better late than never - WBC 08 Cairns - Part 4

15 years ago

Hey to all bromaniacs!

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

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

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3. Furry heliconia

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4. Peter with gingers

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5. Ginger

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6. Art in nature

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

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8. Ae. dichlamydea v. trinitensis and palm

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9. Cut flowers

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10. More cut flowers

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11. Part of the playground

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12. More gingers

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

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14. Alcantarea imperialis type (brasiliensis?)

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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.

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16. The ferry crossing.

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17. The other side.

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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?

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19. Another of this beautiful tree in flower.

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

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21. Broms in heaven.

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22. Another furry heliconia.

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23. Unknown orchid - anyone?

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24. Ae. zebrina in trees

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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

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Comments (13)

philofan
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
A very nice photo journey, and a nice segue into the work week. Looking forward to the 5th part. Thanks, Kerry!
avane_gw
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Kerry, I love that variegated Vanilla orchid! Its'nt it beautiful the way a vanilla allways go zig-zagging up a tree trunk? And that unidentified orchid, the colour pattern of the flowers reminds me very much of a Ansellia but the shape of the flowers and whole inflorescence looks much more like a Phalaenopsis. So maybe a cross between the two?

Very nice picture tour!

Japie
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rickta66
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Kerry,

Nice pics, looking forward to part 5.

Thanks,

Rick
hotdiggetydam
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBeautiful Kerry....
udo69
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi All,

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
bromcrazy
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Kerry,

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
splinter1804
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Kerry - Thanks once again for a wonderful photo journey - As your mate says, there's more to life than just broms. What a botanical trip and what beautiful plant varieties there are when you look past the broms. Your pics brought back great memories of a trip my wife and I did up there some years back. I really think you and Stephania should consider joining forces and doing a photo book or a DVD on "The Wonders of Nature".

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
bromadams
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I always protest against volcanic eruptions. They destroy the environment and release vast amounts of C02. I've been to Mt St. Helens and it's horrible. We shouldn't allow those volcanos to just erupt anytime they want.
User
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
??????????

Anyway Kerry, I think my keyboard's gonna short out from all my slobbering!
sander_s
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Good stuff Kerry keep em coming.

Sander
ozvon
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Kerry,

Those helconias are magic.
aroideana
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Ah the office , I lived and worked at Whyanbeel for nearly 10 years ,, it is a wonderful playground .
kerry_t_australia
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Glad you enjoyed the tour, brom friends. Thanks for the appreciative comments - and you're welcome :)

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