One of the problems of sharing a domicile with someone who's a keen photographer into taking pictures of various forms of vegetation is the unwillingness of the North Queensland climate to throw up anything significant in the way of seasonal variation.

There's the old wet season, dry season dichotomy, of course, and the rain forest is almost invariably green, and there's plenty of worthy subject matter under the verdant verges, but for seasonal variation you really need to go somewhere where it actually gets cold, as in really cold, not the week some time between early May and late August when the North Queensland mercury plunges into single figures.

Which explains the decision to set out in April and head as far south as Canberra.