Yepppoon Info

Cassowary chicks in captivity are a very rare occurence. Cooberrie Park (official website), has two such chicks that are being hand raised, because the parents are too great a risk to trust with feeding and caring. This afternoon my sisters and I drove there with some rats (the rats are for breeding and their babies will be used to feed the snakes on display) to sell.

The owner then said that he had something very special to show us, something that most people will never see in their lifetimes. He then took us to a cage with two young Cassowary chicks inside. More information on Cassowarys can be found at the Queensland Government’s Enviromental Protection Agency website, as well as Wikipedia.

Cooberrie Park currently has more protected Cassowarys in captivity than any other park or zoo (besides Australia Zoo, which has 5 as well) in Australia. They currently have 3 adults and 2 chicks.

Below are the photos. Sorry for the blurry black lines on the pictures, they’re a result of the wire getting in the way.

The top part of the Cassowary Chick. The head looks a bit like a chook’s head but the obdy shape and colour is totally different.

A full view of the Cassowary. Notice the very distintive black markings running along the body.

The two chicks together in a corner.

Another view of the Cassowary chick.

Well just yesterday we went for a drive up to Stony Creek in Byfield to have a picnic with some friends. I wanted to add a panorama of the Stony Creek crossing to my Yeppoon Photo Panoramas, so I took enough photos of the creek crossing for Photoshop to stich the whole scene together.

Stony Creek is a large camping and picnic area, with the main feature being, of course, the creek that divided those two areas. To cross there is a concrete causeway which is covered by about 10cm of water in normal flow. After heavy rain the picnic area is sometimes cut off because the causeway is too deeply covered.

Stony Creek has many important facilities such as toilets, free gas barbeques, picnic tables, taps, and bushwalks. Because the Stony Creek area is protected, no domestic animals such as dogs or cats are allowed. There is one marked bushwalking track, which winds along beside the creek for kilometres. The main circuit is only about 1km long however.

Camping can be booked through the EPA website.

Below I’ve put in some photos of Stony Creek from the day:

The Stony Creek crossing, looking towards the entrance and camping area.

The Stony Creek swimming area. This is the main swimming area, looking from the road crossing.

Looking in the other direction from the above photo, Stony Creek merrily continuing on its way downstream.

This view shows the platform on the picnic side of Stony. This is where most people jump in the creek from. The drain in the middle helps keep the water level over the crossing down.

Water spilling over the other side of the road crossing.

Looking over the road crossing towards the day use area of Stony Creek.

A small bridge on the main walking track. The blurred corners are an added effect.

One of the many lovely plants growing along the walking track.

Rows of pine trees on either side of the road on the way out from Stony Creek. Again, I’ve added the blurred corners.

Last but not least, above are the two panoramas that I made from photos taken at Stony Creek. Click on the thumbnail images to see the full-size versions.

Recently we drove to Stony Creek for a picnic, and while there I took enough pictures for two different photo panoramas, which you can see below. Just click the thumbnail images to go to the full-size version:

View of Stony Creek Crossing, Byfield, #1. Click photo for larger view.

View of Stony Creek Crossing, Byfield, #2. Click photo for larger view.

Yeppoon Central is the new shopping centre that was opened in Yeppoon around March 2008. Yesterday as we were driving past I decided to take some pictures to make a panorama, and you can see the result at the Yeppoon Central Panorama page. As you can see the stitching is flawless, you can thank Photoshop CS3 for that. I have to confess though that the clouds are fake, the original sky was glary white and I wanted to add some interest. McDonalds can also be seen in the right corner of the shopping centre. They haven’t opened as of the 11th October 2008 but I think they’re going to open really soon.

View of the Yeppoon Central & McDonalds Shopping Centre. Click photo for larger view.

Remember, you can see my full selection of photo panorama at the Yeppoon Photo Panoramas page.