After 8 hours of travelling into the isolation of the Barrington Tops area I became part of the 2019 AusGeo Expedition to Aussie Ark. A sudden stop along the road in to see a beautiful big Bearded Dragon.
Our accommodation was a tent for sleeping and a lovely farm house for bathing, breakfast and lounging.
Within 15 minutes of arrival work started with a 10 km drive to Aussie Ark where we were introduced to Tassie Devils at their social feeding time - lots of growls and snarls, nips and chasing.
But for us, no time to relax. Off again to one of the large fenced sanctuary paddocks where released Tassie Devils were to be trapped for monitoring. My group was on trap-setting duty. Others set Elliot traps for small mammals.
Back to the centre for a quick bbq dinner then out of the sanctuary to the Barrington Tops - Gloucester road for an evening of spotlighting. By now the evening cold was setting in and those of us who had not thought to grab a jumper before leaving our tents started to get rather cold. But what excitement! We spotted (and were even close enough to handle) a Bandi Bandi snake
and a baby Diamond Python,
a Davies' Tree Frog (Litoria daviesae) and an Eastern Stony Creek Frog (Litoria wilcoxii), and a Forest Dragon.
In the spotlight we saw a Ringtail Possum and a Greater Glider high in the trees. Unfortunately there are not many mature hollow trees in the sanctuary itself so the gliders and possums and many other hollow-nesting animals are rare. This brought to mind a poem I wrote years ago for my children called "Nobody Likes a Dead Gum Tree".
Nobody Likes a Dead Gum Tree
Nobody likes a dead gum tree!A danger to have around.
It could fall on the house or on a friend,
The fears for life abound.
A branch might snap in a sudden storm
And fall - CRASH - to the ground
Or the whole huge tree might topple down
With a terrible deafening sound.
Nobody likes a dead gum tree!
Or is it really so?
A dead gum tree makes a cosy home
For lots of friends I know.
I saw a dead gum tree in the bush
Where bees had built their hive,
An owl had a nest in a hollowed out branch
That couldn’t have been alive,
A glider slept in a cosy bed
In the hollow trunk, unseen,
And a family of lorikeets raised their young
In a hole where a branch had been.
Millions of tiny creatures too
Took advantage of the tree.
Cicadas shed those dry brown skins
As they climbed up to be free.
They sing a song for all to hear,
They’ve seen the day at last
And shrill the praise of their gum tree
To all who happen past.
The ants find food, the slaters rest
And the fungus grows supreme
And spiders spin their silvery webs
In the dead gum trees I’ve seen.
And what a gnarled and twisted shape
It forms as it lives and dies.
Through wind and storm, fire and drought
It looks so old and wise.
The shape inspires a thousand dreams
Of ghost or witch or sage
Or caves of treasure rich and rare;
A shape that comes with age.
Nobody likes a dead gum tree!
What rubbish! How absurd!
About its ugly useless form
I won’t believe a word.
Nobody likes a dead gum tree!
No-one at all ‘cept those
Who live in it or hide in it
Or just admire its pose.
By Betty Jacobs, April 1979
Back home by about 10pm to collapse into bed for a restless night in the cold. Up again for breakfast and a bit of “nesting” before heading back to Aussie Ark for the day (this time we all took our jumpers).
Our first task was to check the Devil Traps where we had trapped about 10 Devils to be weighed, dust wounds with antiseptic powder and apply a topical tick and flea treatment.
The other group checked the Elliot Traps before the small mammals overheated. These included 5 house mice, 2 Antechinus and a swamp rat. We also had small macropod traps to check and were able to radio-collar the Potoroos and release 2 Bandicoots with pouch young. Then it was the turn of the Eastern Quolls to be radio-collared.
Morning tea then off to build a “soft” predator-proof fence enclosure in which animals will be released then gradually allowed to escape into the larger sanctuary enclosure when all the predators have been removed.
The afternoon was spent re-setting the rodent traps, feeding the Brush Tailed Rock Wallabies and the Quolls and then ourselves. While eating we watched a Wedge Tailed Eagle stealing food from the Tassie Devil pens. They learn quickly!
Dinner was early then some of us returned to the house to catch up down time and sleep rather than joining the spotlighting group. We even watched Platypus in a dam on the way back.
Our final morning was spent packing, processing the traps, feeding the menagerie and having one final cuddle of the joey Tassie Devils and Potoroo. Then for our long journey home past the Xanthhorhoea glade in our various directions after an exhausting, inspiring and full-on hands-on three days.
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