LIONS' CAMP DUCKADANG
Camp Duckadang is bounded on the eastern side by Avoca
Creek and the Brisbane River on the Southern side. Avoca Creek only flows after
good rains. In dry times the Brisbane River reverts to waterholes with the
Duckadang waterhole being one of the deepest due to its rock bottom. The owners
of the neighbouring Environmental Estate, the late Mr Graham Burnett and Mrs
Valmai Burnett donated the land to the Lions Club. The site was built by the
Lions Club in the early seventies and has continued to grow and be maintained
by many hours of volunteer work on the part of the Lions Clubs of Queensland.
The town of Linville is 12 kilometers south east of
Camp Duckadang. On the 19'h August 1841 the golf our brothers took
up the Colinton Run which covered an area of some 336 000 acres and included
the present site of the town of Linville through to Avocavale to the west of
Duckadang. The Balfours established cattle yards called the "Nine Mile
Yards" in the area around 6reenhide Creek (south of the present town) and
by 1886 a small private township had developed and the "Nine Mile
Receiving Office" opened there in 1898. The town survey of
"Linton" was lodged on the 6th December 1901. This
original plan was situated approximately one kilometer south east of the
present town and the residents chose the name Linton by dropping the syllable
"Co" from Colinton. The postal authorities did not favour this as
there was already a place in Victoria called Linton. A compromise was reached
and the name was changed to Linville in 1905. It became a Post Office in 1910.
Linville State School (on the right as your drive into town) celebrated its
Centenary in 2001.
The first industries in the district were sheep, beef
cattle, dairy cattle and pigs. Beef cattle are the main pastoral industry
today. Red cedar, silky oak and hoop pine was also cut for the timber industry.
The Linville Sawmill still operates and is situated on the left as you drive
through town towards Duckadang. The area also has deposits of gold and coal but
not enough to mine.
Fossil ferns can be
found in the cliff face below the camp. These date back 235 million years (pre
dinosaur).
Fauna abounds in the area. Included in our visitors
are red and grey kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, echidnas, possums, squirrel and
sugar gliders, bandicoots, kangaroo rats, marsupial mice, dingo, hares,
rabbits, deer, fox, brown snakes, red-bellied blacks, taipans, bandy-bandy
snakes, tree snakes and carpet snakes. Frilled lizard, water dragons, platypus,
goana, eels, water rats, long-neck tortoise, saw-edged tortoise, red claw
yabbies, spotted perch, jew fish, cat fish, Yellow Belly and Ceratodus (lung
fish). We feed up to 100 galahs, rainbow lorikeets, apostle birds and crested
pidgeons each day. Other birds around us include kookaburra, kingfisher,
magpie, babbler, scaly-breasted lorikeet, pale-headed rosella, stone curlew,
butcher bird, williewagtail, swallow, martin, finch, wren, quail, hawks,
wedge-tail eagle, plover, blue-faced honey-enters, rainbow bee-enter, noisy
miners, white cockatoo, black cockatoo, king parrots, crows, currawong,
powerful owls, boobook owls (Mopoke), sooty owls, tawny frogmouth, pheasant
coucal, channel-billed cuckoo, dollar birds, ibis, white faced heron, cattle
egret, intermediate egret, shags, dusky moorhen, black and wood ducks, jnbiru.
pelican and black swan. The green frogs, stoneycreek frogs, emerald-spotted
tree frogs and striped marsh frogs think the toilets at Duckadang are a
wonderful environmental innovation by Camp Duckadang! Please understand their
choice of home when attending to our human needs.
These are the
visitors we are aware of. Please let us know if you see anymore, as we are sure
they are out there!
We feed the birds and treat our wildlife visitors with
the greatest respect - please don't allow children/adults to chase or threaten
the birds - especially the magpies. Our policy of "we won't threaten you if you return the favour in nesting seoson" has proved successful. Please support our
care for them when you share their space.