Forget kangaroos: These charming creatures are Australia’s true animal icons

I drive out of Cairns and the road winds upwards into hills dappled with patches of forest and opening to farmland where contemplative cows stand knee-deep in grass. The temperature drops, and humidity dwindles. Then I shoot out into glorious rolling countryside under cloud-clotted skies.

Between the hills, I’m looking for rainforest. Only small pockets remain, but these concentrate wildlife, making the Atherton Tablelands a top nature destination.

The Atherton Tablelands is a top nature destination.Credit: TEQ

But never mind the marsupials, endemic birds and plopping platypus. I’m after dragons that have been lurking here for maybe 20 million years, and can’t be found anywhere else but in the rainforests of Tropical North Queensland.

The casual visitor mightn’t find them at all. Boyd’s forest dragon, a type of tree-dwelling lizard, is camouflaged brown and grey. Its only dash of brighter colour comes from pink cheeks and a yellow dewlap. The biggest males are 15 centimetres long. You have to have sharp eyes – or a helpful guide – to see one.

Boyd’s forest dragon – not only camouflaged; they seldom move.Credit: Alamy

I’ve booked a full-day excursion with James Boettcher, owner of FNQ Nature Tours. He knows everything about the Atherton rainforest. As a teenager, he slept in Curtain Fig Tree with his mate (“we got three hours’ sleep and ended up grumpy”). Then he got himself scientific degrees. His enthusiasm – “holy dooley, that’s incredible!” – remains undimmed whenever we spot a pied monarch or musky rat kangaroo.

Boettcher is knowledgeable and entertaining, but his biggest plus in my eyes is his love for the Boyd’s forest dragon. “It’s my all-time favourite, I have one tattooed on my abdomen,” he tells me proudly, hiking up his shirt.

Boettcher dismisses Australia’s best-known, cuter creatures. “The rainforest is a living museum offering you the old Australia. Rainforest animals should be our true icons, they’ve been here much longer than koalas or kangaroos.”

We spend the morning hunting platypus and tree kangaroos, which Boettcher describes as “ridiculously cryptic and shy”. Don’t look for them up tree trunks, he advises; look instead for their tails hanging down below the tree canopy.

Yet compared to forest dragons, tree kangaroos are show-offs. Our best chance of seeing dragons is at Lake Barrine, where the rainforest is more open and there are so many you might expect one every 100 metres or so.

A fig tree in the Atherton Tableland rainforest.

Most people tramp through and miss them entirely, however. While forest dragons usually sit on tree trunks at convenient human eye level, not only are they camouflaged, but they seldom move. The world’s laziest lizards prefer to wait for insects to wander past – stick insects are a favourite – rather than chase after them.

If they become aware of your presence, forest dragons scuttle around to the far side of their tree trunk like kids playing hide-and-seek, says Boettcher. And unusually among lizards, they don’t need sun to regulate body temperature, preferring deep shade instead.

Is Boettcher trying to dampen my expectations of finding a forest dragon? I hope not. I hope he’s just ramping up the drama. And I do feel like some intrepid explorer headed for a rare experience. Somehow the thought of seeing this diminutive prehistoric creature is curiously exciting.

I step forward cautiously. I duck under tangled lianas and peer at shadowy tree trunks. But it’s Boettcher’s experienced eyes that find me a Boyd’s forest dragon. And then another, and another.

They have long black legs and even longer toes. They have white dots around their necks, watchful black eyes, and what looks like knowing grins. And although forest dragons are as small as children’s toy dinosaurs, they’re satisfyingly dragon-like, with pointy scales and two jagged crests.

Forest dragons are charming little creatures, rare and endearing. They remind me how wonderfully unique Australia is, and why I should go looking more often.

THE DETAILS

TOUR
FNQ Nature Tours runs a full-day personalised Atherton Tablelands tour that takes in destinations such as Lake Barrine, Malanda Conservation Park and Eacham Crater. The cost varies depending on guest numbers, such as $1250 for four. See fnqnaturetours.com.au

STAY
Self-catering timber lodges at Rose Gums Wilderness Retreat sit next to Wooroonooran National Park. Rainforest tracks lead to waterholes and giant gums, and bird life is abundant. Two bedroom lodge from $379 a night. See rosegums.com.au

Brian Johnston travelled as a guest of Tourism Tropical North Queensland. See tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au

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