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Visited: all year round
Recommendation: I love this battered and tatty old caravan park. It has stunning views of the Outback and an incredible range of wildlife. If you don't want to stay, it is still worth going for the day.
Granite Gorge is 20km west of Mareeba and it is a unique place for visitors to the area as it is the first place you can go to and find a completely different eco-system and range of bird species. I have been visiting for 10 years and still love it (although I don't go rock hopping across the giant boulders any more).
The first think I look for as I enter the drive are the Squatter Pigeons. Although they are quite comical looking as they wander around, they are impossibly cute with their soft pigeon call. My favourite sightings of these interesting birds was when 3 of them were lined up together. They looked content until one of the outside birds would shuffle into the middle. This process was repeated over and over. It was the most gentle jostling for position I have ever seen.
Squatter Pigeon (Geophaps scripta)
Mareeba Rock Wallaby (Petrogale mareeba)
The park is also famous for the Rock Wallabies who should be nocturnal but can be found around the area at all times. They are fairly small and approachable. My favourite time of day is dusk when they come into the caravan park and sneak about. They are extra special as they are a sub-species only found in the Mareeba area.
There are some birds that you can always see in the park and some that pass through from time to time. The Pacific Baza is a local resident but has quite a wide range. I have often seen a pair of them fly overhead but sometimes, they will sit quietly in the trees close to the caravans.
These unusual looking birds of prey are also known as the crested hawk, crested baza, and Pacific cuckoo-falcon, and are slender, medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Pacific Bazas are omnivores and their diet mainly consists of large insects, particularly stick insects and mantids, and frogs. They will also take small birds and their chicks, lizards, snakes, and even fruit. Sometimes they can be seem in some ariel acrobatics as they are agile hunters and will perch and watch for prey, or move through the forest canopy, making short dives to snatch prey from the foliage or the air.
The Pacific Baza is a fascinating bird with a unique appearance and interesting hunting behavior. They are an important part of the ecosystem in the regions they inhabit, helping to control insect and small animal populations.
Pacific Baza (Aviceda subcristata)
The best thing about Granite Gorge is that is has so much variety in plants and trees and, therefore, birds. You can see rainforest birds like the Spectacled Monarch here but also open country birds like the Sahul Brush Cuckoo. There is always something different but the seasons never disappoint.
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus)
Brush Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosus)
At certain times of the year, the Scarlet Myzomela (or Honeyeater) can be heard calling and calling. The male is incessant when he is calling and when he is, playback is helpful in attracting his attention. They feed on the flowering gums and are a real treat to see with their brilliant red plumage. I particularly enjoyed also seeing a juvenile male mouting into his adult colours.
Male Scarlet Myzomela (Myzomela sanguinolenta)
Juvenile Male Scarlet Myzomela (Myzomela sanguinolenta)
The Australian Figbirds move around the park in big noisy groups and very often there will be a koel following them. These cuckoos will stick around to ensure their offspring is being cared for appropriately which I find very amusing.
Female Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres vieilloti)
Female Pacific Koel (Eudynamys orientalis)
Another noisy resident of the park are the babblers. Usually in smaller groups, they move from tree to tree chatting away to each other as they look for grubs in the bark. Granite Gorge is one of the best places to see these gregarious birds up close.
Grey-crowned Babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis)
Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)
There is often a kookaburra hanging around the outskirts of the caravan park. I learned the hard way about their hunting habits when one stole a chicken wing from me. I really liked this photo of a kookaburra looking around for food.
Noisy Friarbird (Philemon corniculatus)
Along the roads to the park there are often other birds to be found. I sometimes see bustards in the fields, cisticola in the grass or honeyeaters in the trees. I love seeing friarbirds in particular as they have such unusual calls.
They are large honeyeaters, measuring 31-36 cm in length. Their most striking feature is their completely bare black head, which sets them apart from other friarbirds. They have a prominent knob, or casque, at the base of their strong bill. Their body is brown-grey on top and paler underneath, with a white tip on their tail.
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