The immediate area is home to over 200 species of birds and Lotusbird Lodge was named after the Jacana (Lotusbirds) that inhabit the billabong. While not a dedicated bird watchers lodge, bird watching is one of the major activities of the lodge. We do not have a resident naturalist but avid bird watchers can be pointed in the right direction.
You can enjoy the tranquility of the Australian bush from your verandah, or take a self guided nature walk along marked trails through the myriad of rare local plants and flowers, and experience encounters with dingoes, wallabies, goannas, and frilled lizards.
We are also just 9 kilometres from Lakefield National Park.
Lakefield National Park
At 537,000ha, Lakefield National Park on Cape York Peninsula is Queensland’s second largest park. The park is drained by large rivers and contains spectacular wetlands and is home to waterbirds, barramundi and estuarine and freshwater crocodiles. Rivers become a series of waterholes in the dry season but the wet season transforms the park into a vast inaccessible wetland.
Lakefield has a rich and varied landscape with river estuaries, mangroves and mudflats to the north around Princess Charlotte Bay, extensive grasslands and eucalypt and paperbark woodlands on the river floodplains, and sandstone hills and escarpments to the south. Patches of the unusual Corypha utan palm grow in the grasslands on the marine plain.
Gallery rainforest fringes parts of the Normanby and Kennedy Rivers. The park is a wildlife refuge and home to several rare or threatened animals including the star finch, red goshawk, Lakeland Downs mouse and spectacled hare-wallaby.
Recreational fishing and boating are allowed in the park. Size and bag limits apply to barramundi. The Bizant boat ramp provides the best access to Princess Charlotte Bay.
Canoeing is not recommended because this is crocodile country. Estuarine crocodiles live in the rivers and waterholes in this park. For your safety, never swim, canoe, clean fish or prepare food at the water’s edge, or camp close to deep waterholes. Be croc-wise.
