Kholo Botanic Gardens

Visited: late summer

Recommendation: These gardens are a little secret, tucked out of the way in Ipswich. They are very pleasant with lots of birds and reptiles. I would definitely visit here again.

Kholo Botanic Gardens was not my birding target at Ipswich. I was actually looking for the Black-breasted Buttonquail a little further north but was met by a very steep gravel road which I didn't really want to drive the campervan up. As I hastily did a u-turn, I spotted a sign to the gardens and thought I would try my luck.

The garden approach showed immaculate lawns and a small pond. Lots of the tracks were closed due to storm damage but I could walk around the pond and some way into the rainforest. There was also a sweeping view of the Brisbane River to the east.

I could hear Noisy Miners screeching and carrying on and it took me some time to identify the other bird calls but there were a reasonable number of them. The best was a fly by from a Channel-billed Cuckoo calling as it went. 

Back in the pond, it was the lizards that took centre stage. Numerous Eastern Water Dragons were soaking up the afternoon sun and I also found a smaller lizard that I couldn't identify at the time.