It may be more than 1,000 kilometres from the nearest beach, but thousands of pelicans have returned to this waterhole after a long drought.
At Lake Wyara in Currawinya National Park, the chicks are hatching, and parents are frantically feeding their squawking young ones numbering in the thousands.
After years of drought, the arrival of the long-beaked water birds has delighted observers, including Currawinya National Park ranger in charge Shellie Cash.
"The pelicans have come back, and this year has been a cracker," Ms Cash said.
"It is so great to see all the waterholes and lakes full and teeming with wildlife.
Looking to the sky in the afternoon, Ms Cash said you could see them in their hundreds, returning to their colony in a V formation.
For Ms Cash, it was all part of the magic in the boom-or-bust country of outback Queensland.
Located on the border to New South Wales, Currawinya is a remote park.
Its ecosystems encompass waterholes, ranges, mulga lands and open grasslands, and it is home to a bilby enclosure.
Water returned to Currawinya down the Paroo River in 2020 after a lengthy drought.
The pelicans took full advantage of the perfect conditions, turning it into a renowned pelican rookery.
Lone pelicans flew solo, scouting for prime real estate to breed and form a successful rookery.
Once found, the others followed.
For birdwatchers like Greg Neill, a member of Birdlife Australia, the experience was worth recording.
Mr Neill recently visited Lake Wyara and saw the first fledglings flap their wings.
"I put on my e-bird list [online database of bird observations] … but there were just pelicans everywhere, really remarkable," he said.
A recent survey by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service estimated 6,000-6,500 young pelicans and as many as 12,000-13,000 adult pelicans were in Lake Wyara and the surrounding area.
Think pelicans live only by the sea?
Despite their reputation as ocean birds, pelicans often choose the outback for breeding sites.
Inland lakes provide suitable nurseries with fewer predators than the coast.
The waterways teem with food to quell noisy hatchlings as they grow, groom their feathers, and combat for the right to survive.
A sight not often seen
The ranger in charge of Munga-Thirri National Park in the Simpson Desert, Don Rowlands, is based in Birdsville.
As a lifelong local, Mr Rowlands said he had seen that number of pelicans in the outback before.
But not often.
"In 2009, pelican numbers around the shores of Lake Machettie, north of Birdsville, were estimated to be over 70,000," Mr Rowlands said.
"Like the Aboriginal people, they lived with nature and understood the country perfectly."
