Cape York Australia Adventure

The tropical outback regions of Cape York offer a unique touring experience enveloped in the most magnificent and varied landscape that you could imagine. The 4WD journey to 'the tip' is an adventure of a lifetime.
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth.

The first known contact between Europeans and Aborigines occurred on the west coast of Cape York in 1606 but it was not settled by Europeans until the 19th century when fishing communities, then ranches and later mining towns were established. European settlement led to the displacement of Aboriginal communities and the arrival of Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland. Today the peninsula has a population of only about 18,000, of which a large percentage of approx 60% are Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.Cape York is a popular tourist destination in the Dry Season for camping, hiking, birdwatching and fishing enthusiasts. Many people make the adventurous, but rewarding, drive to the tip of Cape York, the northernmost point of mainland Australia.

Termite mount on old Telegraph Road

The majority of Cape York Peninsula is covered in tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannahs, and shrublands, tropical savannah woodland consisting typically of a tall dense grass layer and varying densities of trees, dominantly eucalypts of which the most common is Darwin stringybark.The tropical landscapes are among the most stable in the world

Some of the world's most extensive and ancient Aboriginal rock painting galleries surround the town of Laura, some of which are available for public viewing.

Ancient rockart in caves near Bathurst Heads Known to just a handful of Aboriginal people, cattle station workers and academics Source: The Courier-Mail

The wetlands and coastal mangroves are noted for their importance as a fish nursery and crocodile habitat, providing important drought refuge and the Great Barrier Reef lies off the east coast and is an important marine habitat.
The Cape is also home to the Eastern brown snake, one of the world's most venomous snakes.

Large croc being re-located by the Irwins from the west coast of Cape York

If you are looking for great things to do in Australia, a Cape York trip is a great adventure. Cape York is not far from Cairns, but it's real Australian outback and feels like very remote Australia. There are some great four wheel drives, river crossings, Aboriginal rock painting and some spectacular wilderness scenery, waterfalls and waterholes to swim in at  Lakefield, Iron Range and Jardine River National Parks.

Just 250kms north-west and 130kms off the main road via Archer River Roadhouse, is the township of Weipa. This small mining town provides a complete range of services and facilities for travellers, as well as amazing tours of the mining operation. Nearby to Weipa are National Parks, beautiful countryside and awesome Barramundi fishing.

Bamaga is the most northern township in Queensland. It is an isolated settlement of some 2000 people, most of whom are Torres Strait Islanders. Facilities are limited and supplies are either shipped or flown in.
6 km north of Bamaga, Seisia has an excellent foreshore camping area, a kiosk and service station. There is an information centre at the Seisia Camping Ground Office where, during the peak tourist season, the Seisia Island Dancers perform traditional dances.

 Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival

There are two roads in southern Cape York Peninsula, either you drive north from Mareeba through Mt Molloy, Mt Carbine, Lakeland and Laura, or you drive the coastal way up from Cairns, past Port Douglas, Daintree National Park and Cooktown. This is the less used way which takes you right to Lakefield National Park, but Cooktown is worth a visit in any case and it is also reachable by a side trip from the more usual inland way up to the Cape York Peninsula.

It is estimated that between 1000 to 2000 vehicles make the journey each year, even though the roads are impassible in the wet season.

Palm Island Queensland

Aboriginal “medicine man”. Palm Island, Queensland, 1930. Photo by E.O. Hoppe.

Before settlers arrived in North Queensland, Palm Island belonged to the Manbarra people. Descendants of the Manbarra were still living on the tropical island, 65 km NE. of Townsville, when in 1914 the Queensland Government gazetted the Island as a reserve.

Palm Island was named for the cabbage tree palms growing there by Captain James Cook in 1770. It became a settlement for people from very different tribal groups who were brought here in the forties and fifties by the white administration, especially children of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry, the "stolen generation". It is now a self governing Aboriginal community.

