Utchee Creek Farm

Utchee Creek Farm We came to retire to a 10 acre papaya farm in the Wet Tropics Dec 2021. Join our journey of sweat, learning and friendships.

Weeds quickly became our biggest challenge, so we embarked on converting the farm to food production and rainforest regeneration.

06/09/2026

Finally got around to getting rid of the golden cane palms growing at the front. Cut with chainsaw to around 1' from the ground and immediately sprayed the stumps with a strong glyphosate mix. I'll eventually build the garden bed up again with organic matter and plant out low growing natives and food plants, like pineapples. Plenty of epiphytes also turn up naturally in the area.

06/09/2026

The mulberries are on !

06/09/2026

Had a visit from this metallic starling earlier today (Aplornis metallica). Knocked itself out flying into a glass door. These birds migrate to here from New Guinea every year, arriving around August to nest and breed, departing again around March. They make distinctive hanging nests and are
nearly always in groups, making a distinctive whooshing sound as they fly around together. This one looked to have made a complete recovery.

23/08/2026

I was collecting some native raspberries for a smoothie and got distracted by the insect action on a flowering powder puff lilly pilly. As you do..😄

Yesterday I came across this curious small nest in a Melicope rubra shrub. After some research it appears to be the nest...
22/08/2026

Yesterday I came across this curious small nest in a Melicope rubra shrub. After some research it appears to be the nest of 'rattle ants' aka 'spiny ants' of the genus Polyrhachis and likely sub-genus Cyrtomyrma.

Interestingly the nest is made of debris and a silky golden thread produced by the ants' larvae that is harvested and formed by the workers of the species.

Exciting !! Fruit forming for the first time on 2 of 3 lychee bushes I bought from the local legend Evonne Cunningham a ...
18/08/2026

Exciting !! Fruit forming for the first time on 2 of 3 lychee bushes I bought from the local legend Evonne Cunningham a couple of years ago. Each one is a different variety so hopefully the third one will fruit too, later. 😋😋

Also a couple of cute baby pineapples forming, grown from the tops of others.

Spotted these little cuties when I was out and about today, down near the footbridge. Emerald doves (Chalcophaps longiro...
09/08/2026

Spotted these little cuties when I was out and about today, down near the footbridge. Emerald doves (Chalcophaps longirostris) feeding on the ground under a fruiting bleeding heart tree (Homalanthus novoguineensis). I'm guessing they were eating the fruit dropping from a group of metallic starlings that were feeding in the canopy.

Got a few things germinating at the moment. It pays to be patient as you can see by the dates on the tags. Germinating a...
09/08/2026

Got a few things germinating at the moment. It pays to be patient as you can see by the dates on the tags.

Germinating are:

Pandanus monticola - a handsome relatively small pandanus with attractive red fruits

Cerbera manghas aka Dog bane. Close relative of Cerbera floribunda aka Cassowary plum. Both highly toxic to humans but a favoured food of the Southern Cassowary that inhabit these areas.

Irvingbaileya australis - I'm especially excited about this one as the fruit are so bizarre. I posted on these back in Oct last year (I think) - will include the photos again.

A mystery plant growing creekside at my neighbour Carlo's place. I'll grow it on and should be able to identify it when it flowers and fruits.

Did some native raspberry picking today (Rubus probus aka Atherton raspberry). Made a delicious smoothie and blended and...
09/08/2026

Did some native raspberry picking today (Rubus probus aka Atherton raspberry). Made a delicious smoothie and blended and froze the rest 😋

09/08/2026

In the main gully, on the footbridge.

In hindsight the plant I thought was a Grevillea (baileyana) was more likely a young Darlingia darlingiana.

This was all guinea grass and Chinese raspberry (giant bramble) a couple of years ago.

Address

Utchee Creek Road
Utchee Creek, QLD
4871

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