As our first winter on Kangaroo Island draws to a close, it seems a good time to report on our early experiences as ‘Islanders’.  The weather today is wild, with clouds whipping across the sky, raining one minute, bright sunshine the next.  And that is quite appropriate given that winter-long the weather has been changeable and dramatic.  Melbourne prides itself on delivering four seasons in one day, but I think it has nothing on KI.  One of the first lessons we learnt was that a cloudless sky and bright sunshine did not mean you could go exploring across the property without a rain-jacket.  In the blink of an eye, the clouds roar up, you’re blasted by driving rain, then it clears just as quickly to make you wonder how it was that your clothes had become drenched.

The weather is dramatic, primal, at times infuriating, always invigorating and beautiful. We are blessed with an amazing aspect in our new home from which to view the weather, often watching out the large north-facing studio windows as horizontal rain flurries whip across our land and neighbouring Flinders Chase National Park across the valley.  We have received over 100mm of rain each month this winter, according to our rain gauge, but we believe that the recordings could have been much higher had the gauge recorded the near horizontal rainfall; perhaps we should turn the gauge on its side in future.

Situated on the western end of KI, we are first to catch the weather patterns as they travel eastwards across the southern ocean.  And believe me, the weather does build up some momentum; if you travelled due west from KI, you’d miss the bottom of Western Australia, and you’d also pass below Africa’s Cape of Good Hope; the first landmass you would reach is South America, all of which means that the winds travel some considerable distance unimpeded by land before reaching KI.  We both reckon we must breathe some of the purest air on the planet here on Wilderness Valley.

But the weather hasn’t always been wild.  We have had days of gorgeous sunshine, when the valley takes on an almost preternatural glow.  At those times we can simply look on in wonder.

Despite the often wild weather, we have had plenty of opportunities to explore our new home.  (In fact, if you are properly attired, it is an amazing experience the wander outside during the wild weather.)  We have a little over 100 hectares (250-odd acres) to play on; around 90 percent of which is heritage-listed bushland.  ‘Heritage-listing’ means that we cannot develop or use that land, but must protect it; which is absolutely perfect for us and was, in fact, something we had long dreamed of doing.  The 20 acres or so we can use will give us more than enough room for planting vegetables and fruit trees, running chooks and maybe even setting up a few golf holes.  In fact, one of our first projects was to have a large enclosure built to protect our vegetable and herb garden.  Without it, all our efforts would go into feeding the local wildlife.  Whilst we know they would be appreciative to get a feed, we would also like to get some of our produce for ourselves!

Our heritage bush links up directly with more on the next property, while Flinders Chase National Park is directly across the road from us. So our property forms part of a large corridor of protected bushland providing a range of wilderness and habitat for wildlife.

We are yet to explore all of our heritage bush, but have given it a reasonable go!  A creek passes through our bushland on its way to the imaginatively named North West River in the nearby national park.  The creek is lined with enormous Stringy Bark trees, with mature Sugar Gums further up the hillside.  The creek-line itself is wild and overgrown; a mixture of bracken fern, native grasses, xanththorrhoea (Tate’s Grass Tree), banksias and many other small and often prickly native plants.  It takes quite an effort to traverse the creek-line but it is well worthwhile. 

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A FUNGAL WONDERLAND

We have, for instance, discovered an amazing array of fungi growing along the moist hill-sides near the creek.  In fact, fungi are popping up eveywhere.  All shapes, sizes and colours, some beautiful, others quite grotesque.  Some are the size of dinner plates (or larger) while others are so tiny as to be barely visible with the naked eye.  Apparently, Kangaroo Island is renowned for its range of fungi, and we can now see why.  The following photos taken along our creek, among our native trees, and across our paddock should give you some idea of the moss-lined and fungi-rich winter wonderland we have here.  

I was inspired by the variety of species to purchase a field guide to Australian fungi, in the naive hope of identifying all our species.  With the arrival of the field guide came the realisation that the task was enormous and way beyond me;  there are numerous species with a similar appearance, many of which can only be differentiated by examination under a microscope.  Anyway, I have done my best to identify them where I can, and am happy to stand corrected by any mycologists out there!  I’ll add more species names to the photos over time.

There are many more images and species in the following galleries if you are interested.

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WILDFLOWERS START TO BLOOM

Towards the end of winter, as the days grew longer and warmer, the fungal kingdom gave centre-stage to plants, and the flowers began to bloom.  We are making new discoveries by the day.  So far we’ve identified at least four orchid species in the vicinity of the creeks on our property, and many flowers including the beautiful Island Boronia.

Further up the hillside, in heath and mallee habitat, there are at least three Acacias (wattles) in bloom probably with many more to come, along with two Banksias (Silver Banksia and Desert Banksia), a glorious sight indeed, and many equally beautiful smaller flowering plants.  The Guinea-Flower (Hibbertia) is widespread, as are the Common and Bearded Heaths. 

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OUR WILDLIFE

Of course, with all this wilderness and native vegetation, we have plenty of wildlife on our land.  Most visible are the birds (44 species counted so far) and the KI Kangaroos around every morning and afternoon grazing on our paddock.  At dusk the Tammar Wallabies emerge from the surrounding scrub to tend the lawns around the studio; in calmer weather we are visited by over thirty of an evening, and with Spring-time approaching the males are getting a bit ‘restless’ and are often witnessed boxing on the lawns, an endearing display reminiscent of those by their larger kangaroo cousins.  We also get the occasional Common Brushtail Possum visitor at night, have Echidnas wandering here and there in search of food (one evening we watched as a group of six made there way across our nearby paddock), and spot the occasional Koala in our eucalypts.

We are very confident that our property is home to Western Pygmy Possums, as they have been recorded on the property next door which adjoins our heritage bush.  We also hope to find Southern Brown Bandicoots and Kangaroo Island Dunnarts on our land.

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A pair of Scarlet Robins (Sir Robin and Lady Robin, if you please) have won our hearts.  These dear little birds live near the studio and take a close interest in all our activities outside. A cynic might suggest they were on the lookout for food – such as the frequent feeds of worms whenever we weed around the house – but we prefer to believe they are just being friendly.  Sir Robin has alighted upon Nirbeeja’s head a couple of times for a better view of her weeding activities ,and gratefully taken a couple of grubs she placed on her leg for him.  I’m not sure who’s training who!

There are too many other bird species here to go into much detail, but some are special.  Most evenings we hear the eerie cries of the local Bush Stone Curlews, sometimes very close by.  We are yet to see them but at least we know they are there (the total absence of foxes on KI helps their numbers island-wide).  We occasionally see the Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos in flight, and late one afternoon we had a large (30 plus) flock pass directly overhead on their way to our dam and beyond.  We hope to see the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo on our property, as a large area of revegetation including Drooping She-Oak, undertaken by previous owner Dan, should provide a good food source for them.  The Glossy-Black will be the avian holy-grail for us here!

Our valley is home to many Gang-Gang Cockatoos, gorgeous birds with their rusty-gate call.  We also have frequent visits from the beautiful Crimson Rosellas and Rainbow Lorikeets, and are entertained by the mellifluous songs of the Grey Shrike Thrush and Golden Whistler.  

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FURTHER AFIELD

Believe it or not, we do manage to drag ourselves away from here at times.  We make a weekly pilgrimage into Kingscote, the big smoke on KI, to pick up the mail and get supplies.  We’ve also ensured the local hardware stores stay profitable as we build up our range of tools and equipment for life on the land.

We’ve met quite a few people already, despite our relative isolation out here in the wild west of KI.  We are pleased to say that no-one has dispelled our notion that KI is populated by friendly and helpful people.
We have joined our local Friends of Park group, which gets together once a month in the various national parks and reserves on this end of the island to carry out a variety of volunteer landcare activities, ranging from weeding, to seed collecting, to revegetation, to plant identification and fauna surveys.  It has been a wonderful way us to meet some like-minded people as well as do our bit for the preservation of the wonderful wilderness of KI while getting to explore it with people who know it well.

WILDERNESS VALLEY STUDIO

The previous owners of Wilderness Valley rented out the studio as short-term accommodation for couples, and we have decided to continue the business.  We simply go camping whilst guests are in residence, enjoying other aspects of KI.  And it is lovely to be able to share the beautiful residence and property we have here, with people from all over the world.  Come visit us and experience it for yourself!

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Till next time.

Peter
28 August 2012

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On this occasion we spent five weeks on the island, long enough to revisit places we loved during our first visit, explore many of the areas we missed out on the first time around, and even buy some real estate (more about that later).

Our ferry trip across the Backstairs Passage to the island was a trifle interesting, to say the least.  When the ferry captain announced at the start of the journey that “it shouldn’t be too rough…. for those of us with sea-legs, for the rest of you, good luck” I had a horrible sinking feeling.  Well, we survived, admittedly a little greener around the gills for the experience.  Even ‘cast iron Nirbeeja’ was feeling a little quiet by the time we arrived in Penneshaw.

A word of advice: if you are travelling to KI by ferry, enquire about any special deals.  We were lucky – we had a helpful lady book us on the ferry and she brought the special deal to our attention – by opting to stay one night at a campground associated with Sealink, we saved around $150 on our fare compared with our previous trip.  It was still expensive, but not obscenely so this time around.