Palm Island Pier has daily ferry links to Townsville

 Great Palm Island, also known as Palm Island, or by the Aboriginal name Bwgcolman, is a tropical island with a resident community of about 2,000 people.
It is the main island of the Greater Palm group, and consists of small bays, sandy beaches and steep forested mountains rising to a peak of 548 metres (1,798 ft).

The ocean surrounding the island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park where extraction and fishing are regulated.

Palm Island is rich in natural beauty, both fauna and flora.Palm Island's rich volcanic soil supports tropical flora such as mangroves, eucalypt forest, rainforests, hoop pine, mango, banana, pawpaw (papaya) and wild plum trees. The surrounding bays have a diverse marine fauna including coral trout, crayfish and coral reefs.

Palm Island is home to two clan groups, Manbarra (traditional owners) and the larger group Bwgcolman, which incorporates all other Aboriginal and Torres Strait families/clans who have historical links to the island.

Short Joes Horse Trails can take mainland visitors for an eight- hour horse ride to places inaccessible by road: Bamboo Creek, Wallaby Creek , or a cooling swim in a waterhole. There is also bushtucker lunch of possum, goat, goanna, turtle at the end of the horse trek

Sunferries currently conduct three return ferry services to Palm Island per week departing on Monday,Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

This service takes approximately 2 hours travel time each way. Due to the fact that vessel access to the Palm Island jetty is tidal, the timetable for this service can change weekly

Kakadu

The Kakadu Culture Camp is owned and operated by the Hunter family from Kakadu National Park. It was a dream of their late Grandfather Namandjalorrwokwok to establish a camp where Bininj (Aboriginal) people could live and work, and share their culture, traditional heritage and amazing wildlife with tourists from around the world.

Their eco safari camp is on the banks of Djarradjin Billabong and is part of the Nourlangie Creek system that drains into the South Alligator River. The camp is a 100% solar powered operation, running 40 solar panels through a 6kva inverter. We are proud and active members of Ecotourism Australia and The International Ecotourism Society.

This photo of Kakadu Culture Camp is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Limited numbers of guests also assures a quality, educational and uplifting cross cultural experience.
They cater especially for international visitors and also Australian travellers who want to learn from the locals first hand about Kakadu’s cultural landscapes and the amazing wildlife and biodiversity. Guests are welcome to stay in camp overnight and enjoy the hospitality of a local Aboriginal family.


Kakadu Culture Camp and Djarradjin Billabong is situated adjacent to the Muirella Park Campground.

They are in the heart of Kakadu, on Murrumburr clan country. Driving south from Jabiru, they are 25km down the Kakadu Highway, turn left and drive 6km to the campground, just follow the signs.

Swimming with sharks

Since pioneering shark cage diving over 40-years ago, Rodney Fox and his son Andrew have been at the very forefront of human interaction with Great White Sharks. As primary advocates for these creatures, their expeditions and research have educated the public and attracted adventurers from around the world.

Soon after his shark attack in 1963, Rodney organised the first ever “Great White Shark Diving Expedition”. He designed and built the original shark proof cage to make the very first ever film of live Great White Sharks. This film was called “Great White Death” and was followed soon after by “Attack by a Killer Shark”. These first films inspired and helped raise the financial backing for Peter Gimbel in 1969 to use Rodney’s shark finding expertise in the classic “Blue Water White Death”. Producing Great Whites was again required of Rodney in 1973 for the live shark sequences in Spielberg and Peter Benchley’s blockbuster "Jaws".

 Just one year after the release of “Jaws” into the cinemas, Rodney lead the very first Cage Diving Expedition for non professional divers to experience "the thrill of the Great White Shark first hand”!

Today they have shark videographer Jennifer "Tinker" Taylor onboard ,and Rodney and Andrew also regularly film parts of each expedition, available as a special memento of your experience. They like to think that on any Fox Expedition, you not only join on a cage diving tour but become an expedition member of the greatest shark experience possible anywhere in the world.

