Lake Doonella's Wetlands Reserve is up there near Noosa. It seems to also be known as the Noosa Open Space on some maps. It's between Tewantin National Park and Lake Doonella,and it's a scenic and interesting place to explore.
I blame the alleged Steiner School education of the author for the quality of the poetry. But I guess it's the thought that counts.
I did the Noosa Everglades boat cruise yesterday. It's good value. Three hours on a boat in a unique environment, with food and drinks thrown in, plus interesting commentary, all for $70 or so.
The boat departs from the Habitat Noosa 'Eco Resort', which is just north of Boreen Point. It crosses Lake Cootharaba, then dives through a narrow gap, and makes its way up the Upper Noosa River.
These everglades apparently have much in common with the Florida Everglades, in that they're entirely sand, plus rich vegetation. And there's so much fresh water stored in them that in a long drought, they'd effectively keep the river flowing forever. Or so the commentary went. Lots of wildlife too,including hundreds of bird species. No crocodiles though. You have to go hundreds of kilometres further north for those.
Back at the eco resort you get to watch the (sometimes enormous) kangaroos having their evening graze.
For this one you start just behind the Bli Bli shopping centre, down at the river end. There's a walkway from there to McMartins Park and Sports Road to the north, behind the Halcyon Landing housing development. To your east is mangrove wetlands, and there are signboards about how they've reconstructed a wetland. Presumably they first deconstructed it when they put the houses there.
Anyway, a few hundred metres in, there's a boardwalk heading off towards the Maroochy River.Where it stops, an extremely degraded tram track continues. I followed it for a while, but wasn't wearing the right gear to follow it all the way to the river. I'll make further enquiries about what this was originally all about, and report back.
It's out along Lefoes Rd and then Sports Rd, just north of Bli Bli, and it's a bit of a gem. There's an excellent 1km boardwalk out through the wetlands to the mighty Maroochy River.The sign does warn about mosquitoes though. Better to be doing it between May and October, it said.
