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Cape Hillsborough and beyond


Tyrone

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wow.  Great trip and very nice photos.  I'm envious!  The street lights there sure are different.   I see you are into hugging palms, too.   :D

C from NC

:)

Bone dry summers, wet winters, 2-3 days ea. winter in low teens.

Siler City, NC

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Tyrone,

You guys in Australia have it all.....a beautiful country, diverse climates, and a free country. I'm green with envy. I've only been to Australia once, back around 1969, but your pictures bring back old, fond memories.  I had some Australian friends who picked me up at Sydney International and took me directly to a cocktail party and I was suffering severe jet lag. Several days in Sydney and the social whirl, and I was ready for a rest.

My traveling companion and I headed for Cairns which was a sleepy village at the time...lots of houses on stilts and rather quiet and the most beautiful Platycertums I had ever seen, even hanging in front of gas stations. Less than 24 hrs in Cairns and I was hit with a terrible "bug" that layed me low for several days.  Fortunately, one of the employees at the nice tropical motel where we stayed was a nurse, and she came in to check on me several times while I was simi-conscious.  A Dr. had seen me and I think he gave me an injection of morphine as I was totally "out of it" for about 24 hrs. Unfortunately, I missed all the palm sites around Cairns.

After Cairns we flew to Townsville on our way to Dunk Island.  It had not rained in Townsville in a year and a half and it was parched.  I remember the red clay and the small dying coconuts.  It was not a pretty site, and it's hard for me to realize now how lush Townsville can be. We flew in a small plane to Dunk Island where I recovered from by bout with the bug. I was so weak I could hardly walk for a couple of days. We took a small boat and explored the coast of the Island.  I was surprised to see Ptychosperma and Arenga Australis growing right down to high tide level with the salt water. The jungle on Dunk Island was dotted with Licuala ramseii and I saw the largest snake cross one of the paths on the island that I had ever seen. I gave him plenty of room.

You mention A. Tuckerii.  Was that named after Robert Tucker?  I remember he was involved with the botanical garden that was later built in Townsville. I met Robert several times while he was in Miami, and then later he visited me in Calif. for a couple of weeks on his way back to Australia.  He was an interesting guy with some tall tales about his adventures in the outback and living with the natives. Robert was one of the most difficult house guest I've ever had, as nothing seemed to please him, but I listened to him for hours as he spun tales of his adventures.  He had a vast knowledge of plants and was a self taught botanist and he had a keen mind, but after two weeks of his intense personality, I was not sorry to see him off on his journey back to Australia.

Dick

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Richard Douglas

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Dear Tyrone  :)

terrefic stills of caryopha,coperniicas.those stills blew my feet

out of the ground...its a out of the world experience !

thanks a lot.

Love,

Kris  :)

love conquers all..

43278.gif

.

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Tyrone,

Great pictures and great looking palms! Have never been to that part of Australia, but would certainly like to go one day. Maybe a Biennial....

Bo-Göran

Particularly like Corypha Avenue!

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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I'm glad you guys liked the pics.

Gileno, I was wondering the same thing. I'm not sure what Copernicia they were. I'm not actually a Copernicia person, however if I could grow a Copenicia like that, I might change.

Dick, I'm sorry you got so sick when you came down under. There's nothing worse than being really sick and in the tropics. The heat and humidity seem to make it much worse. I got really sick on my honeymoon in Thailand and if it wasn't for air conditioning I don't know what I would have done. Cairns would probably look a lot different than it did in 1969. Its very big now with an International Airport and has a great tourist industry with direct flights from Japan who flock there in droves. there's traffic, even peak hour, and large distributing roads with overpasses and bypasses etc. The northern beach roads get real busy. A lot of the mountain roads which are still precarious now, were only bitumised in the last twenty years, and the roads up into the Daintree were only bitumised in the last few years. Now there are raised walkways thru crocodile infested mangrove swamps and you can get up and personal with Black palms, Licuala's, Hydriastele's, Calamus, Linospadix, and Pandans without getting mud up to your knees. Real nice stuff.

Archontophoenix tuckeri was named after Robert Tucker. I believe he had a great deal to do with setting up the Townsville Palmetum back in the 80's. Some of the Townsville pics have come from the Townsville Palmetum.

