> 28 April 1960
Arrived Cue then Wilgie Mia 2pm. Examined hill and caves, entered adit under the hill, collected numbers of small rats in roof - end of cave above adit undisturbed : soot in ceiling, piles of stones for hammering, digging sticks and chisel-like sticks, shot Typhozous georgianus problem of ochre in fur [WR68a], [WR68b], [WR69a], [WR696].
> 29 April.
Photographed and mapped present open cut entrance to cave, 280 degrees to west, found place where Woodward had photographed and did some. Found place where implements were made about 200 degrees to the west of the cave. Many minerals not expected: opal, agate, greenstone etc., no sign of the greenstone outcrops described by de la Hunty's description of the ranges. In afternoon entered cave, collected 1 Eptesicus & 2 Typhozous alive. found a good section original cave floor in west end of cave also tunnels where the native miners had followed the seams of ochre ; collected artifacts from the exposure of sediments also wood for dating.
> 30 April, Saturday.
Spent day working in cave, photographing, mapping, sieving sediments, exploring few remaining native workings. Their technique seems to have been to follow veins of good ochre through small tunnels etc divided by partition walls of haematite, ladders of trees used. Sieved sediments between 8 - 11 ft. below surface, obtained flakes - temp. at 1700 hr 62 degrees F inside cave. Collected large quantities found by the leaching out of droppings. After dark adult Typhozous left cave leaving young in the walls, these were about 2/3 the size of the adults. Adults and young had previously been together.
5 p. of local aboriginal words : local people Wirraji [Wajarri?], sketch of area.
> 1 May, Sunday.
1. The animals seem to fit their breeding into the period when things are abundant.
2. D.... alternate 6 months (Nov - May) wet, 6 months poor.
3. These animals are summer breeders but are they.... species which just receive an annual good time one ... they .... ? Magpie geese have the same climatic distribution (roughly) and these are Eyrean in behaviour. When the good time doesn't come they fail to breed.
4. Detailed distribution of these small mammals: Land in winter laterite high ground....., woodland, pandanus, paperbark, grasslands- frost(floods). Flooded in year to depth of several feet, flood plain of rivers. These mammals back ocena(?) in the pandanus and the paperbark grasslands
5. On animal patches of acacia scrub in highest ground in floodplain Planigale at least lives here.
6. Planigale [ Wongai Ningaui, Ningaui ridei?] diurnal, probably nocturnal, thick cover, flathead, crouches in earth balls, tends to live in nests, carnivore, eats legs of grasshoppers.
7. Melomys, nocturnal, feed in grasslands clear of pandanus early in the morning. Builds a nest high in trees, breed at 7 months, babies hang on for a month, generally 2 in a litter.