After a quiet night in Penneshaw, we drove around to Kingscote to stock up before we headed bush.  Kingscote is the ‘big smoke’ on KI.  It has surprisingly good services for a town with a population of only around 1400, and has none of the hustle and bustle of larger (mainland) towns.  No fast food chains, no shopping malls, no traffic lights, no hurry or stress really.  It also has lovely coastal scenery and plenty of wildlife.

CAPE GANTHEAUME WILDERNESS PROTECTION AREA

From Kingscote we headed to the wild south coast of KI for our first bit of camping, staying for a number of nights in the Cape Gantheaume Wildnerness Protection area, on the shores of D’Estrees Bay (don’t ask me to pronounce either name).  The campsite was basic – actually, it was literally just a place to camp – though we did have a lovely outlook, nestled beside a large sandhill covered in thick coastal vegetation.  Our selection of the most sheltered site proved quite fortuitous, because when the Southern Ocean unleashed her fury for a couple of days we were relatively protected, unlike some of the other camping sites in the area which, I’m certain, had uninterrupted views all the way to Antarctica.

Aside from the wild weather, we were blessed with some idyllic conditions, allowing us to explore the rugged coastline and do some serious wildlife spotting.  There is plenty of birdlife around the coast of KI, and D’Estrees Bay proved no exception, including a number of  Hooded Plovers (an endangered species), and the Ruddy Turnstone – a new species for us.

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MURRAY LAGOON

Our next campsite was a novelty for us on Kangaroo Island – it was inland.  KI has a number of inland lagoons, and Murray Lagoon is its largest.  We camped nearby for several days.  The weather wasn’t great, either raining or overcast for most of our stay, but the beauty of the lagoon and its abundant bird-life more than made up for it.  We saw hundreds of Black Swans on the tranquil waters of the lagoon, and huge flocks of Banded Stilts.

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SEAL BAY & RAPTOR DOMAIN

From Murray Lagoon we headed southwest across the island.  We visited Seal Bay, a place famous for allowing visitors close encounters with Australian Sea-lions.  We loved our visit last year, and had an equally enjoyable experience this time round, watching enthralled as the Sea-lions did all the things that Sea-lions do, including their apparently effortless wave-surfing as they returned exhausted to shore after many days at sea. In the interests of visitor and Sea-lion safety, the encounters with Sea-lions are supervised by a ranger, for although the Sea-lions appear huge and sluggish on land, they can out-run a human over short distances.

Next stop – Raptor Domain – a bird park with a brilliant show featuring some trained native raptors (birds of prey).  It was a great show, made all the better when we discovered that one of the bird handlers, Nina, had been a fellow volunteer during one of our wildlife surveys with the AWC. Small world!

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VIVONNE BAY

Continuing along the southern coast of KI, we next stayed at the Vivonne Bay campground, which we used as our base for the next couple of weeks.  This council-run campground had recently been given an upgrade and during our stay boasted powered sites for $10 per night, surely the best value in Australia.  (Sadly, the price has since risen to $25 per night, still good value, but not the astounding bargain it was.)

A university study some years ago rated Vivonne Bay as Australia’s Best Beach, on the basis of a range of selection criteria.  We can’t say it’s the best beach we have ever been to, nor the most beautiful, but it really is a special place.  It features a long, pristine beach, often with a view of row after row of perfect waves rolling in.  The shoreline is a haven for beachcombers, with a mindboggling array of seaweeds and shells to rekindle one’s inner child.  There is also plenty of wildlife – the occasional pod of Dolphins swim by, good numbers of Hooded Plovers call it home and large numbers of other sea-birds come and go.  Considering its location on the island’s south, the shore of Vivonne Bay is reasonably sheltered, but nearby Point Ellen bears the full brunt of the Southern Ocean’s enormous waves, some of which were visible to us several kilometres away.

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Camping at Vivonne Bay had another special attraction – its resident Koala, who has made his home in some eucalypts in the centre of the small campground.   Most of the time he sleeps in a tree, wedged safely between a couple of limbs, but occasionally bursts into action and moves around the tree to feed.  This little fellow is surely one of the most photographed wild Koalas in the whole of Australia, because every new set of campers would capture their set of shots.  A couple of mornings we woke to discover a second Koala perched in the tree; he would hang around for a couple of nights, squabble with the long-term resident, then disappear again into the bush.

Believe it or not, Koalas are a controversial topic on Kangaroo Island.  Although they are present in the island’s fossil record, they were not living on KI at the time of white settlement, but were later re-introduced from the mainland.  KI was very much to their liking and their numbers boomed, to the point where they became a pest.  There are some ecologists who believe they should be removed from KI and for a while this attitude held sway, and Koalas were culled.  Following an international outcry, the culling stopped and sterilization has been used instead; a method with a similar long-term outcome without the headlines.  There is so much wilderness on KI, I believe the Koalas are there to stay.  And my opinion, for what it is worth, is that the population on KI could prove vital to the long term survival of the species, given the widespread disease and habitat loss now afflicting the mainland populations.

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THE NORTH COAST

From Vivonne Bay, we moved north, camping at Stokes Bay and later Emu Bay.  The northern side of Kangaroo Island is more sheltered, and features a succession of picturesque coves.  Stokes Bay features a hidden beach, reached by walking a narrow twisting pathway through a headland of boulders.  Further west we explored the small but beautiful King George Beach and gorgeous Western River Cove.

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Emu Bay is the northern equivalent of Vivonne Bay, with a long pristine sandy beach. While it lacks the majestic waves of Vivonne, Emu Bay still has plenty of wildlife on offer, including a large and entertaining population of Pelicans on its jetty, and Crested Terns and Hooded Plovers on the beach.  The campground at Emu Bay is near the small settlement of houses, but that doesn’t deter the wildlife.  At night we watched the local Tammar Wallabies and Kangaroos in action, and listened to the calls of Southern Boobook Owls, Bush Stone Curlews and Little Penguins. 

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FLINDERS CHASE NATIONAL PARK

Of course, no trip to Kangaroo Island would be complete without a visit to Flinders Chase National Park.  We had visited the park the first time we were on KI, but the natural attractions are so great we couldn’t help but return and were glad we did. It was interesting for us to revisit the Snake Lagoon hike, along with the major tourist attractions of Admiral’s Arch and Remarkable Rocks. While in the west we also visited Hanson Bay, which proved to be just another perfect KI beach.

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Tourism is a vital part of the Kangaroo Island economy, and the island features a number of quality boutique ventures.  We did our bit for the cause, enjoying the hospitality and wares of a variety of local producers including Kangaroo Island Lavender Farm, Emu Bay Lavender, Bay of Shoals Winery, The Rookery Wines, Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery, Andermel Marron & Two Wheeler Wines, Clifford’s Honey, the Island Beehive, and Kangaroo Island Fresh Seafoods.  As you can see, we were quite dedicated in visiting a good range of outlets!

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SOME REAL ESTATE NEWS

And finally…to our real estate adventures.  During our first shopping trip to Kingscote, we stopped and looked at the advertisements in a real estate agent’s window, purely out of curiosity (okay, we did dream of owning some land on KI, but never expected to find something in our price-range).  Lo and behold, a property jumped out at both of us!  Perfect size, perfect set-up, near perfect price.  We left the town without doing anything about it, but couldn’t stop thinking – was this “the place”?  So we contacted the agent, visited the property (“love at first sight” for both of us), visited again (even more in love), put in an offer, negotiated, agreed, bought.  As many of you would know, we subsequently returned to Canberra to sell our home.  We reckon the swap from Canberra to the wilderness of KI was a brilliant move on our part.  Many months down the track, we are living in our new Kangaroo Island home and loving it; but that will be the subject of a later post.

Peter
June 2012

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We stayed briefly at Buckaringa in 2011, but this stay greatly deepened our appreciation and understanding of the sanctuary.  Put simply, we fell in love with the place.

Accommodation at Buckaringa is an old stone cottage, built at the turn of the last century and, in more recent times, lovingly maintained by the staff and volunteers of the AWC.  The delightful cottage is set in a large valley and provides the perfect vantage point from which to view the majesty of the surrounding Flinders Ranges. 

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The scenery is quintessentially Australian, ancient, dry and stark, yet beautiful and full of life. Birdlife abounds sanctuary-wide, and a birdbath near the cottage provides a focal point for feathered visitors.  But it’s not only birdlife – Buckaringa is also home to many kangaroos (reds, western greys and euros), the rock wallaby, and many reptile species.

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Two spectacular gorges cut through the main range at Buckaringa – one gorge from which the sanctuary takes its name, and the other named Middle Gorge.  Both are home to healthy colonies of the Yellow-Footed Rock Wallabies, a species once widespread throughout the Flinders Ranges, across into New South Wales and even into south-western Queensland.  Unfortunately, competition from feral goats, predation on young wallabies by foxes, and habitat degradation, all contributed to a serious decline in numbers, to the point where the species was at one time considered endangered.  Although numbers are still relatively low across Australia, and many colonies isolated, the sterling efforts of the AWC and the South Australian government have given the species a fighting chance.

