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Birds and Words
Where Waters Meet: Nyleta Wetlands, Hasties Swamp National Park, Far North Queensland
Water, woodlands and bird watching in comfort
What a difference a week makes. At the close of 2020, Hasties Swamp was more edge than lake, with glossy ibis and pied stilt trudging through the mud and grey teal paddling in what puddles they could find. But seven days later, after more than 200 mm (8 inches) of rain, the swamp is brimming. Coots, hardheads and wandering whistling-ducks have replaced the waders, and a pair of cotton pygmy-geese has moved into the reed bed at the northern end of the park. Melicope trees are in blossom and honeyeaters are busy around the clusters of pink flowers. The park is a glorious place to spend an hour or two.
The wetlands lie a short distance south of Atherton in a dip where a young lava flow meets the foot of the much older Great Dividing Range. Nyleta, the Yidinji word for this rich and peaceful place, means ‘meeting of the waters’. Only in the most exceptional years does the swamp dry out completely.
Gum trees overhang the unsealed road that runs between wetland and farmland. Behind them, a…
