May 15th

 A kangaroo we saw before heading on our tour of the Undara Lava Tubes.  

In the inside of the Undara Lava Tubes.

 We stayed overnight at Discovery Park Mount Surprise, where our accommodations were cabins spread throughout this park. Our day was bright and early, with breakfast at 6:30. We had an excellent buffet with toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, coffee, and juice. We next got on our bus and headed a short drive to the Undara Lava Tubes. We went on a guided tour through some of these lava tubes and learned the history.  The Undara Lava Tube is the third youngest in Australia, 190,000 years old. It spans over 160 kilometers, going through Mount Surprise. Thirty million years ago, the volcanic eruptions on the Great Divide over the tectonic plates started. Even though the eruptions started 30 million years ago, most of the eruptions happened 5-8 million years ago. This was a cattle station in 1860, and in the 1960s, the family started talking to the Queensland government about making the lava tubes in surrounding areas a national park. In 1992, the Queensland government purchased this land to become a national park. We learned much about the lava from this volcanic eruption; it was 1220 degrees Celsius. This lava was the longest lava flow in the world, enough to fill the Sydney harbor six times. Throughout these tubes, rods were used to measure rock movement over the year for research purposes and safety. 

 These rods measure rock movement in the lava tubes for research and safety reasons.  

 We saw a cane toad deep in one of the lava tubes.

While on the guided tour, our group learned that Australia introduced cane toads to combat cane beetles, destroying cane sugar crops and detrimental to the Australian cane sugar economy.  However, the cane toads are a problem because they are poisonous to other animals.

               

Angus & Redbell cattle at the cattle station

We then headed on a two-hour bus ride to Carpentaria Downs, a family-owned Angus and Red Bell cattle station. We first ate a traditional lunch brat wrapped in a tortilla, which gave us a small taste of home. This station was home to 25,000 head and 400,000 acres, featuring 40 paddocks. We then learned a little about their cattle process; they round up twice a year to brand, wean, and evaluate cattle for ticks at this station. The station also utilizes a system of creeks and dams as piped water to holding tanks to ensure cattle have access to water in all paddocks. The way they combat ticks is by running cattle through a dip. This was interesting because only a few students on this trip had heard of or seen cattle dipping. We learned that this cattle operation is very vertically integrated in the sense that the family owns the cattle and a processing facility. Since they own the processing facility, they are one of few on-farm export-accredited abattoirs in Australia.  

 Up close look at the Angus cattle 

               After visiting the cattle station, we started our adventure back to Mount Surprise, where we were fed supper and relaxed before our adventures tomorrow. We noticed many similarities and differences at the Carpentaria Downs cattle station. Some practices are prevalent in the United States, while other common practices have been eliminated back home. Thanks for following along on today’s journey. Keep a look out for the next blog post, coming soon! 

Student group sporting their SDSU Ag Day shirts