The weather is usually hot at Buckaringa during January, so our duties were relatively light.  We weeded and cleared vegetation around the cottage (it was fire season after all), checked fences and the wallaby water point in Buckaringa Gorge, and kept an eye out for feral goats.

AWC ecologist Keith Bellchambers was at Buckaringa for the third week of our stay, and we were very happy to help him carry out bird surveys across the sanctuary.  No doubt anyone who reads our blog will get a laugh out of that, because we spend a good part of our time wandering around the countryside looking at birds anyway.  But for us it was a great experience to be involved in an official survey!

We have many great memories from our stay. We lost count of the glorious sunsets over Wyacca Bluff.  We were entertained by the wide range of bird species around the cottage, particularly the Spiny-Cheeked Honeyeater, the White-Winged Fairy Wren and the Variegated Fairy Wren.  Members of both Fairy Wren species would come twittering by, usually with one beautiful male attended by a number of female admirers who were less colourful but no less pretty.  A Black-Shouldered Kite was a regular visitor, hovering above the nearby fields in search of a meal, doing its bit to keep down the feral mouse population, and we were enthralled by a young Brown Goshawk which stood in the birdbath for quite some time one hot day, bravely allowing me to get some lovely close-up photos.  We were visited by local reptiles as well – a Central Bearded Dragon was a ‘regular’, catching the sun from the top of a succession of native shrubs, local geckos would appear on the walls of the cottage each evening, and a Western Brown Snake wandered past one day, reminding us not to wander around outside without shoes.  Finally, two Western Grey Kangaroos – a mother and her joey – often sheltered at various points around the cottage to escape the heat.  The joey was a gorgeous little thing with an unusual white face.

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Having spent some quality time at the sanctuary, we now fully understand why many volunteer rangers return year after year to do their bit at Buckaringa to help protect the Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby.

Peter & Nirbeeja
January 2012

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We had planned to visit the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Kalamurina Sanctuary earlier in 2011, but were thwarted by the weather and other commitments.  So when we were offered to act as caretakers on the sanctuary for five weeks over the Christmas/New Year period, we jumped at the opportunity.

THE DRIVE IN

We had reached Mungerannie Hotel on the Birdsville Track (see previous blog), and were ready for the final 60km drive west to the sanctuary.  Sounds easy, and normally it would be, except that an inch of rain had fallen a few days before our arrival, transforming the dry and dusty track through Cowarie Station to the sanctuary into a boggy challenge.  We were fortunate that Kalamurina’s manager Mark McLaren drove out to Mungerannie to guide us in.

The first half of the trip in was fine, a bit muddy, but nothing too bad.  We started to relax.  Then Nirbeeja hopped out to close a gate on Cowarie, and Mark just gave her a smile and in his quiet way said “now the fun starts”.  I guess you could call it fun!  The next 15km or so were spent churning our way through one muddy drive-around after another, constantly hoping we wouldn’t sink to our axles in the wet clay, trying to maintain enough momentum to sail through the deeper stretches of mud.  The main track was obviously too boggy to even contemplate driving along. Nirbeeja and I were both engaged keeping one eye on the track/mud immediately ahead, and another on Mark’s car disappearing into a cloud of mud and dust in the distance, doing our best to follow his lead.  Our windscreen, covered in a combination of mud and dust, didn’t make life any easier. We constantly criss-crossed the main track in, heading one way then another following the most passable route.  Thank goodness for Mark – we would have been history without his guidance! 

We spent the next few days settling in to Kalamurina’s cosy cottage with its wonderful new air conditioning unit, generally getting the lay of the land for our caretaking, and getting to know Tess and Mark.   They departed in early December for a well-earned break, leaving us alone for five weeks on the enormous property.

A BRIEF BACKGROUND TO KALAMURINA SANCTUARY

Kalamurina Sanctuary is by any measure a large property.  It covers an area of around 670000 hectares, or in terms of distance, it is roughly 120km east to west and 60km north to south.  It is bigger than many countries.

Lake Eyre forms its western boundary, the Simpson Desert its northern, the Tirari Desert lies to its south, and the Sturt Stony Desert lies to its east.  In other words, there is tough country all round.  The region is classified as arid but occasionally heavy rains fall either directly on the sanctuary or on the channel country which drains eventually into Lake Eyre, and Kalamurina springs into life.  And that is exactly what has happened over the past couple of years.  The Warburton Creek, one of the main water courses draining into Lake Eyre, passes directly through Kalamurina and close to the homestead.  We were fortunate to see the Warburton holding plenty of water and teeming with bird-life.

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Kalamurina was a cattle station prior to its purchase by the AWC in 2007.  The sanctuary, in conjunction with the Lake Eyre National Park, the Simpson Desert Regional Reserve and national parks adjoining that to the north, forms a continuous area dedicated to nature conservation bigger than Tasmania.  Given that Australia’s arid regions have a poor record for mammal extinctions in the period since white settlement, this is good news indeed for our wildlife.

Kalamurina is home to several rare Australian mammals such as the Crest-tailed Mulgara, the Kultarr, the Kowari, and various Hopping mice.  Most of us are unaware of their existence, let alone the fact that they are struggling to survive.   On cattle stations their habitat is constantly under threat, but on Kalamurina it can recover now that stock has been removed.

Kalamurina is also home to an enormous variety of birds, a good many of which we were privileged to see during our stay, including the rare Eyrean Grass Wren and a huge number of waterbirds.  It also houses a large variety of reptiles, and even a good range of fish species, quite surprising given the sanctuary’s location in Australia’s arid interior.

We witnessed first hand the remarkable recovery underway on Kalamurina.  The vegetation is varied and healthy, no doubt benefitting from the rains and river flows, but also from the absence of cattle.  We found it interesting comparing the healthy, diverse vegetation of Kalamurina with the relative desolation of the cattle stations we drove through in the district.  It was a joy for us to see native grasses on Kalamurina, green and covered in seed, and to see the native birds feeding upon them.  The Coolibah trees, of Waltzing Matilda fame, line Kalamurina’s watercourses, and now that cattle are no longer grazing on the property, Coolibah saplings are prospering and a natural process of revegetation underway.  We would love to see the sanctuary ten years from now.

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OUR EXPERIENCES ON KALAMURINA

Summer is probably not the easiest time to see Kalamurina or to work on the sanctuary.  For instance, we experienced a two week period when the temperature reached at least 40 degrees each day, peaking at 47.8.  We did grow accustomed to the heat, to the point where the low 40s felt okay, but the mid 40s, usually accompanied by a hot wind, limited what we could do outside.  Thank goodness for the air conditioner installed in the cottage shortly before our arrival (thanks AWC!), which provided a cool retreat in the heat of the day.

Because of the conditions, we limited our travel across the sanctuary during the time we were caretaking.  After all, you wouldn’t want your vehicle to break down 80km from help in 45 degree heat.  Nevertheless, we had some memorable experiences around the homestead area and along the Warburton Creek.  We often visited the creek to marvel at the wealth of bird-life along its bank.

We performed most of our caretaking duties early in the morning, when temperatures were mildest (eg mid 30s).  These included maintenance work on the sanctuary airstrip, general maintenance of sanctuary infrastructure and clearing vegetation around buildings to reduce fire risk.

Each Thursday, we collected Kalamurina’s mail.  So what, you might think.  Well, mail collection for us was an absolute novelty, because mail was delivered by light plane to the airstrip on the neighbouring station, around 10km from home.  We had read about such mail services but never dreamt that we would get to experience one.  We had the fun of receiving some personal mail via ‘inland airmail’ (thanks Mum!) and Nirbeeja ordered some goods just to experience the thrill of having them arrive by plane. Unfortunately, we never did get to meet our local postie; by the time we’d get to the airstrip he was long gone, en route to the next remote airstrip.  The outback mail run servicing Kalamurina and other remote properties is reportedly the longest in the world.

We’ve already mentioned Kalamurina’s birdlife, but several species really stood out for us.  Whenever we walked outside we could look up and virtually be guaranteed to see a number, sometimes dozens, of Black Kites circling overhead.  Perhaps they thought we were about to collapse in the heat, and were anticipating an easy meal.  The Black Kites were commonplace, but we really grew to appreciate these beautiful raptors and their effortless soaring on the thermals.

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A family of five Wedge-tailed Eagles also lives in the homestead region; two parents and their three juvenile offspring, known affectionately by Tess and Mark as the Three Amigos.  We were always excited to see one or more of the Amigos nearby, or their parents.  The juveniles have the beautiful reddish-brown plumage of the eagles in their first year, which will grow darker as they mature.

In fact, we were fortunate to see many different Wedge-tailed Eagles across Kalamurina and were particularly happy to see them prospering away from Australia’s highways, where all too many of them now live (and often die) on a diet of roadkill.  We saw two Wedge-tailed Eagles nests built in Coolibah trees, relatively close to the ground.  The nests were simply enormous and gave us a good indication of the size of the adult birds.  Oh to see a nest containing eagle chicks!

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We encountered many different birds at Kalamurina, but the most common around the homestead were Galahs, Zebra Finches, Little Corellas, Red-Backed Kingfishers, Rainbow Bee-eaters and Blue Bonnet Parrots.  We saw our first Red-Necked Avocets and Pink-eared Ducks.  We have listed the species we identified at the end of the blog for any bird enthusiasts.

