Walking on the wild side - with Devils, Quolls and Potoroos

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.

The drought continues at Underhill

Last weekend I drove my car down to Underhill for the first time in ages. Elaine came with me and put up with all my practice music on the way there and back.

We arrived to find the wreckage of both the snow event about a month ago and the strong winds last week. Geoff had reported about this damage when he went down over the October long weekend but it still surprised us.

The dams are still very low, evidence that the drought is still in full swing even though there has been a little rain.

The pot with waterplants in a semi sunk polystyrene box is doing well and the hope is that the plants will seed and spread to the dam margins.

The two oaks next to the top dam are also doing fine with new spring leaves showing on both.

Terry and Ellie arrived to stay with their van (very comfortable).  So the stay was a mix of lots of chat and then hard work.

The hard work was mostly clearing the drive of fallen twigs and branches then removing the old grey lounge from the shelter, straightening wind-blown carpet and rearranging chairs.

This old lounge was a roadside pick up back in 2005. It was used by the Tyrls for their 6 month stay in Sydney then well used at Underhill where it became a great home for spiders as it fell apart.

Adult's morning sun lounge

Kids cubby house corner

We also spent some time identifying birds. Ellie is quite good at this so it was great to have her help. While it was very difficult to find the birds making the calls we could hear I was able to get a few rather blurry ones that assisted us in identification.

Buff-rumped Thornbill

Rufous Whistler

 We also heard Kookaburras, Yellow Robin and Grey Shrike Thrush. I found a little dragon when I was moving some fallen timber and he stayed still long enough to get a great shot except for the shadow.

A sleep over and a garden hunt

Last week Jen and the girls came for a sleepover. It is always such fun with 4 in my bed. Ivy is allowed to sleep with me. Of course that means Heather also wants to sleep with me but she won't go to sleep without Mummy. So Jen sleeps with me until Heather falls asleep then takes her out to her cot and stays out there. But 4 in the bed is a bit of a squash.

I had the girls the next day anyway so we went on a photographic garden hunt. Lots of aphids on the roses.

The mushrooms on the orchid stump are interesting too.

But the tongue orchids are just about finished.

There are so many colours in my nasturtiums. As well as the ordinary orange ones there are...

Here is a bee on the Tradescantia. Click on the photo and it will be enlarged.

And finally the grape flowers as we went back inside when the wind came up and made me sneeze a lot.

Happy Birthday Rauri and Bob

Last weekend family and a few friends gathered at mine to wish Rauri (Roger) a happy 90th birthday. It was fun to see all my grandchildren playing so well together.

Rauri enjoyed time with everyone as we played chair hopping in the dining room and Janice assures me that he really loved it.

Of course Heather helped blow out the candles.

Alex taught Ivy how to play chess then had a few real games with Rauri.

All kids escaped outdoors to burn off a bit of energy leaving the adults to chat quietly inside.

What a great day. Thanks for coming everyone.

Fun in the bag yesterday

Elaine came to hang out yesterday and I decided, after we'd sorted her quilt that I would like to try making the Japanese Origami bag Kerrie showed me at the weekend.

I used two 16" pieces of fabric for it and have decided that 18" squares would probably make a more useful bag. However, I am please with the outcome. It holds a small bottle of water, my keep cup and my phone in the front (or back) pocket.

A cultural experience for a wet Saturday

Time for Kerrie and I to catch up again so we met at Central Station. Our plan had been to visit the Chinese Gardens but as it was teaming we decided to head for Paddy's Market and Market Town for the day.

First we wandered around the food market absolutely astounded at the beautiful fresh produce and such a variety. As we did not want to carry purchases all day we decided to return later in the day.

We chose an Asian bakery from which to buy our morning tea and tried three things we'd never seen before. Such a lot to choose from.

I bought a dress and jacket for summer but apart from that we just wandered.

There was a school holiday activity going on involving Chinese Dragon dancing. The puppets were magnificent. Later in the day they actually performed but at that stage we could not get close enough to get a photo.

We bought a small fruit salad to share so that Kerrie could taste Dragon Fruit then back down to the food market to make our purchases. We both went home with some beautiful young sweet corn, dragon fruit, and blueberries.

By then we were quite exhausted so walked back to Central and had a late light lunch in the Eternity Cafe. I had been talking about a bag design I had seen online that I wanted to try making. When we were at the cafe Kerrie pulled out a bag that someone had made for her. It is the same design! So I was able to have a really good look at it before I try making one.

Our day ended just after 3pm so that Kerrie could get her train and be back at work for the evening. I just love our days together. We keep finding little things we have in common and seem to be able to just know what the other is thinking.

Climate Change and Global Warming

This great article by Tim Flannery came through on The Conversation today. It has a little video embedded in it that is really worth looking at.

My recent addition of a new solar power system is an attempt to future proof my home and reduce my use of fossil fuels. When batteries become better I'll even consider getting one. Meanwhile I've got myself to Air Con 101 level and am able to program my air cons to come on in the middle of the day and store some of the excess energy I am producing in the infrastructure of my building so that life is more comfortable.

And there are more consequences of the use of fossil fuels (or any fuels unnecessarily) as outlined in another article in The Conversation today about the plight of Pigmy Possums in our alpine regions. That is presumably not the only wildlife to be affected by excess light at night so turn off unnecessary lights at night and save on power and maybe save some wildlife too.

Of course my water tanks store water for me. And today they are being filled by this lovely rain. Hooray!