Book Here if your game!!

The Kimberley Australia

The Kimberley is an area of 423,517 square kilometres (163,521 sq mi), which is about three times the size of England or twice the size of Victoria.

It is located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts, and on the east by the Northern Territory.

Desert Savanna Grass

The Kimberley was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia, with the first arrivals landing about 40,000 years ago from the islands of what is now Indonesia.

Bungle Bungles

The region was named after the Kimberley diamond fields in South Africa. This was due to the two areas sharing a similar landscape. The discovery of diamond fields in the Kimberley region has added to the likeness of the two. One third of the world's annual production of diamonds is mined at the Argyle and the Ellendale diamond mines.

Diamonds are girls best friend!

The Kimberley is one of the hottest parts of Australia, with the average annual temperature around 27 °C (81 °F), and maximum temperatures almost always above 30 °C (86 °F) even in July and ranging in November before the rains break from 37 °C (99 °F) on the coast to 40 °C (104 °F) in the south around Halls Creek.
Since 1967 increases of as much as 250 millimetres (10 in) per year in annual rainfall over the whole region.

Recent studies suggest Asian pollution and not global warming as the cause of increased rainfall in the area.

Kimberly Boab Tree Jail, Gibb river road

Much of the Kimberley is chiefly covered in open savanna woodland dominated by low bloodwood and boab trees with Darwin stringybark and Darwin woollybutt eucalypts in the wetter areas. The red sandy soil of the Dampier Peninsula in the south is known for its characteristic pindan wooded grassland while in the more fertile areas like the Ord valley the trees are grasslands in the wetter valleys.

The banks of the Ord, Fitzroy and other rivers are home to a greater variety of vegetation while in sheltered gorges of the high rainfall north there are patches of tropical dry broadleaf forest, called monsoon forests, deciduous vine forest or vine thicket in Australia (often mistakenly called 'dry rainforest'), which were unknown to science until 1965 and are one of the most floristically rich parts of Australia outside the Wet Tropics and southwestern WA. There are also areas of mangrove in river estuaries where the coast is flatter.

Animals found here include the huge saltwater crocodile and a rich variety of birds such as the Channel-billed Cuckoo, Pacific Koel, and Purple-crowned Fairywren. Mammals found in the flatlands include the bilby, Northern Quoll, Pale Field Rat, Golden-Backed Tree Rat, and Golden Bandicoot.

Our endangered Quoll

The gorges of central Kimberley are known for their fossils and for their large colonies of bats.
Eighty-mile Beach and Roebuck Bay, which has been described as "one of the most important stop-over areas for shorebirds in Australia and globally".

The town of Broome has a flourishing pearling industry which operates around the Kimberley coast.

Ancient Aboriginal Rock Art

Some of Australia's most prominent indigenous artists and art centres are found in or adjacent to the Kimberley region.

The Dark Knight Rises vs Aussie Super Hero

Not another movie Batman!! we are getting too old for this sh*# !!!

The Dark Knight Rises is an upcoming American superhero film. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film will be the third and final installment in Nolan's Batman film series. The Dark Knight Rises will see the return of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, James Gordon, and Lucius Fox, respectively. The film will introduce the characters of Selina Kyle and Bane portrayed by Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy two central characters from the comic books.

The Avengers is an upcoming American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, based upon the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. It is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which crosses over several Marvel superhero films including Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). The film is written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast, which includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and Cobie Smulders.

The Dark Ranger was a hero from Austrailia in 1955 that was inspired by Batman. Originally called just the Ranger, he updated his gear to keep up with the increasingly evil and violent supervillain community.

He was killed by Wingman, who dressed up his corpse to look like him while he stole his gear and pretending to be the Ranger himself, until Batman discovered the ruse.

Later, the Ranger's former sidekick, the Scout, took up the mantle of his deceased mentor and joined the Club of Heroes.

