It's been a bit quiet on GW of late, and Neville's kind words have encouraged me to post some more pics of the World Brom Conference in Cairns, end of June, 08.

PART 4 consists of pics taken on my last day in Cairns. There was a booked-out bus trip to Whyanbeel Arboretum - nursery of Peter Sargent - north of Cairns near Mossman, the start of The Daintree National Forest.
Peter kindly invited us to visit after the conference crowd had been through, so we hired a car and did just that. Unfortunately, we didn't see Peter's family home garden, reported to be outstanding, but his nursery - or "playground" as Peter calls it - was just wonderful. There are avenues of established rare palms, gingers, heliconias, soooo many rare tropical plants, as well as broms of course.

Many of these pics might be deemed OT, but as my best brom-mate says....."Kez, there's more to life than broms!"

Here goes....

1. On way to Whyanbeel

2. Hawk-winged moth on Ae. blanchetiana flower spike.

3. Furry heliconia

4. Peter with gingers

5. Ginger

6. Art in nature

7. More art in nature - with the help of a saw

8. Ae. dichlamydea v. trinitensis and palm

9. Cut flowers

10. More cut flowers

11. Part of the playground

12. More gingers

13. Another part of the playground, and natural water source.

14. Alcantarea imperialis type (brasiliensis?)

15. Bit of a diversion here. Before visiting Peter's nursery, we went a bit further north to the Daintree River and its ferry which takes cars over to the dirt-road and wilderness of The Daintree Rain Forest. This is the furthest north I have been in Australia.

16. The ferry crossing.

17. The other side.

18. Back to pics of Whyanbeel Arboretum. This is some rare tropical tree which bears its flowers on the trunk. Don't know its name - anyone?

19. Another of this beautiful tree in flower.

20. Amazing palm which has spores shaped like wriggly worms.

21. Broms in heaven.

22. Another furry heliconia.

23. Unknown orchid - anyone?

24. Ae. zebrina in trees

So that was my glimpse of Whyanbeel Arboretum - not a bad way to finish the conference :)

I have lots more photos which I will lump together and dump on you all for WBC 08 Cairns - PART 5 - the final chapter.......shortly.

Cheers,
Kerry

Very nice picture tour!

Japie

Nice pics, looking forward to part 5.

Thanks,

Rick

Very nice photos. I like those blue flowers of Ae. dichlamydea v. trinitensis. The orchids in pic.23 should be Vandopsis lissochiloides. It is a native orchid of Thailand, found in northeastern part and related to Vanda.

Have fun
Yong

Great pics!

I couldn't tell from the photos if you made the Daintree crossing or not? I have ventured as far as 'that sign' a few times, and then lost my nerve. Have you seen how far those things can propel themselves out of the water?!!!

The unusual tree flowering directly from the trunk looks like Saraca thaipingensis, a native of Malaysia; and those pink and red gingers are gorgeous. Oh... and to stray back onto topic, the gingers provide the perfect light for an under-planting of shade loving broms.

Looking forward to Part 5.

Cheers,
S

Bromcrazy - We crossed the river and went on a day trip up "the dirt track" which all the protests were about when it was originally pushed through the rainforest. The driver of the 4X4 told us they now need a permanent maintenance crew to stop the rainforest from taking over the road again, so it didn't harm the environment all that much as the rainforest was right to the edge of the road when we went.
However he did show us an area which was cleared and had a couple of rusty old VW vans covered in weeds and heaps of rusty cans and plastic bottles scattered around. Yes you've guessed it, that was the camp of the "professional protesters" and probably the only real damage to the environment.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with reasonable protests against any threats to the environment, what I don't agree with is the "ratbag element" who get on the band waggon, cause environmental damage themselves and pretend to be protesters only to get genuinne protesters a bad name.
Gee I feel better now that I've got all that off my chest.

I will get down off my soap box now - All the best, Nev

Anyway Kerry, I think my keyboard's gonna short out from all my slobbering!

Sander

Those helconias are magic.

Nev - you say the sweetest things!

Bromcrazy Shirlene - I took those pics from the south side of The Daintree River. I would have liked to cross it, and venture further north a bit, but they don't let hire cars over - probably due to insurance risk on dirt road.

Thanks for the IDs of the orchid, Yong, and the Saraca tree, Shirlene.

'Roid - must have been tough (not!) working in THAT office each day!

Cheers for now,
Kerry