The latest Bush Blitz species discovery expedition is taking place in Rungulla National Park, spectacular rugged country, 500 km southwest of Cairns.

Rungulla (pronounced Roong-ala) National Park is on Ewamian (pronounced Oor-a-min) Country and is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. We are working with Ewamian cultural representatives, park rangers and scientists to record the plants and animals that call Rungulla home, and hopefully discover a few new species.

The team was welcomed on Country by Ewamian representatives, who are working alongside our scientists, sharing their knowledge of Country with us.

The scientists are specialist taxonomists from the Queensland Museum, Queensland Herbarium, Australian Tropical Herbarium, University of NSW and Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). The rugged nature of the park means a helicopter is needed to transport taxonomists to sampling sites. After being out in the field all day, they work hard each evening in the expedition field lab to analyse what they’ve collected.

Chris Burwell from Queensland Museum has been busy collecting dragonflies and damselflies. In the first week he recorded 14 species that were new records for the park.