The Ranger had no superhuman abilities, but was skilled in the use of his jetpack and pulse pistol.

Australian Working Holiday Visas

Australian Working Holiday Visas

An Australian Working Holiday Visa now now allows you to stay in Australia for up to 12 months and to work in any one job for six months. You may be able to extend the visa for an additional year if you undertake 'specified' work, including seasonal and volunteer work.

Visas are available to persons from Belgium, Canada, Chile, Republic of Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the USA.

The Working Holiday Visa allows you to supplement the cost of your holiday through short-term employment. However, if your primary reason for travelling to Australia is to participate in the work force, you should consider a visa designed for that purpose.

Job opportunities in Australia are incredibly diverse and working holiday makers should be able to find a variety of job vacancies to suit their skills.

Thanks to a strong economy and many years of record low unemployment levels the employment prospects in Australia are very optimistic.

According to Forbes magazine, the industries expecting the most growth are:

Health care services,

Retailing, construction,

Hospitality

Hairdressing.

There are also jobs in certain industries with skills shortages that are classed as 'Occupations in Demand'. These shortages are across a range of industries including:
Accounting
Engineering Jobs
Allied Health and Medical

Computing

Other areas of high demand include:

Fruit picking, farm work and seasonal work
Architecture, planning and construction Jobs
Hospitality and food service jobs

Retail jobs

Temporary administration and secretarial jobs

Backpackers who come to Australia to live and work for a year (or two) are welcomed with open arms!

Travellers at Work is Australia's most established and largest job search facility for WHV travellers with an average of 1000 young travellers coming through their doors each week.

They are not just a website; They are a hands-on Job Search Centre with recruitment consultants that assist their members with finding work in Australia.

AUSTRALIAN FRUIT PICKING SEASONS

New South Wales

Seasonal work, from November to April is the busiest period, with the main harvest reaching a peak in February. Fruit picking work can be found around the central eastern district around Bathurst. Main produce includes orchard fruits, cotton, onions and asparagus.

All year round, around northern coastal areas of NSW, near Coffs Harbour bananas are grown all year.

Victoria

Seasonal work, from November to April peaking in February is the main season for fruit picking jobs in Victoria. Work is to found in central northern areas of Victoria around Shepparton, also a good area to look for work is along the Murray River, places such as Mildura and Swan Hill often required seasonal workers. Main harvests include orchard fruits, tomatoes, tobacco, grapes and soft fruits.

Queensland

Seasonal work, from December to March. Work is usually available around Warwick. Harvest includes stone and orchard fruits, grapes. May to December, on the Central Coast of Queensland near Bowen, lots of different fruit and vegetables grown, especially mangoes at the end of the year. May to November, the northern coast around Ayr and Ingham, usually work available picking sugar cane, bananas and tobacco. All year round, work is available on the southern central coast around Bundaberg and Childers, most types of fruit and vegetables are harvested.

Tasmania

Seasonal work, from December to March. Orchard and Soft fruits, grapes.

South Australia

Seasonal work, February to April work is usually available around The Barossa Valley picking grapes.

All year round, Around the Riverland area, picking citrus and soft fruits.

Western Australia

Seasonal work, October to June the southwest work available harvesting grapes and orchard fruits. March to November fishing and processing work available for crayfish, prawns and scallops available on the west coast between Fremantle and Carnarvon. May to October fruit and vegetable picking and packing jobs available in the northeast, around Kununurra.

Australian Cattle

Australian cattle herd is anticipated to enter a period of expansion in 2011 and beyond, with the drought’s long-grip upon eastern Australia throughout the past decade finally broken. 2010 was the wettest year on record in Queensland and third wettest nationally, signalling a surety of feed and water supplies throughout the coming year. The exception is southern WA, which suffered the driest year on record in 2010.

These pictures were taken from a helicopter, of road trains loading cattle at Helen Springs Station, north of Tennant Creek NT.