Bo, You must come to this part of Oz. If we have a Biennial in NE QLD I'm definitely going to make it that one.

Here's some more from the Townsville Palmetum.

P4100544.jpg

Deckenia nobilis

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Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4100543.jpg

Closeup on crownshaft. Spiny little sucker

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4100548.jpg

Polyandrococcus caudescens

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4100547.jpg

Weird inflorescence of Polyandrococcus

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4100549.jpg

White underneath leaflets of Polyandrococcus

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4100551.jpg

Young Beccariophoenix's

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4110563.jpg

No prizes for guessing this one. Is there anything that can't be grown in Townsville

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4110572.jpg

Dictyosperma album var furfuracea (Round Island Princess Palm)

Look how close the growth rings are together.

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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P4110603.jpg

Beautiful Arenga undulatifolia

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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Hi Tyrone,

Thanks so much for the update on Townsville, Cairns....and Robert Tucker. I had heard that Cairns had exploded with growth, tall buildings, etc, and that it resembled Miami Beach. It's hard for me to visualize Townsville as lush, as it was so burned out when I was there.  It was a very sleepy little place and resembled a frountier town, something like our old West in the USA.

Thanks again for the beautiful photos, and I hope to visit your beautifull part of the world again soon.

Something that puzzles me:  I don't see much information coming from Sydney.  Aren't there that many PS members in Sydney?  I remember seeing some beautifull palms there. I suppose those Sydneyites are out partying, or maybe the price of real estate and the lack of space has pushed them out into the burbs as it did me.

Dick

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Richard Douglas

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The US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, used to have a biological control lab at Townsville; it's now moved to Brisbane.  Biological control, among other things, has made for some close links to Florida.

John Dowe, who named Archontophoenix tuckeri was in Florida last year, so a sibling of my little tuckeris decorated a reception for him at the botanical garden in Fort Pierce, and was subsequently planted out.  

That Copernicia was gorgeous.  

It's now easy to fly from the US to Cairns, so I should have guessed the city's getting big.

Fla. climate center: 100-119 days>85 F
USDA 1990 hardiness zone 9B
Current USDA hardiness zone 10a
4 km inland from Indian River; 27º N (equivalent to Brisbane)

Central Orlando's urban heat island may be warmer than us

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I still can't pronounce Cairns the way the Aussies do it, but neither of the rest of the English lauguage either.  After arriving in Australia it took me 3 days to  get my ears attuned to their English.  Hell, after two weeks, I was sounding just like one of them! I LOVE Australia and the kind people there, but I just wish it was a little closer to the USA.  I'm an X-jet pilot, but I hate flying.  In my old age I stay close to home and enjoy my garden.

Dick

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Richard Douglas

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Dick, Cairns is pronounced like this. Caaaaaaans.  :) If you want to sound really Ozstraaaylyan you put more more "aaaaaa's" in it.

I don't really know how many Sydneyites are palm people. They do have some really nice palms in Sydney. You probably went to the Sydney Botanic Gardens which has been there since the early 1800's down on the harbour. It's location is perfect as it would very rarely get cold there being so close to water. I think I photographed almost every palm there, and the local gardeners were looking at me strange as I spent hours at that place. The Kentia's there would have been 80ft tall and very very old. A beautiful place.

Best regards

Tyrone

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

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tyrone - Great photos! Looks like you must have had alot of fun. You've got some contenders there for the next photo competition :D

Scott

San Fernando Valley, California

Sunset Climate Zone 18

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The Townsville Palmetum is worth a few days to really get a feel for it .

A fantastic collection of Pandans is hidden all around as Robert Tucker was working on them .

Michael in palm paradise,

Tully, wet tropics in Australia, over 4 meters of rain every year.

Home of the Golden Gumboot, its over 8m high , our record annual rainfall.

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Dick, Townsville has always been the desert by the sea although in the late sixties it had cyclone after cyclone. The far north has changed enormously since 1969, you saw it at its most glorious. The bar at Dunk was a tin shed with push out 'windows' back then I think. And nth. Qlders always finish a sentence by sawing 'a'.

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