I'm not in Queensland--in fact I'm in a much cooler climate similar to parts of Tasmania--but I know what the problem is.

Fuchsias are from the cooler parts mostly of South America, except there are a few in Central America, one in the Carribean, and 2 odd species in New Zealand. They are mostly from high elevation tropical cloudforest--sort of like your Atherton Highlands but even more so (higher elevations). This is often called "the land of eternal spring". Some are from temperate rainforest in Chile and temperate forest in the hills of southern Brazil (that used to be cooler than they are now).

Their biochemical processes are optimized for cool (but not freezing) temperatures.

What happens when it gets too hot is that their chemistry basically shuts down. They get sluggish, and stop growing.

The humidity encourages diseases against which they have almost no resistance, particularly not while it's hot.

But if you do like Fuchsias there is some hope. Fuchsias derived from Fuchsia triphylla--which is from the hot, humid Caribbean, tolerate heat and humidity better than others. There are quite a lot of these as is is a striking species.

There are probably a few others. I'm not sure because my own climate is rarely hot and humid. My guess is that F. boliviana would probably tolerate some heat and humidity.

Thanks alot for that atash, I will see if I can get them around here or if I have to go on a hunt!!

Ed