· There are 17 trucks with 3 trailers and 2 decks per trailer;

· Therefore there are 102 decks of cattle and there would be approximately 28 cattle per deck;

· This totals 2,856 head of cattle

· The cattle will weigh approximately 500kg

· The sale price for cattle at Longreach is approx. 165c/kg

· Each animal will therefore be sold at $825.

· Total revenue from this analysis is $2,356,200

· Another interesting fact:

o Each trailer has 24 tyres plus a dolly with 8 tyres

o Each vehicle therefore has 62 tyres (not including spares)

o For the 72 trucks there are 4,464 tyres on the road.

Australian cattle given the steady national cow herd, combined with the better seasonal conditions, the Australian cattle herd is expected to increase by 2.6% in the year to 30 June 2011, to 27.4 million head.

Global demand for beef is forecast to increase in 2011, as the growing global economy rekindles demand for proteins, particularly beef, after some tumultuous years in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).

The past year proved to be a mixed one for Australia’s live cattle industry, with the restrictions and uncertainty surrounding the Indonesian market offset by surprising growth into the Middle East(including Turkey).

Australian cattle looks good elsewhere for 2011, Australian live cattle exports are forecast to increase 1% year-on-year, to 880,000 head. Given the dominant share that Indonesia has for Australian cattle shipments, the reduced volumes forecast into the market for 2011 will limit overall growth.

However, much of the decline in exports to Indonesia in 2011 should be offset by a further rise in exports to the Middle East, including Israel, Libya, Egypt and Turkey.

This EKKA Grand Champion Bull sold for $10,000

Given the decline in global beef supplies in recent years, and the improvement in demand throughout

2010, global beef prices are expected to increase significantly in 2011. This is already in evidence, with US choice fed cattle prices commencing 2011 25% higher than a year earlier.

Australian Food

Aboriginal cooking has always played a role in Australian food culture. Many native methods of cooking which we call bush tucker, include  local meats and flavours such as kangaroo, barramundi and wattle seed, are now accepted and thrive in gourmet cooking in Australia.

Over the past 40 years there has been a major shift in Australian cuisine. The food, like our society itself, has taken on a much more multi-cultural influence, especially with the arrival of immigrants from the Mediterranean and more recently South East Asia.



Australian food was heavily influenced by the first English settlers, who favored such foods as roasted cuts of meat, grilled steak and chops with vegetables. Despite the different influences in the past 200 or so years, much of this traditional British food has remained in Australian cuisine, particularly in Australian pub food such as the meat pie and fish and chips.

Fresh produce is readily available in Australia and is used extensively, and the trend (urged by long-term government health initiatives) is towards low-salt, low-fat healthy cookery incorporating lean meat and lightly cooked, colourful, steamed or stir-fried vegetables. With most of the Australian population residing in coastal areas, fish and seafood is popular.

People barbeque all over the world and it truly is universal, but Australians have a very special relationship with the barbecue. For us the Barbie is a part of our up bringing, and it's also our birth right. We are born with tongs in hand. We barbeque better than anyone else (sometimes depending on how many beers are consumed), and we enjoy the barbie more than anyone else on the planet (even if our sausages have been totally cremated). Australians more than most have embraced the BBQ and taken it to gastronomic levels of gourmet cooking that other races can only marvel at (and are sometimes asked are you really going to eat that?). 

Australian food features Australian seafood such as: Prawns, Southern bluefin tuna, King George whiting, Moreton Bay bugs, Mud Crabs, Jew Fish, Dhufish (Western Australia) and Yabbies. Australia is one of the largest producers of abalone and rock lobster.Australia's 11 million square kilometre fishing zone is the third largest in the world and allows for bountiful access to seafood which significantly influences Australian cuisine.