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There were a number a beautiful pale Sand Goannas, or Bungarras, in the vicinity of our cottage.  We had a surprise visit one day when a smaller goanna sought refuge from its larger ‘friend’ by dashing into the cottage when I opened the door.  After much searching, we located the fugitive in the bathroom, and eventually managed to coax it back outside.  Only at Kalamurina!

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Kalamurina is renowned for its sunsets, and we learned why during our stay.  Viewed from the top of one of the sand dunes, they were simply breathtaking.  We also witnessed a sunset phenomenon we hadn’t previously encountered; often there would be little colour in the western sky, but the eastern sky was lit up beautifully, almost as though a sunrise were occurring. 

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Following their return of Kalamurina, Tess and Mark took us exploring further afield on Kalamurina.  We headed across to White Bull Bore with Mark to repair a leak in the waterline, but en route visited the Blaze Tree (a tree with a blaze scar left by the early surveyor James Lewis in 1874-75 ), travelled up Kalamurina sand dune, rising 30 metres above the surrounding land, and saw many beautiful wetlands both along the Warburton Creek and elsewhere.  The 50km trip across to the bore gave us a better appreciation of the size of the property, especially when we realized that we hadn’t quite made it to the halfway mark!

The following day we ventured out to Lake Mia Mia with Tess to collect eagle pellets for study.  The pellets – comprised of indigestible material regurgitated by the eagles – were enormous.  Some were the size of two chicken eggs end-on-end. 

Lake Mia Mia was a beautiful area, a vast flat inland lake.  We could see water in the far distance and birds on the lake, so I attempted a walk closer to the lake for some photos. Silly me.  This idea was soon abandoned given the heat (mid 40s) and the distances involved (the lake didn’t seem to be getting any closer).

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We left Kalamurina hoping to return one day for another stint of caretaking or to help out (in cooler months) with survey work.  It was six weeks since we had done any food shopping, so our food supplies were pretty low.

We would like to thank the AWC for giving us the opportunity to work as caretakers on Kalamurina Sanctuary.  It was an unforgettable experience in a uniquely beautiful environment.  We would also like to thank Tess and Mark for everything they did for us.  In Tess and Mark, the AWC has two absolute outback gems.

Peter & Nirbeeja
January 2012
BIRD SPECIES OBSERVED DURING OUR STAY AT KALAMURINA

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Swamp Harrier
Black-shouldered Kite
Whistling Kite
Black Kite (hundreds!)
Australian Reed-Warbler
Australian Owlet Nightjar
Grey Teal
Pacific Black Duck
Hardhead
Australian Wood Duck
Pink-eared Duck
Australasian Darter
Intermediate Egret
Eastern Great Egret
White-faced Heron
Black-faced Woodswallow
Australian Magpie
Little Corella
Galah
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
White-winged Triller
Black-fronted Dotterel
Banded Lapwing
Diamond Dove
Crested Pigeon
Little Crow
Australian Raven
Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo
Zebra Finch
Brown Falcon
Nankeen Kestrel
Australian Hobby
Black Falcon
Red-backed Kingfisher
Sacred Kingfisher
Welcome Swallow
Fairy Martin
Tree Martin
Whiskered Tern
Silver Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Eyrean Grasswren
Variegated Fairy-wren
White-winged Fairy-wren
Brown Songlark
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Orange Chat
Crimson Chat
White-plumed Honeyeater
Rainbow Bee-eater
Magpie-lark
Australasian Pipit
Crested Bellbird
Australian Pelican
Little Pied Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Pied Cormorant
Hoary-headed Grebe
Australasian Grebe
White-browed Babbler
Budgerigar
Blue Bonnet
Cinnamon Quail-thrush
Eurasian Coot
Dusky Moorhen
Purple Swamphen
Black-tailed Native Hen
Black-winged Stilt
Red-Necked Avocet
Grey Fantail
Willie Wagtail
Southern Boobook Owl (call only)
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Glossy Ibis
Straw-necked Ibis
Eastern Barn Owl
House sparrow (intr.)

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To learn more about Kalamurina Sanctuary and the wonderful work being done there by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, visit the AWC’s website at www.australianwildlife.org

The term ‘iconic’ is overused nowadays, but is completely appropriate to the Birdsville Track.  The Birdsville Track is probably Australia’s best known and most loved outback track, with a rich history and almost mythic status.  The 500km plus track joins the small town of Marree in outback South Australia with the town of Birdsville in outback, south-western Queensland. 

In its early days it was a treacherous track leading into Australia’s unforgiving interior, crossing enormous sand-dunes and waterways that were usually dry, but sometimes raging torrents.  Conditions along the Birdsville are tough in winter and downright dangerous in summer.

With this in mind we prepared, with a little trepidation, to travel up the Birdsville Track at the start of summer to undertake a stint of caretaking on the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Kalamurina Sanctuary. (Our experiences at Kalamurina will be covered in the following blog.)  Actually, we weren’t going to travel the full length of the track; we’d travel roughly halfway along it to Mungerannie Pub, then head west to the sanctuary.

About 25mm of rain, roughly an inch in old terms, fell shortly before we were due to embark.  ‘Hmm, could make life interesting’ we thought, but we were committed to a 1 December starting date at Kalamurina, so we took the proverbial bit between our teeth and headed north.

What we encountered was a far cry from the stories of old.  The unsealed track is wide and relatively smooth, resembling more an outback highway than a rough-as-guts source of adventure.  Having said that, the recent rain did create a few challenges, with ponded water in many places along on the track and multiple detours around the deeper bogs.  All in all it wasn’t too bad, though towing a camper trailer through the mud made things a little more interesting. 

The Cooper Creek was still in flood, so were had to detour around to the ferry.  The ferry crossing itself was a great experience.  We were spellbound to see such a large expanse of water in what seemed such a dry environment.  After all, who expects to see pelicans in the outback?

We continued north of Cooper Creek, along the slightly slippery track, finally reaching Mungerannie Hotel in 43 degree heat.  To say the pub was a welcome sight is an understatement.  We stayed a night at the pub before heading across to Kalamurina. 

During the winter months the pub is a hive of activity, a haven for the convoys of travellers passing along the Birdsville Track.  It was a much quieter affair during our stay, just a few stray vehicles calling in.  We were spoilt by publican Pam during our stay.  She is a cook to be reckoned with, especially given the meagre resources available to her, and I am proud to have risen to the challenge of tackling a Mungerannie Burger with the Lot.

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The pub sits within Mungerannie Station, and overflow from the nearby station bore has created the imaginatively named Mungerannie Wetlands.  Not surprisingly, the wetlands support an abundance of birdlife, including vast numbers of Black Kites.  We enjoyed hours of birdwatching there, only retiring to the comfort of the pub when the oppressive heat overwhelmed us or when we needed liquid refreshment.

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The track in to Kalamurina Sanctuary was badly affected by rain, so we decided to leave our camper trailer at the pub for the duration of our stay at the sanctuary.  In hindsight, this was a wise move, because the trip in to the sanctuary (covered in the next blog) was pretty wild!  Anyway, thank you Pam for allowing us to leave our camper in your safe-keeping.

We left Kalamurina in early January, returning to Mungerannie Hotel along the now dry track in 46 degree heat.  We enjoyed meeting Phil (Pam’s worse-half!) and were planning to stay a night at the pub, when storm clouds looming to the north-west and closing fast convinced us to head south while the Birdsville Track was still open. It was not an easy decision.  The prospect of being stranded at Mungerannie Hotel for a few days did enter our minds, but our food supplies were very low after our stay at Kalamurina. In the end we opted, with a degree of regret it must be admitted, to head south.

We managed the trip south without incident. Cloud-banks followed ominously behind us, but proved to be benign travel companions; a few scattered raindrops fell but did not interfere with driving conditions.  The track was completely dry for our southward journey and we managed to travel straight down the Birdsville Track, not needing to take the much longer detour to the ferry at Cooper Creek. As we relaxed that night in Leigh Creek and the rain started to fall, we breathed a sigh of relief.  We’d made it!

Peter & Nirbeeja

Anyone who has read our blogs over the past year would know that we love the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Scotia Sanctuary.  Needless to say, we were excited to have the opportunity to assist during the annual pitfalling survey there in November 2011. 

Scotia is well known for its successful re-introductions of species such as the Greater Bilby, the Numbat, the Bridled Nail-Tail Wallaby, the Brush-Tailed Bettong and the Burrowing Bettong into large feral-free enclosures.  But Scotia is also home to a great many other wildlife species, thriving in the healthy mallee, spinifex and belah (casuarina) habitats found across its 65000 hectares.  Outside of Scotia many of these wildlife species face greater challenges to survival, such as habitat loss through grazing and pressure from feral predators.

The pitfall surveys provide data on Scotia’s smaller mammals and reptiles, as well as invertebrate abundance.  Sites have been selected in a range of habitats to provide information on species distribution and habitat preferences. The same pitfall sites are used for each annual survey, enabling the AWC’s ecologists to build up a meaningful data-set over many years. 

