. About the size of a cat or rabbit with short rounded ears and sharp front foot claws, they move rapidly on hind legs with a hopping gait. They are active at night digging and scratching for roots, tubers, fungi and insects. By day they rest camouflaged in a grass nest they build in shallow hollows. They gather and carry nesting materials in their long curled- back tails.

The Echidna (our spiny ant-eater) is a common egg laying mammal with sharp spines covering its back and sides. It has a snout and long sticky tongue, short powerful limbs and claws for digging and foraging for ants using smell and special detection devices in the snout. It is a slow mover and if threatened will freeze, curl up and bury itself on the spot.

The Platypus is one of our most intriguing mammals of extraordinary creation. It lays eggs, is aquatic, has a duck-shaped bill, is able to detect tiny electrical signals, has no external ears, has soft water repellent fur, long sharp claws on webbed feet and a venom gland in its groin. Early Europeans once thought the creature to be a hoax. Platypus are solitary occupiers of quieter inland waterways undisturbed by man, active in darker hours, dawn and dusk, swimming in a rolling diving action with ears, eyes and nostrils closed.They have but one body opening serving both reproduction and excretion.

The Banksia is a unique heath flower stunning in shape, colour and proliferation. It is part of a family of plants named by a French botanist after the Greek God Proteus, who was able to assume any form he pleased. There are 50 species, all but one found exclusively in Australia. They have no stalk with dense spokes of 1000 flowers or more all embedded in tidy order around a thick woody axis.Woody capsules form on the axis each with two paper thin seeds and these remain fresh for years awaiting a bush fire to sear the capsules which then spring open releasing the seeds to the wind and the nutrient filled layer of ash left by the fire. They are tenacious survivors in harsh conditions with tough thin leaves preventing water loss or wilt. They ooze nectar for birds, bees and insects

The Koala, threatened by diminishing suitable habitat, is our "cuddly bear", a short stocky mammal which climbs and lives in trees, feeding in upper branches and resting much of the time, making them surprisingly difficult to spot. It is claimed they conserve energy by resting, due to the poor nutrient and energy value of the gum leaves they feast on.Their feet have unusal opposing toes providing a steely grip on the vertical trunks of trees. Their lifespan largely depends on their teeth wearing out. See Terms and Conditions images.

The adopted Father of Federation Sir Henry Parkes won Australian immortality with a catchcry of "One People- One Nation" calling for the unification of 5 Australian colonies (our states) in an impassioned speech in the township of Tenterfield in 1889. Born to a poor English family he was put to work at age 8. He applied for assisted passage to Australia, became a farm labourer, and failed at a number of businesses. His strong political leanings led to his election as a State Premier in 1872. However, he was also known as an untrustworthy businessman, three times a bankrupt, a social climber and double crosser who eventually lived out his life in a declining mental and physical state.

The Tenterfield Saddler worked his trade in a tiny granite building while his many friends would drop by with news, opinions and idle chatter.George Woolnough was a friendly compassionate man, an active community contributor and the Grandfather of entertainer Peter Allen, dancer, singer and piano player, who rose to fame on the footlights of New York and Los Angeles. His international hit song about a boy's relationship with his grandfather, brought an Aussie township to Broadway.Peter was discovered by Judy Garland in Hong Kong and later married her daughter Liza Minelli. One of his hit songs became a signature tune for Qantas international flights into Australia, "I Still Call Australia Home". Another famous Tenterfield son was"Banjo"Paterson legendary bush poet ("The Man from Snowy River" and "Waltzing Matilda"). See Gallery image

Antarctic Beech trees with their gnarled bases, green with a coating of moss, add a fairyland atmosphere to the rainforest.Fossil remains found in the Antarctica point to past distribution and the time of Gondwana when the southern continents started drifting away from Antarctica. The trees grow to 50 metres, with 2 metre diameter trunks, rough bark, and are often grouped closely together, upper foliage interlocked. Their existence is closely aligned to rain, humidity, shelter from fire, and shade loving ferns beneath, Thick bark, constantly saturated by rain, mist and cloud, provides a perfect home for lichens, mosses and colourful fungi.

The Cassowary is one of two giant flightless birds in Australia (the other, the Emu), growing to 1.5metres and 50 kilo in weight. It is colourful around head and neck (blue/red/purple) and has a "crash helmet" on its head to push its way at speed through tangled undergrowth.By weight, it is the second largest bird in the world.It has powerful legs and an inner toe nail long and sharp for deadly defence. In the wild they are generally wary but can become killers. They have a loud hollow booming call and survive in minimal rainforest habitats in North Queensland where their capacity to digest fruits and berries, to spread and fertilise seeds throughout the forest is important. See Tropical Contrasts images.

Mitchell Grass is the dominant natural feature in a vast area of cracking clay soil country stretching through Western Queensland into the Northern Territory. The metre high tussocks are long lived and highly drought resistent, resilient in the face of heavy pastoral grazing. The country is normally devoid of trees given the cracking of the black clay soils preventing root development and growth.However the Mitchell grass survives along with a wide range of mammals, birds and insects preferring the open spacious habitat. Our Outback to the Reef journey will pass through this vast natural grassland.

The Galah is one of Australia's most beautiful birds though often taken for granted given its wide range and increasing numbers across the continent. They are rose pink and grey in colour offering a striking sight in large flocks of 50 to 100, clouds of colour swirling in the sky, falling like autumn leaves to the ground, adorning a single tree like blooms or swinging with acrobatics along overhead wires. They are highly sociable by nature undertaking high speed chases in screeching flight through the trees and feeding for many hours, in groups, on the ground. They are particularly active near dawn and dusk frequenting human habitats, sometimes not appreciated where crops of grain are being "raided". See Rugged Red Heart images.

Thorny Devils or Molochs are one of the more bizarre lizards or dragons, this one located in central and western Australia. About 20 cms long and frightening to look at with its colourations and thorny looking spine, it is quite harmless. It positions itself conveniently over or near an ant trail and proceeds to snap up its unsuspecting prey. They have a strange jerky gait and frequenting drier areas have created a unique way of maximising their ability to harvest drinking water. They catch water in grooves on the skins surface and channel this to the mouth. Dependent on infrequent light showers or night dew alone, improvisation to the catchment is an apparent blessing. The miracles of nature!