Mornington Wilderness Camp

Posted by efloow on August 29, 2015 in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The dust, lack of fresh food and general supplies got to us eventually and we made an unscheduled 4 night glamping stop at the Australia Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) camp at Mornington (26-29 August). This is a 92km trip south east off the Derby end of the Gibb River Road.

It was a real treat not only for the fact that we had clean clothes and accommodation, nor for the fact that all our meals where provided, but for the actual place with its gorges, abundant fauna, the insights in to AWC and what they are trying to achieve.

The Australian Wildlife Conservatory is a not for profit organisation that has bought or obtained access to over 3 million hectares of land around Australia, with 1.1 of these located in the Kimberley (http://www.australianwildlife.org/about/about.aspx). Though the largest non government program of prescribed burning in Australia and the management of feral herbivores they have achieved a dramatic recovery of native small mammal and bird populations.

Their research has shown that prescribed burning early in the dry season of small pockets of land, rather than the extensive, random and hot late dry season fires maintains pockets of ground cover for birds and mammals that protects them from predators. Similarly removing cattle, donkeys, foxes, etc, maintains habitat the native fauna. They also actively control feral cats that have a huge destructive input on the the native fauna.

The camp is a clever way of promoting the work of the AWC through education, bush tours, birdwatching, and guided access to stunning gorges and vistas. We all felt that we learnt something important, but in a very practical and not in your face sort of way!

We all became a little obsessed with little birds and spent many hours looking around creeks for the many rare and unusual finches and wrens that have re-established themselves in the area. I even went on a birdwatching tour at 5.30 in the morning. Alex has become a real expert bird watcher… terrifying! Unfortunately, the really rare and iconic Gouldian Finch that has recovered from the brink of extinction in the park was on holidays when we were there… it goes somewhere for food and water in September!

We also learnt about termites. Having spent the previous 10 weeks looking at termite mounds it was really fascinating to to realise what they are all about. We learnt that they are related to cockroaches (and not ants) and all about the types of termites; the workers and the soldiers, and the single queen that is the heart of the colony and that can live for up to 100 years. The most interesting fact was that the termites perform a role similar to the herbivores on the African savannahs. A single spinifex termite mound processes as much nitrogen and returns it to the soil as a Kangaroo.

The gorges where impressive. We swam in the Fitzroy river at Sir John Gorge and in Bluebush billabong, canoed down Dimond Gorge and climbed the volcanic dolorite mounds at the end, and paddle boarded along the Cadjeput billabong.

The trip out was remarkable for two things. Firstly it was delayed by three hours for a closed road… it had rained the night before (the first August rain since 2009 and our first rain of the trip since Broken Hill) and they did not want people driving and cutting up wet roads. Secondly, we managed to tear the side wall of a brand new tire on the way out…. a complete right off for a tire that had done less than 200k.

Next stop, Derby and the Horizontals Falls.