Search This Blog

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Ewen Maddock Dam, Sunshine Coast, QLD.

View of Glass House Mountains over Ewen Maddock Dam
Ewen Maddock Dam is a 16 km drive west of Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast or a 12 km drive north of Australia Zoo. Access is limited to daylight hours from 6 am to 6 pm, however, Seqwater is reviewing access hours so these might change in the future. Swimming is permitted in a designated area, however, keep in mind that there are no lifeguards present. Boating is limited to paddle craft and there is a small launching ramp near the main car park. No camping is allowed but dogs are permitted on a leash. There are dedicated walking only trails and several kilometers of multi-use trails for walkers, mountain bikes and horses. Unfortunately it is not possible to walk right around the lake as there are no trails on the eastern side and there is no public access to the dam wall. The dam contains bony bream and is stocked with bass, silver perch, golden perch and southern saratoga. Fishing permits are not required to fish in the lake. We have never fished here but we have walked all the trails and enjoyed a few picnics.

View of the dam wall from the picnic area.
Goanna in the picnic area.
Rainbow Lorikeets in the picnic area.

  Maddock Park, located off the Mooloolah Connection Road, is a good place to start the trails and access the short boardwalk over the lake edge. There is a parking area, toilets, picnic shelters and BBQ's. Access to a more remote area of trails is from the unsealed Ford Road.
Launching ramp for paddle craft.
Boardwalk at Ewen Madock Dam.
Once past the boardwalk there is a nice section of forest with plenty of woodland birds.
White-throated Treecreeper, female
Red-browed Finch
Brown Thornbill
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
White-browed Scrubwrens
We often walk to a curved causeway before retracing our steps back to the car park. This section of the walk is good for viewing water birds. 
Causeway
Australasian Grebe
Intermediate Egret
Darter, male.
Some birds just like to enjoy both habitats.
Variegated Fairy-wren
Willie Wagtail

Posted by at
Labels: ,
Location: Glenview QLD 4553, Australia

5 comments:

  1. Rustam SayalAugust 20, 2015 at 6:01 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Christian PerrinAugust 23, 2015 at 5:59 PM

    Yet another place I want to thoroughly explore yet have never got around to! Looks like the birdlife is marvelous there, you really nailed that treecreeper shot! Nice work with the cuckoos and thornbills too, they're not easy birds to capture due to nervousness / restlessness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. National Park OdysseyAugust 23, 2015 at 7:55 PM

    It's quite common to see lots of different birds there. On our recent trip it was very windy so the bird sightings were down a bit. We have much better photos of Shining Bronze and Fan-tailed Cuckoos from other sights but we only put up the photos we have taken at a particular blog destination so that our readers can trust that what is shown is what we actually saw there. It is tempting sometimes to swap disappointing photos for better ones but in the long run we hope readers will value the integrity over appearances.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LizAugust 31, 2015 at 2:38 PM

    Wow! What a great place for bird spotting! I must check it out when we head up to the Sunshine Coast.

    ReplyDelete
  5. National Park OdysseyAugust 31, 2015 at 4:17 PM

    As a photographer I'm sure you will enjoy the scenery too.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)