Fitzroy Station Toad Bust Weekend II Aug 19 th- 20 th 2006.

Report By David Woods

Crew: Chris Shaw, Desanka Mijovic, Mike Shaw, Syd Eru and Dave Woods

Junior Toadbusters: Maddison Shaw, Christen Mijovic, Nadia Cummings and Toia Cummings

 

We arrived at our campsite near Fitzroy Falls on the Victoria River by mid afternoon on Saturday. The kids excited to finally be here were in no time off to check the place out. Mike, Chris’s Dad who was visiting from Bunbury wasn’t far behind them. The rest of the crew had a cool beverage to help them get into the mood of this beautiful place. It wasn’t long before Mike had come back to report that there was a dead crocodile on a rock just above the top of the waterfall. As it was not far from waters edge it would be easy to get to.

Desanka was cool about doing another autopsy so she grabbed a knife, some gloves and headed to the waters edge. I followed with my camera, as it is important to record our observations. When we got close to the dead croc we could see that abdominal area was bruised black and blue, exactly like the crocodile we did an autopsy on last week that had eaten two toads. We are thinking this may be the sign of a poisoned crocodile. Desanka waded out in the shallow water and grabbed the croc.

It was rather bloated and had obviously been sitting in the sun for a few days. After grabbing the croc by the tail, Desanka then carried it back to the shore and began the Autopsy. Although the contents of the stomach had mostly broken down, it was obvious from the bones and some undigested skin that it was indeed the remains of a toad. This was sad, as it was our second dead croc in the area, from toads, in only a week.

The afternoon went quickly as we prepared ourselves for the nightly toad bust. As soon as dinner was done the kids were keen to get busting. After being given a headlight and a net each, they were off into the night. Syd was not far behind them as he was keen to join in on the action. It wasn’t long before all the kids had got their first toads for the night. Shortly after Mike and Chris went off in the other direction hunting for toads. A couple of hours toad busting had worn the kids out and back to camp they came with a big bag of toads in tow. An outstanding effort from the Junior Toad Busters once again!

Desanka sorted the kids out whilst I readied the quad bikes for the evenings mission. Syd cooked up a storm needing both the fire and the stove to cook on. Chris and Mike came back with over 50 toads and reports of a very large but grumpy python over 4.5 meters long! Chris took us back to the python and it was amazing to see. Great to see this beautiful reptile alive and well, in an area infested with toads. Although I do hope it knows what is good for it!

We then took the bikes up to Turtle pool, as this permanent waterhole is only 5 kilometres from the Victoria River. Before we even got their Chris spotted a toad in the middle of the track. An average sized male well away from water and in good shape. I G.P.S’d the location and the toad was 2.2 km from the nearest permanent water! We were now certain to find toads at Turtle Pool and that was soon confirmed.

We spent over an hour collecting Toads at Turtle Pool, Desanka Chris and myself amounting to 114 Toads. This waterhole will need some regular busting over the coming months. It was back to camp for a warm beverage before getting some rest for the next days adventure.

Toads were finally weighed, measured and dispatched by Syd and Desanka, Whilst Chris and I took the Quads down to Wickham Heights. The last wet made a mess of this section of track but this is where the quads are so helpful as it took only about 20 mins to get down into this remote corner of the Victoria River

As a large creek entered the river here, I knew that this would be perfect habitat for the Toads and this is where we would more than likely find them. After checking the general area and finding another dead freshwater crocodile we observed the same bruised abdomen area as the other poisoned crocs. We hadn’t a knife with us so we couldn’t do an autopsy but a sure bet it was poisoned. Also Toad tracks were found in the sand by Chris. We went to the creek mouth and within about 10 seconds Chris was dragging toads from the cracks in the mud, you can imagine the Toads dismay. 21 were collected from this one creek mouth.

The rest of the crew packed up Camp and when Chris and I arrived back from Wickham Heights it was all done. So after a quick wash in the river we began our drive back to Kununurra. A total of 229 Toads were busted for this trip. It is now evident this beautiful area will require regular busting before next wet.

Many thanks to all involved all of the crew that dedicate their time midweek to make these trips happen as these weekends require considerable preparation Special thanks to Chris and Desanka as your efforts are greatly appreciated! Also to have three generations of Shaw’s on one toad bust is fantastic. Thanks to Mike for showing enough interest in our cause to get involved whilst visiting. And the biggest thanks goes to our junior Toad Busters who once again did an excellent job busting the terrible Toads and are most welcome on our future trips. Thanks Heaps!!