“Pitfalling” conjures up an image of some treacherous activity carried out in an adventure movie, but is in fact a benign survey technique used by ecologists.  Each survey site covers a large roughly square area and consists of five pitfall lines; four straight pitfall sections along the boundary of the site and a cross-shaped pitfall configuration in its centre. Each pitfall line consists of a low plastic fence-line, known as a drift-fence, with pit-traps – large buckets – sunk at each end and at the halfway point of each line.  A bucket is also sunk at the junction of the cross-shaped pitfall area. In addition to the buckets, funnel traps are set part-way along each line. Clear as mud?!  Anyway, these are conventional wildlife surveying techniques, and the purpose of the drift-fence is to channel small mammals and reptiles to the pit-traps or funnel traps, where they either fall into a bucket, or wander into the mesh of a funnel to be caught.  The survey team would later return to the site to identify, record and release each trapped creature.

Pitfalling surveys at Scotia are a major event.  Three teams operated during the November survey, each setting up and monitoring three sites for several days, after which they would transfer the equipment to three new sites.  This activity continued for most of the month, though Nirbeeja and I were only involved in the second half of the survey due to our earlier commitments at Yookamurra Sanctuary.  In all, over fifty sites were covered in the survey.

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The survey sites are scattered far and wide, often many kilometres apart.  This meant for a quite a deal of driving during the survey, giving us the opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with the beauty and diversity of Scotia.  There was also a lot of foot-work during the survey, walking in to sites from the road and walking around to check traps, re-acquainting us with Scotia’s spinifex plants and their needle-like spines, not always a pleasant experience!
Now, this technical explanation may sound pretty dry, but in reality pitfalling is enormous fun.  There is nothing quite like the sense of anticipation you experience as you walk in to a site, wondering what awaits you.  Will it be a dunnart or a ningaui, a snake or a gecko?  This sense of child-like wonder engulfs all involved, not only relative newcomers like Nirbeeja and me, but also the ecologists who have been doing this for years.  Pitfalling requires hard work and long hours in pretty tough conditions, but the weariness dissolves each time you encounter one of the special little inhabitants of the bush.  The opportunity to see a small marsupial close-up or even to hold one is a rare privilege in a world where they are, sadly, fast disappearing.  And it is a continuing reminder for us of the vital role played by the AWC in saving these species.

And what of the survey in November?  Well, it proved very successful. (We’d recommend you keep an eye on the AWC’s website for more detail on the survey results (www.australianwildlife.org).)  The teams trapped (and released) a great many reptile species, a large number of which were new to Nirbeeja and me.  We saw the Bandy Bandy Snake and the Australian Coral Snake for the first time, beautiful creatures, as well as our first Common Dunnarts and Southern Ningauis, both feisty little carnivorous marsupials, and the endangered native Bolam’s Mouse.  We also got to handle many skinks, geckos and dragons.  We had a ball! Before our arrival the other teams also recorded the Fat-tailed and Stripe-faced Dunnarts.

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We spent most of the survey as part of the (self-proclaimed) ‘A-Team’, ably lead by intern Margarita Steinhardt, who not only drove our team around the sites and identified the species but also ensured that the two of us and Scotia’s Manager Tony Cathcart were gainfully employed at the sites.  The team worked hard but had a lot of fun and plenty of laughs.  Nirbeeja and I were also thrilled to spend a couple of days pitfalling with Scotia’s ecologists Dr Leah Kemp and Felicity l’Hotellier. 

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The end of a survey is good reason to celebrate and this survey was no exception.  This celebration took the form of the Scotia Olympics and following Toga party (thanks Roy).  They were great fun, though the stories from them are best kept to the participants!

Next stop for us – Kalamurina Sanctuary.  Till next time.

Peter & Nirbeeja

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We recently completed four months caretaking at Yookamurra Sanctuary, another of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s (AWC’s) sanctuaries.  It was a wonderful experience for us.
 
Although Yookamurra is one of the AWC’s smaller properties, it serves an important role as education centre for many visiting school groups and protects valuable habitat for Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats.

The sanctuary sits within the mallee/Murraylands district of South Australia.  The area was once covered in mallee, a semi-arid stunted growth form of many species of the eucalypt family, but after extensive land clearing there is now little old growth mallee left.  In fact, nationwide there is now less than 1 per cent of the old growth mallee that once covered large areas of inland Australia, a rather sobering statistic.

The region was also once home to Numbats, Greater Bilbies and the Burrowing and Brush-Tailed Bettongs, the last two better-known respectively by their Aboriginal names as Boodies and Woylies.  Unfortunately, following widespread habitat destruction through land clearing, hunting by settlers, and predation by feral cats and foxes, all those species are now extinct in the wild in South Australia. 

There is good news however.  The AWC, as it has done in a number of other areas, has successfully re-introduced these marsupials at Yookamurra, where they now live safely within an 1100 hectare area enclosed by a feral proof fence.  As we have seen before, once you give them half a chance, these native animals become re-established and prosper.  Outside the enclosed area, Yookamurra also is home to a large population of Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats, and has at least one active Mallee-Fowl mound. 

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Many of the mallee trees on Yookamurra are estimated at over a thousand years old, testimony to their ability to survive within a tough environment.  One mallee was particularly impressive; an ancient, gnarled old tree, it was responsible for putting an end to land clearing on the property in the late 1940s/early 1950s when it bogged two tractors dragging a huge chain between them to clear the land.  The tractors and chain were unable to move this old giant, though it still has battle-scars left by the chain on its trunks.  We gave thanks to this tree every time we passed by.

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We were thrilled to receive a number of visits from family and friends while we were at Yookamurra, and loved the opportunity to show them the fascinating creatures on the sanctuary.  No doubt the proximity of the sanctuary to the Barossa Valley also helped entice our visitors to the region!

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We recently departed Yookamurra, sad to leave so many gorgeous little marsupials and Josie, a 16 year-old hand-raised Western Grey Kangaroo.  We had grown quite attached to the old girl, anticipating her daily visits, and greatly admired the patience she showed towards the visiting students, for whom she was very much a highlight of their stay.

As if to say farewell, as we drove up to the exit gate for the last time, a little Numbat crossed the track in front of us, providing a final glimpse of the creatures which make Yookamurra so special.

Yookamurra is a local Aboriginal word meaning ‘yesterday’, an entirely appropriate name for a sanctuary providing a glimpse of the trees and animals once widespread in the region but now, unfortunately, little more than a memory in most places.   Let’s hope that the name of the sanctuary signifies ‘tomorrow’ every bit as much as it means yesterday.

We hope to return one day to Yookamurra to help out with future work and surveys.  In the meantime, we are off to Scotia sanctuary to help out on the pitfall survey, where we look forward to seeing a whole different range of wildlife and to reuniting with our friends there.

Till next time.

Peter & Nirbeeja
November 2011

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Our first stint as volunteers at Scotia Wildlife Sanctuary was last summer, in often stifling conditions.  How’s 46.6 degrees sound?  Despite those conditions, and maybe even partly because of them, we loved our first stay there.

We are happy to report that our second visit, in altogether cooler conditions (in fact, often cold), was just as interesting, rewarding and enjoyable.  The main reason for this visit was for us to assist with the night-time mammal trapping, one of the many survey techniques employed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) to estimate the populations of re-introduced native mammals on the sanctuary.

The trapping took place over six nights, three nights for each of Scotia’s two large feral-proof enclosures in which a variety of endangered native mammals now live.  Each enclosure measures 4000 hectares – large areas for a former city-slicker like me to get his head around – allowing the creatures concerned to live naturally, free from predation by feral cats and foxes.  The enclosures really provide us with an idea of how the country looked before European settlers unleashed their animals and agricultural practices upon the land.

Anyway, back to the trapping survey…

You might well ask, who in their right mind would climb out of bed at around 11pm on an icy night, head out into the field and stay there until the sun was up, and tell you they loved it?  And repeat the exercise for many nights.  Craziness, you might say, perhaps quite rightly.  

Well, such is the lot of a wildlife ecologist, or in our case, a couple of volunteers along to help them out.  But there is a reward for such efforts, and that comes in the form of actually handling fascinating and beautiful creatures such as the Greater Bilby, the Boodie (Burrowing Bettong) and the Woylie (Brush-tailed Bettong), and in learning about their habits and behaviour.  Holding a silken-furred young Bilby, or irresistible Boodie joey in your hands is a rare privilege.

In case you are wondering, the reason for the odd hours was that we were trapping nocturnal marsupials,  and the AWC was keen to have all animals processed and released before dawn, so they could safely return to their burrows or nests while it was still dark.  It would have been very stressful for the animals to be still caged in daylight.  So, for just under a week, we became nocturnal ourselves.

The trapping survey aids the AWC in its research to learn more about these creatures.  Sadly, with so few of them left in the wild, relatively little is known about them, so the research being undertaken by the AWC is vital to their continued survival.  The surveys also allow the AWC to estimate populations on the sanctuary.  Without wishing to steal the AWC’s thunder, it would seem that the drought-breaking rains of the past year or so have had a very beneficial effect on populations.  

