Author Archives: Stewart Macdonald

In addition to venturing further afield, I’ve been poking around some local areas of late. Living in Townsville puts me close to a variety of interesting biomes, such as the Barrier Reef, the brigalow belt, the wet tropics, and the … Continue reading →

The leaf-tailed geckos (Phyllurus, Saltuarius and Orraya) are amongst the most adorned and best camouflaged of the Australian geckos. I’ve gone looking for all nine Phyllurus species, but dipped out on two of them last year. I thought it was … Continue reading →

Recently, I’ve done two stints of fieldwork out in central Queensland, between about Rockhampton and Moranbah. The first stint was in June, and the second was in September. I managed to track down a reptick on each trip, along with … Continue reading →

Recently I helped out a friend who’s doing some work on turtles. We went snorkelling for Elseya irwini and, thanks to calm water and great visibility, tracked down a bunch of them within minutes of entering the water. Just as … Continue reading →

Failure. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. As my last trip was an utter failure, I had to redeem myself. Never fear – I had a cunning plan. I had been up to the Wet Tropics … Continue reading →

Sooner or later, one’s luck has to run out. Recently I’ve been having a great run, tracking down repticks left, right and centre. It should come as no surprise, then, that eventually I’d head away for a weekend and not … Continue reading →