Wild palms of Cattana Wetlands

[Yunder Wækraus]

Cattana Wetlands Environmental Park is in the northern suburbs of Cairns. (It’s about 15 minutes south of our house.) It was sugarcane fields and sand pits in the 20th century. The government reclaimed it in an effort to save one of the last large stands of Alexander palms in the area. They restored the surrounding wetland and planted tens of thousands of trees and shrubs. Many of this replanted vegetation is now 30 years old. How many palm species can you spot? (Name them in the comments!)

[Tyrone]

What a great place. Thanks for sharing. 

[peachy]

Thank you so much for showing us such gorgeous photos of the Cattana Wetlands.  All those Licuala ooooh !  I had often wondered what  it looked like and knew it was somewhere I would never be able to visit, so it was a treat to see so much of it in such detail.

Peachy

[RichardHemsley]

Simply stunning.  A palm lovers paradise

[tropicbreeze]

In my teens I worked on cane farms around there. It's amazing to see how well they can rehabilitate the land if they really try. It won't ever be what it was before human intervention, but it's certainly far better than where it was heading.

[Yunder Wækraus]

2 hours ago, tropicbreeze said:

In my teens I worked on cane farms around there. It's amazing to see how well they can rehabilitate the land if they really try. It won't ever be what it was before human intervention, but it's certainly far better than where it was heading.

I believe the patch of swampy paperbark and feather palms near the boundary  is original and not replanted 

[tropicbreeze]

There's 5 farms I worked there, 4 off Yorkey's Knob Rd and the other in Smithfield (swallowed up by housing development now). One of those was around Robinson Rd. But there was a lot of sand mining going on around the place. At the time the Holloways Beach one was the biggest, from memory. They were concerned the sea might break into the diggings and undermine the community. They didn't seem concerned by operations further away from the coast and any environmental issues there.

 

[John hovancsek]

How stunning. L. Ramsii is one of my favorites 

[johnnymak]

I love Cattana, it's under utilised so usually quite peaceful!