Local tour skipper and guide Graeme Challis is waiting for us at Ellis Street Jetty where his tour boat Dolphin Discoverer awaits. We’re off to discover the lower wetlands of the Blackwood River with Augusta River Tours, Augusta.
At 270km, Blackwood River is Western Australia’s longest continually flowing river ending in the Hardy Inlet. This unique section of the river offers an abundance of unspoiled scenery, the greatest number and variety of birdlife in the South West, and calm, glassy waters. We’re in for a treat.
“It’s like its own ecosystem down here in Augusta,” he says as he points towards the afternoon sky. To the east, unbroken clear skies and sunshine over sandbanks and shrub, to the west, dark blue moody clouds over wading birds and the odd person hoping to catch a whiting for dinner. Witnessing from the river boat what seems to be a daily phenomenon on the river, makes you feel part of that very ecosystem.
Quietly cruising towards Molloy Island, we pass through a canal so narrow you can almost reach the bush each side. You can hear the birds in all directions as the boat cuts the silk water ever so quietly. Our heads turn quickly left and right not to miss a thing as Graeme points out the countless carnivorous musk ducks, ospreys (and their nests), spoonbills, pied cormorants and darters.
“Foxes and other predators can’t reach the small islands, so as you can see, many bird species naturally thrive here.” And so do we, to say the least.
Read on for more of Graeme’s local favourites.
Photos by Tim Campell.
