Students QuestaGame Success

I was first introduced to QuestaGame  by Mr Cumming and Mrs Bruce when I was a Year 7 student, as part of Bush Rangers. QuestaGame is the world's first mobile citizen science game that takes you outdoors to discover, map and help contribute to real research and conservation.

In 2021, I participated in an Australia wide "Bio-Quest" Competition for school students which sponsored by the Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. I placed second for identification, first for observing, won national MVP and, with a score of 1260, placed 1st overall. The Prize for winning "Most Valuable Player" was $1000 for a trip to Cairns in Queensland.

After the WA border opened in early 2022, I was very excited to be able to actually go on the trip, and on the 10 April 2022 I flew into Cairns accompanied by my mother. A highlight of the flight was seeing Uluru out the plane window. We arrived at our hotel at about mid-afternoon and took a walk down by the beach before having dinner. The coast is very different to the Perth coast. It is mainly just a huge mud flat with the odd mangrove sapling every so often. There were tonnes of epiphytic ferns covering the trees that were on the shore.

The next day we travelled by bus to James Cook University (JCU), which is the Head Quarters of QuestaGame. I met with the creator of QuestaGame, Mallika Robinson, in the JCU Ideas Lab. We had morning tea and discussed the good things about the game, and she asked for my advice about what could be improved, and she told me about some new developments that are in the works. Mallika then took us a tour of the campus, where we observed a wide variety of different invertebrates, including about 6 species of butterfly, a damselfly and dragonfly, as well as many species of birds that I had never seen before. We then went to the Cairns Botanical Gardens. We attempted to do a 2.5km hike into the mountains but it started pouring down with rain so we hung out in the café for a bit then wandered through the Botanical Gardens. There were many tropical plant species, including orchids, bromeliads and heliconia. We also went for a walk down a board walk which led to two small lakes that are filled with lily pads.

The next day was probably the highlight of the trip as we went on a 7hr snorkel and dive tour on Flynn Reef, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. I was a rough hour-and-a-half boat ride out to the reef with the swell reaching 1.5 metres but, thanks to the great sea-sickness pills we took beforehand, I didn't feel sick at all, and actually found the ride rather enjoyable. We went to three different dive spots on Flynn Reef and stayed at each for about an hour and a bit. The first spot was rather shallow (1-6m deep). The reef was very colourful and was dominated by hard corals. The water was quite warm and there were lots of little damselfish hiding in the coral. We were greeted by a large male Humphead Māori Wrasse which swam leisurely around the small coral bommies. The Humphead Māori Wrasse is the largest wrasse species, growing up to 2.2m in length and weighing up to 180kg. The second dive spot we when to was definitely the best of the three. It was the deepest dive spot (up to 25m deep) and there were enormous coral bommies rising up from the depths. Coral grows relatively slowly, so these bommies were likely well over 15,000 years old. There were multiple snapper species including one of may favourites, the Black-and-White Snapper. There were also multiple species of anemonefish (clownfish). The giant bommies created huge caves where I found a group of an iconic Great Barrier Reef fish species, the Oblique-Banded Sweetlips. The third and final dive spot was basically just a giant coral-covered slope rising upwards. Lots of people saw a whitetip reef shark at this spot but unfortunately, we missed it.

  The next day we went to the Cairns Aquarium. The aquarium had a really cool freshwater section that had mangrove jack, barramundi and freshwater moray eels. The largest tank was filled with lots of sharks and large rays, as well as a couple large groupers. That afternoon, we went on a guided tour of the Atherton Tablelands. To get to the Tablelands, we had to drive on a road that had 260 turns over 9km which was very painful. Our first destination was Lake Barrine. While we were having an afternoon snack, I went for a quick look of the jungle surrounding the picnic area we were at and spotted a Boyd's Forest Dragon. During the tour we saw two huge Strangler Fig Trees which were very impressive. We saw many mammal species including rat-kangaroos, green ringtail possums (which are very rare) and platypus. We went looking for tree kangaroos but didn't see any. We also spotted some saw-shelled turtles in one of the rivers we visited.

  On the final day, we tried to do the hike by the Botanical Gardens again and, of course, it started raining just as we were about to start the hike. We ended up doing the hike despite the rain and saw a red-legged pademelon. We also went for a walk along the large mangrove forest where we saw some beautiful Compressed Fiddler Crabs and some mudskippers. While we were walking back to the bus stop, a flock of Spectacled Flying Foxes flew overhead and started feeding in some gum trees.

  Our flight back home was that night. Overall, it was an amazing trip and I really want to thank the Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries  and QuestaGame for making it possible.

By Samuel McLaughlin

Since Samuel's trip to Queensland he has won more QuestaGame awards. As his player username Animalia, Samuel won the following prizes for the Global P-12 Schools April BioGuest 2022:

  • Champion Identifier Winner – 1st Place
  • Champion Spotter Winner – 2nd Place
  • Most Valuable Player (Winner)

Feedback from the judges: Some fantastic photos & I am sure you have developed a keen eye for the World around you. I also hope that you experience something different when you see a species you know, something richer OR the excitement of seeing something unknown. I hope you continue your path of knowledge & understanding.

Congratulations Samuel.