Deepwater National Park, QLD.

Deepwater National Park

Deepwater National Park protects the catchment of Deepwater Creek and adjoins a strip of beach favoured by four different types of nesting ocean turtles. A variety of lowland flora from swamp paperbarks, gum trees and cabbage tree palms to coastal flora dominated by Pandanus and She Oaks, supports a great range of wildlife in the area.

There are two campgrounds that I covered in the previous blog and a picnic area in the national park.

Wreck Rock Picnic Area

Walking:
There are no designated walks so we made up our own circuit by walking from Wreck Rock to Middle Rock via the 4WD Road and then descending to the beach and walking back to Wreck Rock. All in all, this is about 6 km and isn't too difficult if you time your walk along the beach with low tide. The highlight of our walk was spotting where two turtles had emerged from the surf and made their way to the dunes to lay their eggs. One of the turtles appeared to have tried three times before finally finding a suitable spot where the dunes weren't too steep. She must have been absolutely exhausted after that herculean effort. Loggerhead, Flatback Green and Leatherback Turtles lay their eggs along this stretch of beach between October and April. The hatchlings emerge from January. 

This photo is taken into the sun but you can still see where a turtle has done a u-turn when confronted by a steep dune.

After the third attempt this turtle lay her eggs but she appears to have been too exhausted to fully fill the sand back over her nest.

We also enjoyed exploring Wreck Rock which looks like it was tossed onto the beach and toppled sideways millennia ago. There are usually rock pools to explore as well but on this trip they had been filled with sand; no doubt they will reappear again. 

Wreck Rock

Close up of Wreck Rock.

Wildlife:
As previously mentioned turtles frequent the beach at Deepwater National Park. Queensland Turtle Conservation Project volunteers camp at Wreck Rock Camping Area during the nesting and hatching season to record the turtle activity.

Native Sand Goannas frequent the campground and dune areas. Goannas love eggs, as do non-native foxes. Unfortunately, we saw fox footprints in the dunes. Another introduced pest that is prevalent is Cane Toads. Crabs frequent the beach, running in and out of the surf.

Sand Monitor

Crabs and Blue Bottle Jellyfish.

The ladies toilet at Wreck Rock Campground seemed to be a haven for gravid female wildlife. A large Huntsmen spider had taken up residence there, as had a large Bar-sided Skink.

Huntsmen Spider Holconia immanis .

Bar-sided Skink

We noticed that the local variant of Garden Orb Spider was the white stripe form.

Garden Orb Spider, Eriophora transmarina

Macropods are easy to spot in Deepwater National Park. We saw Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Whiptail Wallabies and Black-striped Wallabies.

Eastern Grey Kangaroo at Wreck Rock Camping Area.

The main butterflies we saw were Lemon Migrants, Evening Browns and Tailed Emperors.

Tailed Emperor and Lemon Migrant.

Queenslands largest cockroach  Macro-panesthia is found in Deepwater National Park. Although we didn't see any large ones we did see the cream rimmed Barred Cockroach Cosmozosteria subzonata but it was too fast for us to get a photo.

Due to the varied landscape there is a great variety of birds in Deepwater National Park. It is quite common to see Emus, although we dipped out on this trip. A friendly ranger informed us that he saw two Brolgas in November as well. We were happy to see two Sooty Oystercatchers and four Wandering Tattlers on the rocks at Middle Rock Beach.

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove

A young Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, before it develops the pink cap.

Dusky Honeyeater

Fairy Gerygone

Wonga Pigeons at Wreck Rock Camping Area

Is Deepwater National Park under threat?

At present, the only way to traverse the full length of Deepwater National Park is by a sandy 4WD track. Accessing Wreck Rock Camping Area from the south is by 2WD but the section between Wreck Rock Camping Area and Middle Rock Campground is categorized as easy 4WD and the section to the north of Middle Rock is harder 4WD. Recently the Gladstone Council decided to upgrade the full length of the road from Agnes Water to the southern end of Deepwater National Park. The upgrade to a sealed road won't simply improve access to the National Park itself. The road will provide a direct route from Agnes Water to Bundaberg, significantly increasing through traffic, which raises concerns about the impact on wildlife. There is a wider concern here as well that needs to be considered. National Parks often protect the last remnants of a natural landscape and they will increasingly come under threat in a world with growing demands for such things as transport corridors. Further information can be found on the Facebook page Save Deepwater NP

Wildlife seen by us in November 2017: Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Black striped Wallaby, Whiptail Wallaby, Flying Fox, Bar-sided Skink, Rainbow Skink, Sand Monitor, Cane toad. Huntsmen Spider Holconia immanis, Garden Orb Spider Eriophora transmarina. We saw the tracks and nests of two ocean turtles between Wreck and Middle Rocks. We also saw the tracks of a Fox. 
Butterflies: Lemon Migrant, Tailed Emperor, Evening Brown.
Birdlist: Australian Brush Turkey, Cicadabird, Pied Cormorant, Torresian Crow, Bar-shouldered Dove, Leaden Flycatcher, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Fairy Gerygone, Lewin's Honeyeater, Dusky Honeyeater, Laughing Kookaburra, Pheasant Coucal, Wonga Pigeon, Common Bronzewing, Grey Shrike-thrush, Little Shrike-thrush, Silver Gull, Sooty Oystercatcher, Varied Triller, Wandering Tattler.