The first part of the trapping was undertaken in Stage 2, the ‘wild north’ of Scotia, home to most of Scotia’s Woylie population.  The Woylie is a highly strung but beautiful, small to medium sized marsupial.  It is a small member of the kangaroo group, and hops along somewhat like a tiny roo.  In fact, they resemble a little bouncing ball as they hop along.  They are also extremely agile and speedy little things, providing novice researchers like Nirbeeja and me with quite a challenge to transfer them securely from the cage to a cloth bag, then hold them with just the right amount of pressure while you took measurements of tail circumference, the length of the hind foot, and other data for research.  We didn’t want to hold them so tightly as to harm them, but if they are not held tightly enough they are, almost paradoxically, more likely to wriggle free and injure themselves or escape during processing.  Under the able tutorship of ecologist Felicity, we soon got the hang of it.  Once each Woylie was ‘processed’, they were released.   This was greatly rewarding, watching as each little Woylie literally shot out of its bag to freedom.  Trying to get a photo of the release of a spring-heeled Woylie proved quite a challenge.

In case you wonder how we would entice a nervous little Woylie into a cage, each trap was baited late afternoon with a delectable ball consisting of rolled oats, peanut butter and honey.  Messy to make, but irresistable to marsupials.  There were around a hundred trap sites spread throughout both stages, and the ecologists and volunteers were split into three groups, each with a set of designated sites.  Most sites in stage 2 had one trap only, although one more heavily populated area had 3 per site.

Next, the group moved to Stage 1, where the focus of trapping was the Boodie.  Although the Boodie is a similar sized Bettong, it has a totally different temperament to the Woylie.  The Boodie, is stockier, generally far more laid back, and at times even stubborn.  They have a tremendous appetite and so prove easy to trap, and in fact many individual Boodies were caught on each of the three trapping nights in Stage 1.   Unlike the Woylies, which would explode from the cage into the waiting bag like a small furry cannonball, most Boodies would calmly walk into the bag.  Except, of course, for a few stubborn individuals, for whom all manner of coaxing (talking, pleading, blowing air in their face until you became light-headed, etc etc) was required to get them into the bag.  They are gorgeous little creatures, but as Nirbeeja discovered after a couple of bites, they have plenty of get up and go!

The Boodies as a species seem to love Scotia, and their population there is healthy to say the least.  As a result, in order to get a robust estimate of their population, each  site consisted of three cage traps, and on many occasions we would drive up to a site and notice three little faces peering  out at us from the cages.  Indeed, one of the other teams found five Boodies in their three traps at one site.  Finding three full cages was a mixed blessing; on one hand it meant you would get to see more animals, but on the other it meant more processing, standing there in the early morning cold, keen to move ahead to process all the other sites before day-break. 

Boodies also have the amusing habit of contacting each other vocally using a sound which is remarkably simlar to a little fart.  You can imagine all the jokes that passed among the sleep-deprived crews as we encountered another group of “farting” Boodies.  The Boodie is also a very social animal, living in large communal warrens, and members of a family group would often sit in the bushes near trapping sites waiting for their relatives to be processed and released; we knew this from the rustle and farting sounds from the nearby bushes.

And, of course, in both Stages it was a rare treat to find a Bilby in a trap, and be the person lucky enough to handle it during processing.  These are unusual, beautiful and almost comical little creatures, apparently innocent to the world around them.   Watching a Bilby run along the track, darting from side to side, with its tail flopping about, was a never-ending source of joy and amusement.  In the feral proof enclosures of Scotia the Bilbies are thriving, but it was easy for us to see why they have so easily fallen prey to foxes and cats in greater Australia.

The trapping ended with us all feeling exhausted but satisfied, and our sleep patterns gradually returned to normal, for a while at least.

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To view some video footage we took of this young Bilby at Scotia, please click on the following links:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Hc3qDvWe8
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyldO_HBkSU

As with our first visit to Scotia, we found plenty of excuses and projects to enable us to stay longer than we had initially planned. 

We again helped out with the fence patrol to ensure the integrity of the feral proof fences. Interestingly, with the much cooler conditions on this visit, reptiles were virtually absent from the fence-line, whereas they were a common sight over summer.

 We also helped out with a process known as ‘dusting’ the roads in the far south of Scotia, used to measure fox and cat activity in the areas of Scotia outside the feral proof fences.  We both also helped with data entry relating to past survey work, and I discovered some latent carpentry skills in designing and building a drying cabinet for fox baits.  All that needs be said about that is that I don’t anticipate a career as cabinet-maker any time soon, although I can say in my defence that the job was made more difficult by being restricted to using old and often warped timber. 

Anyone who knows Nirbeeja will appreciate her love of order and tidiness, so it was with a sense of relish that she was unleashed upon several store-rooms, charged with cleaning them up.  They probably have never looked so good.

Next, we helped with some fencing work on a new enclosure in the southern, Stage 3 region of Scotia.  Nirbeeja and I attached a wire ‘skirt’, or mesh, around the bottom of the fence to help make it feral-proof.  We were supplied with a temperamental old air compressor on the back on a ute, to power the staple gun for attaching the mesh to the fence. This compressor was a challenge to get started and keep running, to say the least,  leading to some strained shoulder muscles and plenty of expletives, all of which contributed to its being named ‘Aunty Jack’ as in, “I’ll rip your bloody arms off”.  (Only people of a certain vintage will know the meaning of this!)  Aunty Jack proved a worthy adversary, requiring plenty of attention, cajoling and at time abuse to keep her operating.  This project was physically tiring but ultimately very satisfying.

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Finally, we helped Wildlife Ecologist Leah with some distance sampling, a fancy term for spot-lighting animals at night, where, fortunately, the aim is not to harm the animals but to collect data for population estimates, notably for Bilbies and Bridled Nail-Tail Wallabies.  Driving around at night, peering into the bush along the beam of your hand-held spotlight in search of elusive marsupials for up to seven hours in cold conditions, may sound pretty tedious, but it was in fact a lot of fun.  Nirbeeja and I shared plenty of laughs with Margarita, who is bravely learning to drive on Scotia’s ‘roads’, including driving during spot-lighting.  A completely overgrown track rediscovered by Margarita during our spot-lighting was named in her honour!

During this stay at Scotia we resided in the Belah quarters, where we met many interesting people and made some new friends, in particular enjoying the company of Cam and Vince.  Given Scotia’s isolation, the residents (inmates?) make their own fun and entertainment, and we enjoyed a number of gatherings during our stay, including a fantastic party for my birthday which, I must confess, left me in a decidedly fragile state the following day.  Must have been something I ate.

Scotia is a special place, a sanctuary in every sense of the word for the marsupials which call it home. Places like Scotia give us hope that these species have a secure future.  And a place such as Scotia would be far less effective without the dedicated, talented and friendly people we have met there during our visits.   

Peter
19 June 2011

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At long last we visited Kangaroo Island (KI).  In short, we absolutely loved it.  Forget what you might have heard about the expensive ferry ride to the island (which is reputedly the most expensive ferry ride per kilometre in the world) and cost of travelling around and staying on the island (which isn’t so bad), it is well worth all the effort and expense.  Our only complaint was that we weren’t there for long enough.  We stayed just over a week, giving us enough time to sample most of what the island has to offer, but leaving us wanting more and vowing to return.

We were blessed with near perfect weather during our stay, allowing us to fully appreciate the beauty of the Kangaroo Island coastline, from the wild south which bears the brunt of the Southern Ocean, to the more sheltered and serene north. 

Despite visiting during the school holidays, the crowds just weren’t there, and we often had places and beaches all to ourselves.  Of course, anyone who knows us would be aware of our love of wildlife and wilderness, and Kangaroo Island more than delivered on those fronts.  We were a little wary of the tourist brochures promising plenty of wildlife, but were blown away by just how much we encountered. 

Unfortunately, and this is probably our only complaint about the island, a good deal of the wildlife we saw as we travelled the major roadways on KI was in the form of roadkill.  It was horrifying to see so many dead wallabies and possums.  These are mainly nocturnal creatures, so obviously many people travel the island at night, though with a resident population of only around 5000 people, plus tourists, you would wonder how so many animals would perish.  Perhaps overambitious tour itineraries are to blame.  Much of the agricultural centre of KI has been cleared, but thick native vegetation lines the roadways, and is a haven for wildlife, which continually crosses the road.  We believe more should be done to educate visitors (and possibly residents) of the need to slow down at night.  A simple message, though often ignored.  The locals suggest that foreign tourists are largely to blame, coming as most do from countries with little wildlife, though we heard a few comments from locals to suggest that they are rather blasé about the roadkill problem.

Anyway, apart from that, we loved everything we saw.  The western area, featuring the Flinders Chase National Park, was particularly spectacular.  That area was hardest hit by the bushfires of December 2007, but has undergone a remarkable recovery, providing evidence of the resilience of the Australian bush.  The scars of the bushfires are still evident, but so is the luxuriant regrowth and renewal of vegetation and abundance of wildlife.

It was reassuring to see so many live Tammar Wallabies and KI Kangaroos once we reached the west, and to be visited by Brushtail Possums at night.  We camped in the Rocky River campground during our stay in the national park, and were entertained by the honking and courting displays of the large local population of Cape Barren Geese, and by the eerie calls of the Bush Stone Curlew at night.   We also heard many Crescent Honeyeaters with their ee-jit ee-jit call during the day, though these elusive little blighters proved impossible for me to photograph.

