I'd almost love a job like that for the birdwatching.
Only managed a few inland trips in FNQ and SA so far.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Tue 7 Aug 2012, 12:53, 1 reply)

Dusk in Western Qld is great.
There is a lot of birdlife that we take for granted in Australia.

Tonight, I've arrived onsite, was having my habiual coffee and ciggie admiring the dusk, when a huge flock of sulpher crested cockatoos wheeled around and alighted in a big Gum Tree, all making the raucous noises that Australian birds do. Must have been 100 birds.

As we walk through the paddocks, the Rail (Quail??) burst from under your feet, literally, they wait in hiding until the last second and burst from cover with enormous noise. Scares the fuck out of you.

But the most impressive is the huge eagles that feed off the road kill (squashed kangaroos and the like). They are natural carrion feeders, and they are absolutely huge. I have crested a rise on a bush track and come across 5 huge eagles feasting on a dead kangaroo. They have a massive wingspan, and only just get airborne to avoid the truck. I'd not want to mix with one, the claws look like they'd rip your face off.

And once, out towards Birdsville (ha ha) I saw a huge black cloud of wild Budgies, they are about 1/3rd the size of fat domestic Budgies, and fly around in their 1,000's. It looks like a mobile thundercloud.

The weirdest creature was a Plains Turkey (Bustard). They puff our their throat when threatend, and aren't afraid of anyone. I was working near an Aboriginal community a couple of years ago, and they speared one, cooked it on the fire for me to try. It was like Turkey in taste. Kept some in the lunchbox for the long drive the next day. I pulled up at a bore to get a drink, and there was a big sign saying they were a rare bird. Mine was pretty well cooked, I thought.
( Ken Oath, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 14:21, closed)

I once worked at a mine in the the great sandy desert where there were a lot of birds after the rains in jan/feb
then we built a big lake full of cyanide for the heap leach, and for a few months there were a lot of dead birds, then not so many. And a few months after that the enviro inspecter came out and said everything was fine. the cyanide lake wasn't having an impact on the birdlife. it couldn't because most of it was already dead
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 7 Aug 2012, 22:02, closed)