We packed up and made plans for our next adventure, WWOOFing, which stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Basically it involves staying at a private property - which is usually a farm, but can be bush, a sheep station, or a house with a modest yard – with free room and board in exchange for a few hours of work each day. We booked a bus trip along the coast north to Port Douglas and it turned out to be a beautiful ride. Some of the beaches were occupied by resorts, but most were deserted and covered with sand and large black rocks, which we later learned were former corals. Mangroves were present along more protected shores and impressed us with their prop roots, dense branches and leaves. Mike*, our host, picked us up in Port Douglas and we headed to the grocery store to get supplies for the week. We took a very curvy and swervy ride into the mountains and Atherton Tablelands, including over dirt and gravel roads, to get to his property. We did a short bit of work, graveling a garden path, interspersed with a tour of the bush and rainforest. We were thrilled to be at Sugarcane* Creek!
By working on the property, we could slowly soak up the land and look at it again and again until we had truly been there and not just toured.
In planning our backpacking trip across Australia we were excited to include several weeks of WWOOFing as a way to meet and get to know several Aussies and give back time and energy to this awesome environment. Our time at Sugarcane Creek fulfilled all of our desires and more. We were very impressed by Mike’s eco-friendly home, which he built himself. It is powered by solar energy, has a composting toilet that requires no water or chemical treatment, and has a grey water system that naturally treats all water used in the home. There are fresh eggs laid daily by the chooks (i.e. chickens) and a vegetable and fruit garden provides all the fresh produce you could ever need. I hope Jonathan and I have an eco-house in the woods some day!
We worked on a variety of projects while at Sugarcane Creek. Much of our time was spentremoving Lanata, an invasive garden shrub (originally from South America) which forms dense walls at the edge of the rainforest. This dense growth smothers existing rainforest trees and prevents new seedlings from growing. We encouraged the growth of grass trees, a rareAustralian plant which grows in open forests, by removing abundant she-oak saplings that were providing too much shade and setting a controlled burn to provide frequent fire. We also finished graveling the garden and rainforest paths.
In our free time we relaxed, read, toured various tracks throughout the property, swum and hiked around Molloy Lagoon, and were treated to lunch at an Aussie pub. I also voraciously read several of Mike’s Australian flora and fauna reference booksand he gave me several botany lessons on the differences between Eucalypts and Melalucas. It was very satisfying to learn more about the land we were travelling through.
The wildlife on the property was also memorable. We spotted a Boyd’s Forest Dragon clinging to the lantana, were greeted by a green tree frog in the dunny (i.e. bathroom), enjoyed the kookaburras laughing at dusk in the front yard, and watched colourful birds flit around at Molloy Lagoon. Going for a night walk and watching sun rise and sunset from a lookout point on the property were well worth it. The sounds of birds and other animals are noticeably different depending on whether it is daylight or night time. The lookout point allowed us to see the rainforest lining the creek as well as the sugarcane paddock of the surrounding properties. The sun glistened off the cane heads in a silvery light.
Once again I was enthralled by the texture of Australian vegetation. The juxtaposition of ‘bush’ versus rainforest was amazing in terms of bark, leaf shape, presence of vines, and openness of the canopy. In one location on the property a paperbark swamp is on one side of the track and rainforest is on the other. It is amazing to look at both distinct ecosystems, each with quite different visual attributes, in one glance.
The biggest challenges we faced were rounding up the chooks at the end of the day, chickens are not the smartest of creatures, and dealing with Clancy the dog who was half Australian cattle dog and half Kelpy. Clancy insisted that he follow us everywhere – in the back of the jeep, to the rainforest edge where we pulled up lantana, and on walks around the property. He did not have the greatest manners – we couldn’t leave clothes or books outside or he would chew them up and every time we went outside we wore our dog ‘armor’ (i.e. old work clothes) because inevitably he would jump up on us. Eventually, after a week, we succeeded in getting him to learn the word ‘off.’
We worked alongside another WWOOFer from France, Elizabeth*. We helped to translate from time to time, but assured Elizabeth that her English was much better than our French. In the evenings the three of us enjoyed cooking up tasty meals and talking over dinner. In a time when there are so many pressing environmental issues, it is great to know that Mike is working so hard to expand the rainforest and manage other special environments on his property. As Mike observed, this is one of the few places in the world where the amount of rainforest is actually increasing. We are pleased and honoured to have been a small part of what goes on at Sugarcane Creek.
*Note: People and place names have been changed to provide anonymity.
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