An iconic Australian food is Vegemite. Other unique or iconic national foods include the Meat pie a must at all sporting events, Macadamia nuts; Violet Crumble, a honeycomb chocolate bar; Cherry Ripe; Jaffas, chocolate with an orange-flavoured confectionery shell; the Chiko Roll, a deep-fried savoury roll similar to a spring roll; and the Dim sim, a Chinese-inspired dumpling. Other popular Australian foods include Tim Tams, a chocolate biscuit; Musk sticks; Fairy bread; Lamingtons; the Vanilla slice; and the commercial breakfast cereal Weet-Bix.

Kangaroo population stands around 45 million

Is that food in that bag?

Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia. Current populations stand around 45 million.

Kangaroos are capable of conserving enough water and selecting enough fresh vegetation to survive in an arid environment. The kangaroo’s kidneys efficiently concentrate urine, particularly during summer.

The kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus: the red kangaroo, antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo. 

Fights between red kangaroo males tend to involve more wrestling. Fights establish dominance relationships among males, and determine who gets access to the females.

Kangaroos are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of locomotion. The comfortable hopping speed for a red kangaroo is about 20–25 km/h (12–16 mph), but speeds of up to 70 km/h (43 mph) can be attained over short distances, while it can sustain a speed of 40 km/h (25 mph) for nearly 2 km (1.2 mi). 

The kangaroos fast and energy-efficient method of travel has evolved because of the need to regularly cover large distances in search of food and water, rather than the need to escape predators. At slow speeds, it employs pentapedal locomotion, using its tail to form a tripod with its two forelimbs while bringing its hind feet forward. Kangaroos are adept swimmer, and often flee into waterways if threatened by a predator. If pursued into the water, a kangaroo may use its fore paws to hold the predator underwater so as to drown it.

Young red necked wallaby.

Macropods are marsupials belonging to the family Macropodidae, the kangaroo family, which includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several others. Macropods are native to the Australian continent.

Kangaroo meat is consumed in Australia and available in some Australian supermarkets. It is also exported to over 55 countries. Kangaroo leather is recognised as the strongest lightweight leather throughout the world and extensively used in first class sporting shoes and gloves.

Australian Crocodile hunters

According to the NT government in 2018 there were between 100,000 and 200,000 saltwater crocodiles in the wild.

Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan)

"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City It was Inspired by the true life exploits of Rodney Ansell.

Ansell was on a fishing trip near the Victoria River mouth with only his two cattle dogs when his boat was capsized and sunk, by a  crocodile. He managed to board his boat's tender, a small dinghy with only a single oar, and retrieve his dogs and a small amount of equipment (including his rifle, knives and bedding) but had no fresh water. Ansell travelled up the Fitzmaurice River on tidal flows over the next 72 hours, becoming severely dehydrated before finding fresh water above the saltwater tidal range. He survived alone for two months by hunting and shooting wild cattle for food, and planned to walk overland to a pastoral station homestead when the wet season began. Ansell was eventually rescued by a small cattle droving party.

Steve Irwin (22 February 1962 – 4 September 2006) and Aussie Zoo mates.

Steve began handling crocodiles at the age of nine after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age. Also at age nine he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision. He worked as a volunteer for Queensland's East Coast Crocodile Management program and captured over 100 crocodiles, some of which were relocated, while others were housed at the family park.

Malcom Douglas

Malcolm Douglas (14 March 1941 – 23 September 2010) was an Australian wildlife documentary, film maker, and crocodile hunter. Douglas started in the 1960s as a professional crocodile hunter, but later dedicated himself to their preservation.

Rob Bredl ("barefoot bushman")

 Rob was catching crocodiles with his father and brothers even as a child (in the Northern Territory). He attracts crocodiles by hitting the water's surface repeatedly with a stick.

Rob Bredl got his nickname "barefoot bushman" because he has the habit of getting around barefoot, both at home and in the bush, even if he is out catching crocodiles

Willy Maykitt no he didnt deceased RIP

Carmor Plains and Australia Wide Safaris are one of the few safari operators offering Crocodile harvesting.

Carmor Plains Wildlife Safaris