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A TINY BIT OF HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

The Aboriginal people once lived on Kangaroo Island.  Archeological evidence suggests that they first inhabited the island at least 16000 years ago, at the time of the last ice age, when the island was joined to the mainland.  They probably continued to live on the island until around 2000 years ago, though no-one knows how or why they left.  To the Aboriginal people of South Australia, Kangaroo Island is now known as Karta, the Land of the Spirits (or Land of the Dead).

When White Australians first settled the island, they found the wildlife to be quite tame, as they had no reason to fear humans.  As a result, much of that wildlife was ‘exploited’, and the local Sea-lions and Fur Seals were all but wiped out for their fur and fat. 

Fortunately however, some of the early settlers had a different vision, and sought to preserve the wildlife of Kangaroo Island, much of which had become unique through its isolation.  The island is home to many species or sub-species found nowhere else, such as a Kangaroo Island Tammar Wallaby, Kangaroo Island Kangaroo, the Glossy Black Cockatoo, the Kangaroo Island Dunnart and a sub-species of Red Wattlebird.  It is testimony to the vision of those people that there are still no foxes and rabbits on the island, whilst they have caused widespread damage on the mainland.  Other mainland wildlife species, such as Koalas and Platypus, were introduced onto Kangaroo Island early last century by people who realized, even then, that they might eventually become endangered on the mainland.  And the Ligurian bee, a gentle and productive species originally from northern Italy, was introduced onto Kangaroo Island in the 1880s.  Effective quarantine controls have preserved the bees, and they are now the only pure species of Ligurian bee in the world.  Nirbeeja, as a connoisseur of fine honeys, can attest to their productivity, as can every available inch of our storage which now contains her KI honey purchases (oh, okay, we did also get some Bay of Shoals wines to keep me happy).

SEAL BAY

Of course, no visit to Kangaroo Island would be complete without an encounter with its famous Australian Sea-Lion colony at Seal Bay.

Seal Bay is a fine example of the way tourism and nature combine on KI, with both benefitting.  Seal Bay has a huge number of visitors each year, yet the interaction with wildlife is controlled such that the Sea-Lions are not harmed, and their behaviour not (obviously) affected.   A series of relatively unobtrusive boardwalks allow visitors good views of the Sea-lions on the beaches, in the water, and resting in the sand-dunes, yet also protect the animals from human interference.

The rangers conduct well-controlled, small group tours onto the beach for close encounters with the Sea-lions, where the well-being of the animals is of highest concern.  You get close enough to the animals to come away with a great experience, but not so close as to put yourselves or them in jeopardy.

The tours are also highly informative, serving to educate visitors and by so-doing probably increase the long-term prospects of the animals.  We learned from ranger Rod that the colony consists of around 1000 Australian Sea-lions, a great recovery from the 1800s when it was virtually wiped out by sealers.  It is not all good news however, and the colony in now declining by 2 to 3 per cent per year.  No-one knows the reason, though it is probably a combination of several factors, such as over-fishing of the waters in which the Sea-Lions feed, a long-term depletion of their genetic stock because the current colony was based on too few surviving  individuals, and death caused by human debris – such as fishing nets, which entangle or strangle the Sea-Lions.

We’ve always had a bit of a laugh at the way Sea-Lions lie around like giant slugs on the beach and rocks.  We now have a little more respect for them since learning that they swim out into the open Southern Ocean, 40 kilometres off the coast, diving off the edge of our continental shelf up to 1000 times over a three day period in search of food, before returning to Seal Bay for a well–earned rest.  Even Sea-Lion pups endure these ‘fishing trips’, and can be seen returning to collapse on the shore, completely exhausted, several minutes behind their mother.  It is definitely a case of survival of the fittest.   When Sea-Lions are too weak or too old, they are taken by the Great White Sharks which infest our southern waters.  We will laugh at them no more!

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To watch some videos we took of the Sea-Lions of Seal Bay ‘doing their thing’, click on the following links:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgc3kHMoJGs
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euwdLcCEsF0
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYpALpUafFg
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpsCQAzg2Bg

FLINDERS CHASE NATIONAL PARK

We travelled further west along the southern coast of KI to the huge Flinders Chase National Park, where we stayed for four nights.  I’ve already mentioned some of the wildlife we encountered there, but there was so much more there as well.

The park is famous for its landforms, such as the dramatic Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch.  These are famous for a reason – they are simply spectacular places, the very air charged by the high-energy Southern Ocean pounding the nearby shores. At such places one feels totally alive and inspired.

As if the landforms weren’t enough, the coastline around Admirals Arch is home to a large colony of New Zealand Fur-Seals, nimbler and more playful than the Australian Sea-Lions of Seal Bay (I will resist any Trans-Tasman comments at this stage).  We were entertained by these Seals for hours as they played, jostled, and generally busied themselves around the rocks and waves.  What a life they appear to have.

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We captured some footage of the Fur-Seals in action near Admirals Arch.  Click on the following links to watch:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BzPSJvmMJs
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhaFWQ3jd3Q
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woM6nJx_bRk

Further west in the national park, we walked from Snake Lagoon to the mouth of the Rocky River on Maupertius Bay, and its secluded beach.  We had this special place all to ourselves, well, almost.  In fact we shared it with four Hooded Plovers, an endangered bird species now seldom seen along our southern coasts.  Many signs around the South Australian coastline serve to make visitors aware of these birds and, hopefully, prevent visitors from interfering with their now rare nests in the sand-hills; unfortunately, we still saw people running their dogs off the leash along affected mainland beaches and others driving cars on beaches in supposedly protected areas on the mainland.  So for us this was a reminder of the role national parks play in providing a safe haven for wildlife – this beach had no dogs, and no cars to endanger the plovers.  We watched as the three adult Hooded Plovers and one juvenile ran and flew along the shoreline searching for food.  May they prosper and multiply.

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We captured some footage of the rare Hooded Plovers in the national park.  Click on the following links to watch:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh4CYH6gDuE
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2151LQ3Fp0

On the far west coast we visited Cape Borda Lighthouse.  We are used to seeing statuesque lighthouses, with their tapered conical shape, but were met there by a short, squat, square one.  The reason for that is simple – sitting atop the 180 metre high cliffs as it does, it has no need for further elevation.  And, as the passionate, indeed totally manic lighthouse-keeper Mick kept telling us, it was the only ‘real lighthouse left on Kangaroo Island’.  (We believe there must be some secret competition between Lighthouse tour-guides to provide the craziest, funniest tour, because we had earlier encountered a similarly memorable Scotsman as tour-guide at the Cape Willoughby Lighthouse on the eastern end of the island.)

The cliffs around Cape Borda provided magnificent views of the ocean below, almost calm on the day of our visit.  The waters visible far below at Scotts Cove were the most brilliant blue I have ever seen.

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To view videos of the daily loading and firing of the cannon at Cape Borda Lighthouse, click on the following links.  The tradition of firing the cannon at the same time each day allowed passing ships to set their timepieces, an essential part of navigation in the days prior to GPS.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW-W0g9Ilhk
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsf4APeOFtU

THE LIMESTONE CAVES OF KELLY HILL CONSERVATION PARK

On our last full day, the only rainy one we encountered on KI, we visited Kelly Hill and its limestone cave complex.  These caves are drier than most limestone cave systems, because they rest within large, ancient sand-dunes within a hillside.  As a result, the limestone formations are finer and more delicate than usual, and quite beautiful.  They were discovered in the 1885 by a stockman, who fell into a sinkhole while riding his horse Kelly.  The stockman climbed to safety, but his horse remained below, believed dead, though her remains were never found.  The area -  Kelly Hill – was named in the horse’s honour.  It wasn’t until 1925 that the cave formations beneath Kelly Hill were discovered, and almost immediately they were put under protection.  The pristine state of the limestone formations within the caves today is a wonderful legacy of this foresight.

The caves not only contain beautiful and delicate stalactites, they also contain some of the finest bone and fossil specimens of mega-fauna in the world, and many examples of helictites – limestone formations that appear to defy gravity by growing at odd angles.  Speleologists have no explanation as to how helictites form, though a recent theory suggests that it may be through capillary action.  All we could do as visitors was stand and marvel at the beautiful subterranean world of the Kelly Caves.   

We climbed to the surface, and as we took the bush path towards the carpark I heard movement in the nearby bushes and was thrilled to see a blonde-spined, Kangaroo Island Echidna, a sub-species which had hitherto eluded us.  (Nirbeeja suggests that the Echidna must be my animal totem, because I seem to find them everywhere, even spotting them from moving vehicles at night.  She adds, I trust with tongue in cheek, that this totem may explain why I’m often a bit prickly to deal with!)

To view a short video we took of the Echidna, click on the following link:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_g5VkW2Mnw

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A FINAL SURPRISE

Not a little sadly, we headed east again to Penneshaw for a final night before our ferry ride back to the mainland and its mayhem.   We drove across the island, taking in the giant Yacca (grass-trees) and Sheoaks, watching the Superb Fairy Wrens flit too and fro.

As we set up camp in Penneshaw, I heard my name called out, and who should be there, but Shannon, a lady I know from Canberra, about to tour the island with her husband and another couple.  We had a lovely time catching up and hearing some news from home.  A small camping ground on Kangaroo Island was the last place I expected to find someone I knew, but as Nirbeeja always says, ‘big country, small world’.

Our final encounter with KI’s wildlife was by way of a nocturnal tour to view the wild Fairy Penguins of Penneshaw.  Their numbers are higher than at Granite Island near Victor Harbour on the mainland, but they are nevertheless in decline.  Hopefully the isolation and long-standing tradition of protecting wildlife on Kangaroo Island will hold them in good stead.

Peter
24 April 2011
Postscript:

Readers of our blogs may tire of learning about the plight of wildlife in the latest area we have visited.   I include this information in our blogs in the hope that it might inspire readers to make a difference in the world.  We often despair for Australia’s wildlife, and that of the globe more widely.  Much of humanity continues blindly on its selfish and destructive path, not only harming itself, but leaving a trail of extinctions in its wake.  And even on Kangaroo Island, which is a shining light in a troubled natural world, wildlife still faces a battle, with Sea-Lions and Fairy Penguins on the decline, and the ugly taint of roadkill there for all to see. 

Nirbeeja and I commenced our travels almost four years ago, naming ourselves Brolga Healing Journeys, with the intention of sharing our Yoga, Tai Chi and Natural Medicine practices with the people we met on our travels.  But we have shifted our focus from helping humanity to saving our wildlife.  Perhaps the inclusion of a native Australian bird in our business name was more appropriate than we realised at the time.

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We had recently visited South Australia’s Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas, so it seemed only fair to visit the Fleurieu Peninsula next, to complete the set.  To be honest, we had several other reasons to visit as well; we were getting some maintenance done on our camper trailer with its manufacturer in Adelaide, we couldn’t resist another visit to the McLaren Vale region and its wineries, and we were heading towards Kangaroo Island, and the mainland ferry terminal is at Cape Jervis on the south western tip of the Fleurieu.

The Fleurieu Peninsula extends from Adelaide southwards, and is much more highly populated than the other two peninsulas.  Apart from Adelaide itself , the Fleurieu is dotted with thriving rural and coastal towns and villages. The entire peninsula was in gorgeous condition for our visit and the greenery had us wondering whether we’d taken a wrong turn and somehow landed in Ireland instead.

A DAY IN ADELAIDE

We arrived in Adelaide, booked the camper in for some work, and realised we had a day to spend in the city while that was done.  So…what to do?  We’d been in the bush for months, mainly on wildlife-related pursuits, where we had few facilities, so the lure of civilised comforts was strong.  Would we go to galleries?  Shops? Cafes and restaurants?   No way….we went to the zoo. 

When you spend as much time as we do sneaking around in the bush looking at wildlife and trying not to scare away the animals, the captive audience of a zoo takes a little getting used to, as does the fact that the animals are in cages.  But we appreciate the work zoos do, through their breeding programs, to help save many species disappearing in the wild.  A zoo like Adelaide’s also allows us to see many beautiful exotic species – the big cats, Giant Pandas, hippos and others. 

We had a ball.  It was a perfect day, sunny and warm. Really one day was barely enough to see everything, but we gave it our best shot.   The animals are housed within the beautiful old gardens of the zoo, next to the Torrens River.  It is a gorgeous place for animals and visitors alike, in arguably the loveliest part of Adelaide.

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To view a short video we shot of the Giant Panda feeding, click on the following link:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSzyP2ot_Sw

and to see a short video of Hippos feeding, click the following:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDmBIRWEIo

WE RETURN TO McLAREN VALE

From Adelaide we headed south to McLaren Vale, one of our favourite wine districts.  The wineries of McLaren Vale are smaller than those of that more famous wine district north-east of Adelaide, but we believe they are friendlier and their wines of equal quality.  With an eye on our budget, we called in to only three of our favourite wineries while we were there – D’Arenberg’s, Kay Brothers and Primo Estate.  We weren’t disappointed, and now have a small travelling cellar to draw upon as the occasion demands!  

VICTOR HARBOUR
Our arrival in McLaren Vale was greeted with perfect weather, but the following day brought a wet and windy change.  We initially planned to sit out the weather before heading further south to the coast, but realised that such a wait could see us there for the long term. With so many wineries around, and with me mentioning a few others we could visit, Nirbeeja grew nervous.  So, off we headed to Victor Harbour, on the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, where we got to experience some really wet and windy conditions!

We have never been in a place where the weather changes so quickly.  Forget Melbourne, Victor Harbour wins hands down. One minute we’d be in bright sunshine, contemplating a change to shorts and tee-shirt, then a sudden wild squall would come through and in the blink of an eye drench us and our plans.  The wind was constantly changing direction, and the ocean dramatic.  At times the Southern Ocean pounded the shore, then the bay would appear benign and placid.  It was wild, but full of energy and drama.  And for the first time in two years we had our full camper trailer set-up in place – with all its canvas walls and panels protecting us from the brunt of the elements.

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GRANITE ISLAND – WHERE HAVE ALL THE FAIRY PENGUINS GONE?

Granite Island sits off shore from the town of Victor Harbour, and is reached by a causeway several hundred metres long.  The island is best known for its resident population of Fairy Penguins, sometimes also called Little Penguins.  These penguins, at around 30-40 centimetres “tall”, are the smallest in the world.  When the first full census was done in 2001, around 1000 Fairy Penguins called Granite Island home.  Unfortunately, last year’s census recorded only 149 penguins on the island, a dramatic decline. 

Local and interstate experts are working to understand the problem, though it seems most likely a combination of factors, all human related.  Fairy Penguins live on a diet of bait-fish, and fish numbers are in decline due to trawling off the coast.  This has two effects – the penguins themselves have less food on which to survive and breed, and New Zealand Fur Seals, normally found on Kangaroo Island, have moved to Granite Island in search of food and prey upon the penguins.  The Fur Seals prefer fish to penguins, but will eat the penguins if hungry enough.

And, unfortunately, direct human interference kills penguins.  Some penguin chicks are blinded or have limbs broken by people trying to pry them out of their nests using sticks.  Other people kill the penguins for “sport”, or to barbeque them on the beach.

At present, there is nothing preventing people from crossing the causeway to Granite Island at night and from harming these little birds.  However, the Penguin Centre on Granite Island is raising a petition to have the causeway closed at night, other than for approved tours to view the penguins, in order to offer some protection.  So far the town and its fishing lobby have resisted any moves to restrict night-time access to Granite Island, but we can only hope.  When the broader Victor Harbour community realises that many of the town’s visitors come specifically to see the penguins, perhaps the threat of losing these creatures and the tourist dollars they bring will galvanise more locals into action.   

The Penguin Centre is inspiring in its work.  The centre is staffed by volunteers and its main function is to rehabilitate injured Fairy Penguins for return to the wild, and to raise orphaned chicks for release.  The life of a penguin in the wild is full of danger – at their size all manner of sea-life view them as a good meal.  And the penguins, travelling out to sea up to 30 kilometres from the shore, face an exhausting time in the Southern Ocean. As a result, the Centre will only release penguins in tip-top condition, giving them their best chance for survival.  We visited the centre to watch the daily feeding ritual and were enthralled by the fourteen penguins currently being cared for.  They are absolute characters, full of attitude and life!

Of course, the Penguin Centre also serves to educate visitors, like us, about the fascinating lives of these little sea-birds and the challenges to their continued survival in the wild.

The little penguins are really quite remarkable birds.  They appear clumsy on land, but are able nevertheless to climb steep rock-faces to their hollows, and to come ashore in huge waves that would have us terrified.  They are flightless birds, in the air at least, but use their flipper-like wings to fly through the water at high speed and with great agility.  The deep blue feathers across the top of their body allow them to blend in with the oceans in which they swim.

We also went on a nocturnal guided tour to view the Fairy Penguins returning from the sea to their burrows.  We were thrilled to see eight penguins come in at night in heavy seas and cautiously waddle up through the boulders towards their hollows.  It was exciting for us to see eight wild birds, but we were saddened to hear of days past when the shores were alive with these little creatures.

It would be a tragedy if human interference and inaction led to the disappearance of the Fairy Penguins from Granite Island.

Click on the following link to watch a short video of this Fairy Penguin:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxOtMTaEKVw

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ACROSS THE SOUTHERN COASTLINE TO CAPE JERVIS

In December 2007 we were all set to travel across to Kangaroo Island. We were staying in McLaren Vale, making our plans, when we learned of the devastating bushfires on “KI”, as the locals know it.  So we put off our trip and headed north instead.

This time we were fortunate, our ferry ride booked, and no natural disasters intervened.  We were to catch the last ferry of the day from Cape Jervis, so we had a day to explore the coastline west of Victor Harbour.  As luck would have it, we had prefect sunny conditions, and encountered breathtaking coastal scenery and delightful rural vistas along the way.  We made quick visits to the Newland Head and Deep Creek Conservation Reserves, loved what we saw, and vowed to return!

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Next stop – Kangaroo Island.

Peter & Nirbeeja
22 April 2011

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